Turnstile frontman Brendan Yates has spoken for the first time since a fan was pepper sprayed during a show on their US tour.
Last month the Baltimore band played at Brown’s Island venue in Richmond and as is customary at their shows, they encouraged fans onto the stage to join them during their performance of ‘Birds’.
In a fan video, a member of security situated at the front of the stage was seen attempting to intercept members of the audience at the same time that the band are inviting them on stage. In one instance, the official appears to brandish a can of pepper spray and fire it directly into the face of one fan. Bassist Franz Lyons, who is stood nearby, is seen to recoil and cover his eyes.
Speaking about the incident in a new interview with The Guardian, Yates described it as: “A cowardly action from an officer coming in and spraying a 15-year-old kid and then walking away – I don’t think that’s an isolated event. But at our shows, it was a new thing. It’s something that we strive to keep away.”
He added: “You can’t really control things like that when they happen. But I think we do our best to always be very eyes open for things. Sometimes, it’s the nature of big events and people coming together.”
Richmond Sheriff Antoinette Irving previously announced that the incident was under investigation and now new bodycam footage has surfaced with the fan describing what happened.
“I got shot with, like – I thought it was a beer or something, because people were going crazy the whole time. My face started burning. I couldn’t see anything, and then I went off to the side, yelled ‘pepper spray,’ because that’s what I thought it was, and it ended up being that,” he said.
The band are due to head across the pond for a UK and European tour afterwards, which kicks off in Dublin this Friday (October 31). It’ll see them head to the UK for shows in Glasgow, Manchester and London. Then, they’ll take the tour to Hamburg, Amsterdam, Milan, Paris and more, before wrapping up in Madrid on November 27.
Tickets are available here for UK shows, and here for international dates.