Paramore condemns violence at Utah concert, including man accused of attacking gay couple
Indie rock band Paramore apologized to fans after learning of an alleged verbal and physical attack on women and a gay couple at their show in Salt Lake City, Utah, according to the band’s statement on Facebook.
The band’s security team and venue staff at The Great Saltair restrained the man accused in the assault and threw him out of the concert on Tuesday, Oct. 4, the statement said.
The Unified Police of Greater Salt Lake confirmed authorities are investigating the incident but said the report is still being processed.
“PARAMORE DOES NOT CONDONE violence, homophobia, or bigotry of any kind,” the band’s statement says. “It is supremely unwelcome in our community and has no place at our shows.”
An engaged couple accused him of targeting them because of their sexuality in comments on the band’s social media pages where the statement was posted.
“This was my fiance and I,” victim Taylor Shelton commented on Facebook. “We have never had anyone treat us badly for being gay until last night!”
In a post on her personal page, Shelton described the attack as a hate crime and said the man harassed her and her fiance using an anti-lesbian slur while flipping them off.
It started when Shelton’s fiance put her arm around her, she told McClatchy News. He started yelling “hey hey hey hey you” to her fiance, and finally said “you suck, you (expletive, slur),” she said.
They tried to ignore him, she said. But then he started yelling at another “random girl,” Shelton said.
Fed up, Shelton said she yelled back to tell him to stop yelling at people he doesn’t know, asking him to leave them alone.
“At that, he tossed whatever was in his hand across the table and got up. He then ran at me, no exaggeration, like a gorilla. Arms and legs wide just ran at me and got in my face,” she told McClatchy News.
As Shelton flagged down security, the man went after her fiance, she said.
A security guard jumped over a ledge and tackled him, she said.
“The next thing I know at least 10-15 security guards and cops are on top of him,” Shelton wrote in the post. “The guy fought them for a while!”
The victim told security officers they wanted to press charges, and they wrote statements for the police, she said. They told her and her fiance that the assailant was taken out in an ambulance with a cop escort, she said.
The band’s tour manager also met with the couple to make sure they were OK, she said.
“When we saw the statement [from the band], we were shocked,” she said. “We felt so validated that the band went out of their way to make a statement like that.”
The band said in the statement that had they realized what was happening, they would have stopped the show “until the situation was under control.”
“To the fans who were hurt by or who witnessed what happened last night, we are so sorry,” the statement says. “We hope that you know we will always do anything we can to protect you and make you feel celebrated.”
Shelton said her brother paid almost $400 for the tickets as a gift to them, and they ended up seeing barely half the show.
“We just want people to know this isn’t OK,” she said. “It’s 2022, the world is changing. People can no longer get away with treating people like that, just because you don’t agree with their life. You can disagree with it but at least be respectful enough to just leave us alone.”
It was only the second night of the band’s sold-out North American fall tour. The band’s statement spoke out against violence at any upcoming shows.
“To make things as clear as possible: Paramore shows are meant to be a safe place for people,” the statement says. “If you can’t respect that, do not come.”
This story was originally published October 6, 2022 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Paramore condemns violence at Utah concert, including man accused of attacking gay couple."
