THE SMITH STREET BAND // Cancel Show Following U18 Crowd Incident

It seems beyond all belief that such a phrase needs to be repeated yet again: keep your hands to yourselves in the pit. Honest to God, the list of situations where you could justify groping a fellow punter is a blank sheet of paper.

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Unfortunately, one dickhead of monumental proportions missed the memo at a Smith Street Band gig in Hawthorn on Saturday night. The under-18s show was soured when a punter was groped in the crowd, with the attacker being apprehended and arrested shortly thereafter—the band unbeknownst until after their set.

Posting to their Facebook page, frontman Wil Wagner was personally shaken by the event, stating that, “At the moment I feel like I never want to play a show again.” As a result, last night’s 18+ show in Castlemaine was cancelled.

Wagner went on to explain that such incidents aren’t exactly rare at their shows, and after several years of dealing with over-boozed wankers in their crowds, the singer and guitarist had adopted techniques to diffuse unwanted rowdiness à la positive reinforcement rather than anger.

“After ten years it feels like every fight in the crowd, every groping, every one of these fucking bullshit ‘incidents’ stacks up on my conscience creating a weight I am now unable to carry,” Wagner wrote. “When I walk on stage, I should be focusing on getting the chords right and not fucking up the words but instead I squeeze my eyes shut because I’m too scared to look at the crowd in case I see something that makes me wanna throw my guitar down and rip someone’s head off, because if you come into my house and you make people uncomfortable, I wanna throw down my guitar and I wanna rip your fucking head off.”

The Smith Street Band are set to wrap their tour up with a final show in Melbourne this Friday, May 18th. It’s unknown if the band are still planning to hit the stage, but at the time of writing, there’s no indication (aside from Wagner’s frustration and the claim that “it might be a while before I feel comfortable on stage again”) that the show will be cancelled.

If you need to reach out about an incident you’ve experienced or been a victim of, 1800RESPECT can be reached at here.

Read the full statement from Wagner below: