A number of bands have dropped off the invoice of a steel pageant happening later this month in Orlando after it was introduced that Kenosha protest shooter Kyle Rittenhouse would seem as a particular visitor.
The exodus from Shell Shock II — a charity fest elevating cash and consciousness for veterans and first responders with PTSD — started earlier this week, beginning with pageant headliners Evergreen Terrace. A number of different bands adopted, per Loudwire, together with Southpaw, Let Me Bleed, and American Hole.
Rittenhouse was revealed as a Shell Shock II visitor on social media, per a now-deleted submit that was shared on Reddit. The submit featured a photograph of Rittenhouse on the 2020 Kenosha, Wisconsin, protest in opposition to racial injustice the place he shot three individuals and killed two (Rittenhouse was acquitted of murder prices in 2021). Within the photograph, Rittenhouse is holding a gun in a single hand and elevating his different; the caption reads: “Elevate your palms if youll [sic] be at Shell Shock.”
In a press release shared on Fb, Evergreen Terrace defined their determination to ditch the pageant: “Evergreen Terrace has at all times supported and continues to assist philanthropic occasions for veterans, PTSD consciousness, youngster poverty, and plenty of extra, however we is not going to align with an occasion selling a perceived assassin similar to Kyle Rittenhouse capitalizing off of their pseudo celeb… Even after they provided to drag Kyle from the occasion, we found a number of related entities that we merely don’t agree with. As advocates free of charge speech we’re respectfully canceling the Shell Shock pageant. We will likely be personally contributing to a veterans charity and urge you to do the identical.”
Southpaw, of their assertion, stated they agreed to play the fest understanding it was elevating cash for a very good trigger, “however knew nothing of a specific particular person being a primary focus of assist for the present till after accepting… This merely is just not what we signed up for. Interval.”
And Let Me Bleed stated, “Although we’re advocates of free speech we’re collectively not a political band. It wasn’t till after we agreed to play the pageant that these problematic and probably alienating entities had been getting used to market the present and that’s one thing we merely can not condone.”
Shell Shock II remains to be slated to happen on Oct. 19, and following the notable acts dropping out, pageant organizers have booked a Slipknot tribute band referred to as SiC.
On Instagram, Shell Shock founder and CEO Tyler Hoover rebuffed the bands ditching the pageant, and people criticizing it, saying, “I’m right here to let you know, you’re not punk, you’re not hardcore. You individuals, the individuals which might be trolling and the individuals which might be speaking shit, you guys are the mentally unwell portion of society. You guys are those which might be manipulated.”
He added: “The lynch mob right here to take down Shell Shock is not going to win. It doesn’t matter, as a result of guess what? You may’t kill spirit. You may’t kill punk. And you’ll’t fucking kill Shell Shock.”
It’s unclear what precisely Rittenhouse will likely be doing at Shell Shock, or if he’ll simply be attending. In a press release shared with USA In the present day, Hoover stated the fest is “not going to show anybody down who needs to attend; everyone seems to be welcome.” He continued, “We don’t discriminate. Shell Shock is a PTSD (Publish Traumatic Stress Dysfunction) Charity and Consciousness occasion to assist our army Veterans and first responders. Many influencers reached out to us to offer their assist, certainly one of which was Kyle Rittenhouse.”