On Friday night, Off with Their Heads' show ended early with frontman Ryan Young leaving the stage mid-set. At this time, there doesn't appear to be footage of what happened, just a lot of contrasting stories. Generally, it seems that beer cans and bottles were thrown at Young. After Young was hit, he spit on the audience member claiming responsibility for throwing a bottle and then ended the show. You can read his statement after the jump.
Ryan Young:
A bit about the show in Cincinnati (Newport) last night.
This tour has been great. Every show was fun. We had a blast with every crowd, every night. Until last night. One of the reasons that we stopped doing this band for a year was because we didn’t like the vibe at the shows. There are some people that genuinely connect with the music in one way or another, and then there are dick heads that seem to get off on ruining everyone’s night. I remember a friend of mine told me that I didn’t need to break our band up. I just needed to remember that at the end of the day, I don’t owe anyone a single thing. We went into this tour with that attitude and have never connected with each other and the crowd as much as this run. Last night, as I was singing songs about my dead parent (that I was thinking about all day), people were throwing bottles and cans at my head. I don’t really enjoy that when I’m thinking about the sight of this person turning purple in a hospice bed. I gave warning number one. Continued to play, even though I was fucking pissed. Then a bottle of Jack Daniels hit me in the head. I stopped the show and asked who did it. It was some girl in the front row. I shoved her away from the stage with my foot and tossed a little snot her way. Fair compensation for a bottle to the head while then thinking about my loved one turning from purple to green. Strike 2. I gave it another shot, then caught a can to the forehead. Done. Fuck that. I don’t have to take shit from people. I gave multiple warnings. If you can’t control yourself and not threaten the band playing, then I’m leaving. And that’s what I did. For the first time in 13 years of being in this band, I walked off stage and didn’t come back. It was the exact same feeling of a bunch of shitty jocks high fiving each other while calling people faggots. I also happened to notice my friends in PEARS get a slightly less aggressive version of this shit.
Point being, I am not sorry for any of this. I feel bad for the people that drove to the show from far away (especially the person who came all the way from Florida), but if I’m going to continue to do this for the people that get the same mental release as we do, a line has to be drawn. Also, don’t try and do the “THIS IS A PUNK SHOW!!!!†excuse. That’s called “The Idiot’s Excuseâ€. If you think that me standing up for myself and my friends isn’t punk, then that’s just fine with me. Don’t come to our shows. We sacrificed much more than a night off our couch to do the thing we love. Not going to let some assholes ruin it anymore. That’s all that needs to be said about all of this.
-Ryan