A fan wearing a banana suit has called out hardcore band End It after they encouraged other audience members to rip his costume.
The incident took place last Friday (June 5) at a venue in Toronto, when the Baltimore-based hardcore band singled the fan out in the crowd and the singer seemed less than impressed with his choice of outfit.
As seen in footage from the night, frontman Akil Godsey pointed to the man during End It’s performance and accused the fan of seeking attention with the costume.
“Banana guy, come to the front. Fuck are you doing, my n****?” he is heard saying from the stage. When some other audience members began to cheer, the singer said: “No, no, no, no, no. You don’t get rewarded for doing that shit. He wanted the attention and now he has it.”
“And now everyone has to kill you,” said the bassist, before Godsey said that he would give the setlist to anyone who was willing to “strip the banana” and added: “I’m just saying! You was asking for attention, now you got it!”
Footage shared on Reddit then shows members of the audience start tackling the fan, and after the gig, the man in the banana outfit took to Instagram stories to call out the band.
Footage – End It calls out Banana Man at last night’s Toronto Show
byu/xRUCKUSx inHardcore
Sharing a picture of him wearing the suit at another previous gig, the fan revealed that the suit was ruined by the end of the recent End It show and said that it “sucked” to be singled out by the band on the night.
“People have been trying to dim my sparkle my entire life. It sucks, but I’m used to it,” he wrote on Instagram Stories (as per The PRP). “I’ve surfed hundreds of people in this suit, all genders, all ages, safely. Especially, a lot of first timers that felt safe to approach me for their first surf.”
Addressing the hardcore band, he wrote: “@enditbaltmore two of your band members crossed the line…and I’m obligated to speak on it. Fuck the police? While policing what people wear?
“The message last night; Conform or get called out, exactly the opposite of what hardcore is supposed to be. I was an unwilling participant, attacked and clothing removed at the direction of a band I paid to see.”
End It have not publicly responded to the comments made by the fan nor addressed the incident at the Toronto show. NME has reached out to the band’s reps for comments.
Since the incident gained traction online, it look like the band have removed their Facebook page. Now, when going to click on the link to their page, a message appears that reads: “This content isn’t available at the moment When this happens, it’s usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people or changed who can see it, or it’s been deleted.”
The PRP also reports that the band were set to open for Hatebreed and Life Of Agony on their European tour, but are now noticeably absent from the poster following the controversy.
Other artists have defended the man in the banana outfit too. Canadian punk rockers The OBGMs wrote: “Dressed like a banana, a zucchini, a tomato… show up as you are. You are welcome here. We invite you in. We lift each other up here,” and Escuela Grind have offered a free gift for the first few people who show up to their Dusseldorf show in banana suits.
End It’s US tour wrapped up over the weekend (June 8) and live dates continue in Germany tomorrow (Friday June 12). Performances come in support of their latest album ‘Wrong Side Of Heaven’.