The Amity Affliction frontman Joel Birch has deleted a series of tweets in which he defended himself for criticising a fan who wore a Donald Trump-branded jersey to the Aussie band’s recent Las Vegas show.
Music Feeds obtained footage of the incident, which saw Birch take issue with a 17-year-old fan’s decision to wear the Trump shirt to the metalcore group’s performance on Saturday, 5th January.
Birch defended his comments in a series of tweets, telling fans that he “will not stand for people jeopardizing the happiness of others, and ruining their experience at one of our shows”. The tweets have now been deleted.
However, Birch has since commented further about the incident in a series of fresh tweets, but says he “won’t be commenting any more on the topic” from here on in.
Responding to video of the incident, Birch tweeted, “Here’s the case for uhhhh… me? Asking people to leave it at the door? Isn’t that a fair request? If I looked out and didn’t see that too I wouldn’t have known (or cared) about this kid wearing the shirt. For people hell bent on misconstruing my words this is a weird snippet.
“You can twist the words or see them for what they were. I didn’t want to single out this kid for supporting Trump, I just don’t want people coming to our racially diverse shows and making anyone who isn’t white super uncomfortable.
“Thanks for the mostly kind messages I’ve been receiving from everyone. The abusive people are always the loudest, and unfortunately the internet is a Petrie dish for this kind of unified and targeted hatred. Be who you wanna be.”
Here’s the case for uhhhh… me? Asking people to leave it at the door? Isn’t that a fair request? If I looked out and didn’t see that too I wouldn’t have known (or cared) about this kid wearing the shirt. For people hell bent on misconstruing my words this is a weird snippet. https://t.co/MWo6QLxxUd
— Joel Birch (@joelfcbirch) January 8, 2019
Super uncomfortable. Thanks for the mostly kind messages I’ve been receiving from everyone. The abusive people are always the loudest, and unfortunately the internet is a Petrie dish for this kind of unified and targeted hatred. Be who you wanna be.
— Joel Birch (@joelfcbirch) January 8, 2019
Speaking to Music Feeds on Tuesday, 17-year-old Utah resident Degan Palmer — who was wearing the Trump jersey at The Amity Affliction’s Las Vegas show — said he found Birch’s original tweets “very amusing”.
“He can have his own opinions on politics and I don’t care, but the fact that he is giving me crap for supporting Trump when he isn’t even a US citizen was very funny to me and many others,” he said.
See video of the incident which started it all, below.
The Amity Affliction are currently touring with new drummer Joe Longobardi in support of their latest album Misery, and will return to Australia to perform at Download Festival in March.
