Just spent 3 weeks with these guys on an earlier part of the tour. Reed, Jim, Ricky, Brandon and that crust punk guy are some of the best people I've met. This rules, and I know a lot of people wouldn't have done the same thing.

Can't wait to see them in Wakefield on the 27th. Miss you guyz.

As cool as it is that they're steadfast in their beliefs and values, I would be pissed if I bought a ticket to this show. Surely the fans are more important than two assholes backstage making comments?

I wouldn't expect a bigot to give refunds to the fans WATU bailed on...

Definitely better ways to deal with "overhearing a private conversation that makes one feel uncomfortable," even if I vehemently disagree with what is being said, also.

Awesome! Fuck those guys...

Originally Posted by blowmybutthole

I don't believe we're like that at all. we have a pretty amazing art scene here that is very tolerant of all types of people. unfortunately the eagles lodge is the worst run venue/VFW hall in the world and we don't include them in our art scene. they're idiots. I've seen this happen in Topeka which is not surprising considering they house westboro. but rarely here in Wichita

Topeka is turds haha I've only been to wichita a handful of times, but each time it was probably in a bad area of the city or something because it was so bad. I didn't mean to say everyone there is a homophobic trashy asshole, but unfortunately throughout this whole state/area it's quite litter with those kind of people.

Not sure how I feel about this.
On one hand, props big time for sticking up for their beliefs, but on the other hand, they're headlining a pretty small tour, so they left their supporting bands to dry, as well as their fans. They could have just went on stage and called out the promoter, etc. which would have been cool too, and more effective for their pro-equality agenda.

But you can't really hate on a band who stands up for their beliefs in any situation.

Actually our fill trombonist for this your is bi-sexual...

Originally Posted by blahrascal

Well here's another thing: at what point would it be acceptable for them to cancel the show for personal reasons? Are you saying that it is never okay to do so? Because I hardly think anyone would fault a black artist for refusing to play a venue whose employees showed overt racism.
The only difference here is that (to the best of my knowledge anyway) none of the members of WATU are gay, but the fact that they still refused to play even though they may not have had as much of a personal stake in it speaks more positively of their character to me than it does negatively of their professionalism.
I'm sure they weren't happy leaving their fans out in the cold like that, but it's not like they just up and said "fuck em" and rode off with smiles on their faces because they got off work for the night.

I just want to clear some things. There are people saying we should have just played because the must is more important:
It isn't.
The message of our music is the reason our music exists. Without the message, there would be no music. The message has to come first or else we become hypocrites and all of this is for nothing.
Now, moving on to the not playing for our fans part:
The truth is, there was one person there to see our band and we gave him a free shirt and a record to make up for us not playing.
Had there been people there to see us, we would have boycotted the show regardless, refused payment and played acoustic in the parking lot. The show wasn't promoted well enough for us to have an opportunity to do this, so we apologized to the one person there for us, gave him some free merch and took off. He understood completely and was not upset in the slightest.

Originally Posted by StephenYoung

Not sure how I feel about this.
On one hand, props big time for sticking up for their beliefs, but on the other hand, they're headlining a pretty small tour, so they left their supporting bands to dry, as well as their fans. They could have just went on stage and called out the promoter, etc. which would have been cool too, and more effective for their pro-equality agenda.

But you can't really hate on a band who stands up for their beliefs in any situation.

Actually, The Story So Far has been by far the main draw on this tour. They're playing after us most nights now.
And like I mentioned in my previous post, there was one person there to see our band and he completely understood. We gave him some free merch for his troubles.
We were not trying to make a hostile situation worse by provoking people. Their reaction was so aggressive that we felt our best move was to get the hell out.

Originally Posted by TZE

this. the fans lose out in the end. its not like they're forced to support some anti gay campaign and i'm pretty sure the crew didn't consist of just two people.

It actually was just the two of them running the show.

What an absolutely stupid thing to do. I'm sure this band is going to post a "we're too broke to tour" blog soon enough and stupid decisions like this will be why. Do they interview every venue employee before every show they play too?

Originally Posted by ReadyForAction

What an absolutely stupid thing to do. I'm sure this band is going to post a "we're too broke to tour" blog soon enough and stupid decisions like this will be why. Do they interview every venue employee before every show they play too?

What can I say? We stick by our morals.

if your message is important to you why not set it aside and talk about whatever you say about it from stage as usual? 2 people offended you so much that you cower away rather than talk about your views to a 20 kid crowd

i've christian bands play venues owned by non christian people. non-christian bands play churches, straight edge bands play bars "diy" bands play on the floor at really nice venues etc. this does not compute.

your band whatev though.

I don't really see the point of stating how many people were actually there for your band. You should want to play to whoever was there for the other bands as well, wouldn't you want to try to gain new fans and broaden your fan base?

Originally Posted by Avalanche1

I don't really see the point of stating how many people were actually there for your band. You should want to play to whoever was there for the other bands as well, wouldn't you want to try to gain new fans and broaden your fan base?

The only reason I stated how many people were there for our band is because someone else criticized us for letting our fans down. I was clarifying that nobody was let down.
We felt as though we were in a hostile situation and could not have played without saying something. We weren't sure that our standing up for ourselves would be met with support since the people at the show seemed to all be friends with the promoter and we decided not to egg anyone on.