A stage crasher in Belgium just learned a lesson he will never forget.
This has been said many times by many people, but it bares repeating: Never attempt to kiss someone who does not want to be kissed. Never touch someone who does not want to be touched. No one owes you any amount of affection, especially if you are complete stranger to them. Got it? Good. Commit that to memory.
Last week, an idiot in Belgium became the latest example of a man foolishly believing a woman in music – or anyone – owed him something. It all happened when the man in question rushed the stage during an Alvvays show and attempted to kiss vocalist Molly Rankin mid-song. Surprisingly, the man appeared shocked when Rankin moved out of his way, leaving him to be (rightfully) embarassed in front of the crowd. You can watch the attempted assault unfold in the video above (starting around the 3:35 mark).
Ken Veerman, the director of the venue where the show took place, issued the following statement via Facebook:
“This weekend a man got on stage during the Alvvays show at Trix and harassed the band’s singer. Trix regrets this happened on our stage. It is incredible and saddening that we should still spell this out in 2017, but here goes: it is in no way, shape or form acceptable to harass women on or off stage. Rock shows belong to everybody and you should respect people’s integrity. Being very drunk and slightly enamoured with a musician somehow doesn’t magically make this kind of behaviour alright. This not “just a bit of fun”. This is beyond annoying. And you need to do better.
We apologise to the band and audience that this happened on our watch. This was not ok.”
The members of Alvvays have not yet commented on the situation themselves, but do they really need to at this point? This was a case of attempted assault, plain and simple. There is never a time or place where this behavior should be considered acceptable, and the band shouldn’t have to make this clear to anyone.
