Turnstile Eject Security Guard In OKC, Bring Out Slayyyter In Lawrence

If you haven't been to a Turnstile show anytime recently, it's truly a thing to witness. Turnstile have always put on hugely energetic shows, and while their pits aren't as crazy as they were back in the no-barrier days, but the way they get vast crowds to go off is downright astonishing. To most of us, the Turnstile pit looks like a joyous spectacle. To certain security guards, it must look like something else.

Right now, Turnstile are on an absolutely huge North American tour with a rotating cast of opening acts, and the videos from their sets have been breathtaking. (Last weekend, they interrupted their tour long enough to make their SNL debut, which has led to a great deal of annoying internet genre discourse that doesn't really have anything to do with the band.) On Monday night, Turnstile played the Criterion in Oklahoma City, with Die Spitz and End It opening. During Turnstile's set, frontman Brendan Yates apparently saw a security guard manhandling a fan who jumped over the barricade, and he stopped the show mid-song, refusing to restart it until that guard was gone from the venue.

Man, he was heated, too. Unlike a lot of hardcore frontmen, Brendan Yates rarely gets publicly angry. This was an exception. In videos of the incident, we see Yates, in the middle of the early Turnstile track "Keep It Moving," cut off his performance mid-song to jump into the pit between the barrier and the crowd and get right up in the face of this security guard — who, it must be noted, was way bigger than Yates. Into the mic, Yates said something like, "Get out. You're done. He's done." The footage shows him speaking very animatedly toward this one guard and the others around him before the guard, who looked just as pissed off, left the area. Yates then briefly huddled with the other security before returning to the stage and telling the crowd this:

To the security that's doing their job and doing a great job at what you're doing, thank you. There are some that didn't get the assignment. And I know that all of you are coming up to me and trying to have a good time. It's high energy. There's movement. And there's no need for anyone to be swinging on anyone just coming over the barrier. That security guard cannot be here. We won't play if he's still here. And the rest, thank you for adjusting and keeping this peaceful. We love y'all. We wanna take care. Please take care of each other.

Watch a couple of videos below.

It simply cannot be easy to translate the energy of a hardcore show to the huge venues where Turnstile play, places that require security that the band can't possibly vet. There have been other problems in the recent past. Last year, I was at a Turnstile show in Richmond, where a sheriff's deputy blasted a 15-year-old kid with pepper spray at the very end of the set. That incident is supposedly being investigated. I interviewed the band for The Guardian shortly afterward, and Yates told me, "A cowardly action from an officer coming in and spraying a 15-year-old kid and then walking away – I don’t think that’s an isolated event. But at our shows, it was a new thing. It’s something that we strive to keep away." They're still striving.

Thankfully, that bullshit doesn't happen at most of the shows. On Tuesday night, Turnstile played David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, a show that served as the University Of Kansas' returning Day On The Hill, a revival of a concert tradition that went dormant for 19 years. Die Spitz and Slayyyter opened that show. Slayyyter recently reinterpreted Turnstile's "Birds" on their remixes-and-covers collection Never Enough: Versions, and she just sang her take on "Birds" live for the first time. At last night's show, Turnstile opened with "Birds," and Slayyyter ran out to join them.

In other news, comedy people continue to love Turnstile.

Tonight, Turnstile play Arsenal BG Ballpark, just outside St. Louis, with Die Spitz and Vince Staples opening.