Following their previously announced tour with Lords, Titan and Barn Burner, Toronto noisecore miscreants Vilipend played quite the eventful opening slot this weekend for Dillinger Escape Plan. In fact, it was perhaps a bit too eventful. During Vilipend's closing song Sunday night (June 21) at Toronto's Mod Club, front-man Chris Gramlich suffered a severe fall that caused him to fracture his back.
In an email, bassist Mike Crossley explains:
Our always-animated, often confrontational vocalist decided to jump down off stage to get in people's faces during the climax of our last song. The monitor he launched off of tipped and rather than coming down on his feet, he came down on his heels, which slid out from under him, taking most of the impact on his head and back. Kids thought it was awesome and piled on, not knowing he was injured. We finished the set, he crawled side-stage and soon after was taken to Toronto Western Hospital in an ambulance and has been laid out with a fractured L-1 (top lumbar) vertebra, along with a mangled black finger. Last part of the last song on the last show of the tour, so it was good timing I suppose.
Vilipend put out their debut EP, Love Left to Rot, earlier this month, and the release contains "In Desperation We Reach," the track that literally broke Gramlich's back.
The group currently have dates scheduled across Ontario, though their ability to perform remains unknown.
This news particularly hits home for us here, as both Crossley and Gramlich are staff members at Exclaim! Needless to say, we wish Gramlich a speedy and full recovery.
In an email, bassist Mike Crossley explains:
Our always-animated, often confrontational vocalist decided to jump down off stage to get in people's faces during the climax of our last song. The monitor he launched off of tipped and rather than coming down on his feet, he came down on his heels, which slid out from under him, taking most of the impact on his head and back. Kids thought it was awesome and piled on, not knowing he was injured. We finished the set, he crawled side-stage and soon after was taken to Toronto Western Hospital in an ambulance and has been laid out with a fractured L-1 (top lumbar) vertebra, along with a mangled black finger. Last part of the last song on the last show of the tour, so it was good timing I suppose.
Vilipend put out their debut EP, Love Left to Rot, earlier this month, and the release contains "In Desperation We Reach," the track that literally broke Gramlich's back.
The group currently have dates scheduled across Ontario, though their ability to perform remains unknown.
This news particularly hits home for us here, as both Crossley and Gramlich are staff members at Exclaim! Needless to say, we wish Gramlich a speedy and full recovery.
