A bar brawl between Black Lips and Wavves was broken up by police on Friday night (September 25th).
Indie rock might lag behind hip hop in the violence stakes, but it can still produce its fair shares of beefs. Take Black Lips and Wavves, for example – on paper fairly similar given their shared penchant for psych-punk.
In actuality, the two bands would refuse to breath the same air as each other. An onstage meltdown in Spain earlier this year saw Wavves’ singer Nathan Williams retreat from the limelight.
However Black Lips singer Jared Swilley attacked the frontman in the press, opening a deep divide between the two bands.
New York website Brooklyn Vegan reports that Swilley was left injured after a bar brawl at Daddy’s in Brooklyn after both groups had played separate gigs in New York that night.
Both parties have issued statements about the event which – as expected – are conflicting.
Wavves singer Nathan Williams said:
“I have no problem with Black Lips or anybody else that I haven’t met, but Jared has been at me every chance he had. I just want to play music and have fun. It was unfortunate that it escalated to that point, but he got what was coming to him.”
Black Lips singer Jared Swilley responded to Williams’ claims by stating:
“First of all, I just wanna say that Wavves was NOT involved in that fight. Didn’t even touch me,” he said. “I’ve never ‘come after’ that kid, it wasn’t 4am, that wasn’t my girlfriend, no one was spitting, and I didn’t attack him. I don’t give a shit about that kid and his music.”
“What happened was, after we finished our set I went to Daddy’s with some friends and saw that faggot from Wavves talking to a photographer friend of mine. The only thing I did was walk up to him and say ‘You’re that faggot from Wavves and I don’t like you’. He smiled a bit but didn’t say anything.”
“After that, I went outside and saw their tour manager hanging around with some guys. They started getting all chuckles with me and so I told them I wasn’t gonna have it. After that, Wavves tour manager hit me square in the face with a bottle. Blood started pouring out and six dudes fucking started kicking me until I blacked out. All I remember is getting hit with the bottle and my friends dragging me to another bar. They wrapped my head up until I looked like a Confederate soldier.”
