Fucking in the Streets

Early last Friday a.m., after playing a show at the University
District’s Blue Moon Tavern, a member of the band the
Abodox allegedly attempted to steal from the bar an oil painting of
crushed beer cans by artist Mary McIntyre. According to Blue
Moon booker Jason Josephes, the band member attempted to sneak
the painting out the door while the band was loading out its amps and
equipment.

“I busted him on the spot and got nothing but a bunch of smart-ass
conjecture. He told one of our regulars that he loved the painting and,
since no one else could possibly appreciate its majesty, he decided to
liberate it,” says Josephes. “He put his time into it—the
painting was secured to the wall via a mounting. His unleashing
involved unscrewing the painting from the wall. This was not a drunken
grab. It was a painstaking labor.

“When accosted outside, I was met with nothing but a smart-ass
attitude. ‘Yeah, I tried to steal your painting and I got
caught,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what the big deal is.’ When I told
him word would be getting out about this, he smiled even bigger and
said yes, by all means, to let people know what he did. So here you
go.”

Josephes initially fingered the band’s drummer for the alleged
attempted theft, but Abodox drummer Benjamin Thomas-Kennedy, who
ironically works as a museum security guard by day, responded that in
fact he had already left the show by the time the attempted theft
occurred. He apologized for the incident, but he also tried to defend
his bandmate’s actions:

“It’s true that time and care was put into the heist. We
respect the work and did not want to damage it. A ‘drunken grab’ would
have been much worse as it may have hurt the art, which would have been
a huge tragedy. We had no intention of getting away with it or damaging
it. The painting is fucking huge, and to think that it could be easily
removed and walked out with is a ridiculous notion. I guess you
could say that it was our way of showing our appreciation. We had
no intention of keeping or hurting the art, which, again, we fully
appreciate.

“When confronted, we owned up to it and returned the painting…
Also, we would like to confirm and defend what was perceived as our
‘smart ass-attitude’ in the face of the staff’s aggressive behavior and
words.

“It was a fucked-up thing to do and it won’t happen again. We love
the Blue Moon and we are sorry for being dumbasses. We have
nothing but respect for the venue, the art, and the artist. We
sincerely apologize.”

The incident was originally reported on Line Out on Friday, July 10,
by Dave Segal. Commenters identifying themselves as other Abodox band
members named their guitarist, Blaine Patnode, as the alleged thief and
offered further attempts at either defending or apologizing for the
incident.

“A totally lame response indeed,” wrote bassist Dorando Hodous. “How
embarrassing, my sincere apologies to the Blue Moon, our friends, and
fans. What the fuck were we thinking? We weren’t.”

Read more HERE.