​Circa Survive Guitarist Storms Offstage to Stop Sexual Harassment in the Audience

BY Sarah MurphyPublished Jul 26, 2017

Philadelphia post-hardcore unit Circa Survive are currently touring in support of their upcoming LP The Amulet, but their recent concert in St. Louis was interrupted when guitarist Brendan Ekstrom walked offstage mid-show.
 
Ekstrom has since taken to Twitter to clarify the unusual turn of events, which went down on July 21, explaining that he left his post to intervene in what he suspected to be a serious case of sexual harassment in the audience.
 
He said that he saw a guy standing behind a girl, acting flirtatiously and trying to kiss her — and while she "seemed ok with his advances" at times, Ekstrom grew concerned after watching her push the guy's hands and face away from her multiple times.
 
"I left the stage and walked straight for them, my mind an emotional blur," he continued. "Security followed me. The man seemed dumbfounded when I showed up as if nothing was wrong. I don't know what happened after. I went back to [the] stage to finish the show. Security took it from there."
 
Ekstrom went on to acknowledgement that he has a limited understanding of the interaction, noting that they may or may not have been in a relationship — but maintains that either way, what he witnessed "was disturbing to me and completely removed me from the mindset I need to be on stage."
 
"I really don't know but it made me furious to watch a girl forcibly remove someone's hands from her body multiple times," he continued. "I still don't feel great about how I handled this situation. I borderline blacked out in some weird rage mode. It makes me nervous to think about how I would handle situations like this in the future especially if it was with someone I knew or cared about especially if it is my daughter."
 
He ends by apologizing to his bandmates for not communicating the situation more clearly, and to the fans who "saw a bit of an unusual show."
 
Read Ekstrom's full string of tweets below.
 
Circa Survive are set to release The Amulet on September 22 via Hopeless Records.

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