If you haven't been to a Turnstile show anytime recently, it's truly a thing to witness. Turnstile have always put on hugely energetic shows, and while their pits aren't as crazy as they were back in the no-barrier days, but the way they get vast crowds to go off is downright astonishing. To most of us, the Turnstile pit looks like a joyous spectacle.
To certain security guards, it must look like something else. Right now, Turnstile are on an absolutely huge North American tour with a rotating cast of opening acts, and the videos from their sets have been breathtaking. (Last weekend, they interrupted their tour long enough to make their SNL debut, which has led to a great deal of annoying internet genre discourse that doesn't really have anything to do with the band.) On Monday night, Turnstile played the Criterion in Oklahoma City, with Die Spitz and End It opening. During Turnstile's set, frontman Brendan Yates apparently saw a security guard manhandling a fan who jumped over the barricade, and he stopped the show mid-song, refusing to restart it until that guard was gone from the venue.
Unlike a lot of hardcore frontmen, Brendan Yates rarely gets publicly angry. In videos of the incident, we see Yates, in the middle of the early Turnstile track "Keep It Moving," cut off his performance mid-song to jump into the pit between the barrier and the crowd and get right up in the face of this security guard — who, it must be noted, was way bigger than Yates. Into the mic, Yates said something like, "Get out.
He's done." The footage shows him speaking very animatedly toward this one guard and the others around him before the guard, who looked just as pissed off, left the area. Yates then briefly huddled with the other security before returning to the stage and telling the crowd this: To the security that's doing their job and doing a great job at what you're doing, thank you. There are some that didn't get the assignment.
And I know that all of you are coming up to me and trying to have a good time. And there's no need for anyone to be swinging on anyone just coming over the barrier. That security guard cannot be here.
We won't play if he's still here. And the rest, thank you for adjusting and keeping this peaceful. Please take care of each other.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
