On Saturday night in Antwerp, Belgium, a stage crasher took things way too far and sexually harassed Alvvays frontwoman Molly Rankin when he tried to kiss her. During their performance of “Party Police,” some dude waddled on stage and leaned in for a peck, and when Rankin ducked away from the mysterious bro, he looked genuinely shocked that she wasn’t interested in kissing a complete stranger. The incident was caught on video, and happens around 3:30.
The person who posted the video also said on Reddit, “They finished their set and came back for the encore. Alec warned us to never try to kiss the lead singer as they only have one and they don’t want to lose her, something along these lines. Molly felt nervous afterwards.”
The venue released a statement as well:
This weekend a man got on stage during the Alvvays show at Trix and harassed the band’s singer. Trix regrets this happened on our stage. It is incredible and saddening that we should still spell this out in 2017, but here goes: it is in no way, shape or form acceptable to harass women on or off stage. Rock shows belong to everybody and you should respect people’s integrity. Being very drunk and slightly enamoured with a musician somehow doesn’t magically make this kind of behaviour alright. This not “just a bit of fun”. This is beyond annoying. And you need to do better.
We apologize to the band and audience that this happened on our watch. This was not ok.
As the venue said, it's pretty ridiculous that "Don't harass women" has to be explicitly stated, but instances of sexual harassment towards female-identified musicians have been fairly common, even this year.
Taylor Swift went to court in August for a sexual assault lawsuit, suing a Colorado radio DJ for groping her during a 2013 meet-and-greet. Swift won the lawsuit, after she had to affirm over and over again in the courtroom that he grabbed her bare ass during the photo op, despite having a photo that depicts the incident.
In addition, Princess Nokia punched an audience member in the U.K. three times in February after he reportedly shouted, “Show me your tits!"
So, just a reminder: Don't try to kiss anyone unless they say they want to kiss you too, but especially people who are just trying to do their job.
I was waiting to watch Rankin to rearrange the guy’s face with her guitar, but she seems to have a bit more patience than I would. In positive news, Alvvays released an incredible new record earlier this month, and they will be playing at The Showbox on October 28th. There better be no rude men who try to hop on stage with them.
