Paramore condemn audience member who allegedly assaulted female fans at Salt Lake City concert

NME

Paramore have condemned an audience member who allegedly assaulted “multiple women” at their concert in Salt Lake City last night (October 4).

• READ MORE: Yeah, Paramore’s ‘Misery Business’ is a banger – but it’s healthy for artists to reevaluate troublesome works

Following the show in Magna, Utah the band issued a statement condemning the incident involving the man.

“At last night’s show in SLC, we were made aware of an incident that happened in the crowd while we were on stage,” they wrote. “A man physically and verbally assaulted multiple women, including an engaged couple at our show. Our security team and venue staff were made aware and were able to restrain and remove him.

“We did not realise this was happening, as the incident took place out of view from stage. Had we seen any of this happening, we would have stopped the show until the situation was under control.

pic.twitter.com/Qa0JIJAH8k

— paramore (@paramore) October 5, 2022

“PARAMORE DOES NOT CONDONE violence, homophobia, or bigotry of any kind. It is supremely unwelcome in our community and has no place at our shows. To the fans who were hurt by or who witnessed what happened last night, we are so sorry. We hope that you know we will always do anything we can to protect you and make you feel celebrated.

“To make things as clear as possible: Paramore shows are meant to be a safe place for people. If you can’t respect that do not come.”

The alleged incident came just two nights after the band made their live return in Bakersfield, California, the same week that they returned with new single ‘This Is Why’ and shared details of a sixth album of the same name due in January 2023.

At that show, the band played ‘Misery Business’ for the first time in four years after frontwoman Hayley Williams previously publicly announced that the controversial track had been pulled from her band’s live shows amid ongoing debate of whether its message was “anti-feminist”. This was due to one particular line in the second verse: “Once a whore, you’re nothing more, I’m sorry that’ll never change.”

Halfway through the rendition at their recent show, Williams addressed the crowd, saying: “Four years ago, we said we were gonna retire this song for a little while, and I guess technically we did!

“But what we did not know was that just about five minutes after I got cancelled for saying the word ‘whore’ in a song, all of TikTok decided that it was ok. Make it make sense…”

She continued: “I remember a time when we had a MySpace and we were still a really small band. We were really small. We hadn’t even put out this song and we had noticed that kids were calling themselves ‘Parawhores’. We were like, ‘Eugh, that’s weird!’ But I guess what I’m trying to say is, it’s a word, and if you’re cool you won’t call a woman a whore because that’s bullshit.

“We can all learn from ourselves, right? Just for the record, 90 per cent of you said whore tonight. That’s all I’m gonna say – I’m not gonna preach about it. I’m just gonna say thank you for being nostalgic about this because this is one of the coolest moments of our show and it’s very nice to feel like there’s a reason to bring it back that’s positive.”

Paramore’s intimate comeback tour continues tomorrow night (October 6) in Omaha, with the jaunt running through until mid-November. A UK tour is also already being teased by the band.

See the full list of tour dates, including newly added gigs in New York and Los Angeles, below.

OCTOBER 2022
06 – Omaha, NE, Orpheum Theater
08 – Oklahoma City, OK, Criterion Theater
09 – Austin, TX, ACL Music Festival
11 – Chesterfield, MO, The Factory
13 – Bonner Springs, KS, Azura Amphitheater
16 – Austin, TX, ACL Music Festival
20 – Los Angeles, CA, The Wiltern
22 – Las Vegas, NV, When We Were Young Festival
23 – Las Vegas, NV, When We Were Young Festival
27 – Los Angeles, CA, The Belasco
29 – Las Vegas, NV, When We Were Young Festival

NOVEMBER 2022
07 – Toronto, ON, History
09 – Chicago, IL, The Chicago Theatre
11 – Cincinnati, OH, The Andrew J Brady Music Center
13 – New York, NY, Beacon Theatre
15 – Atlanta, GA, The Tabernacle
16 – St. Augustine, FL, St. Augustine Amphitheatre
19 – Mexico City, Corona Capital Festival

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