McKenzie Dillon July 25th, 2016 - 9:56 PM
Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna
This past weekend at the XPoNential Festival in Camden, NJ, Father John Misty had what many would call a meltdown while on-stage during his appearance. In what fans expected to be a performance turned into a rant about the harm of entertainment on society. He was only on-stage for half his allotted time, in which he played one Leonard Cohen cover “Bird On a Whire”, and an improvised song about referenced current events, a battleship that was docked next to the festival, and drones. Father John Misty even referenced the battleship during his bash on entertainment saying
“I always thought that it was going to look way more sophisticated than this when evil happened. When the collective consciousness was so numb and so fucking sated and so gorged on entertainment. … How entertaining should this be right now with a fucking battleship in the background and this shit on TV, how fucking fun should this be? How fucking fun can it be? Can it be real in any sense? Like, I cannot play ‘Bored in the USA’ for you right now. No no no, because guess what? I soft-shoed that shit into existence by going, ‘No no no, look over here, it’ll never actually be that bad because we’re too smart.’ And while we were looking in that direction, stupidity just fucking runs the world because entertainment is stupid! Do you guys realize that?”
As the crowd stood and listened to the singer, some applauded his statement “It feels better to be angry than it does to be fucking devastated that shit looks the way it looks,” to which he quickly protested saying, “No no no, don’t even cheer for that. Maybe just take a moment to be really fucking profoundly sad. It’s a lot less sexy of a festival look.”
Once he was finished, Father John Misty sent his love to the audience and promptly walked off. But by no means was the show actually over. The singer made sure to take to Twitter and Instagram for his final thoughts on the subject.
Of course fans and even some in the entertainment industry took to social media to call out Father John Misty for his hypocritical and strange antics. Fellow band Stands of Oak criticized the meltdown which promted a twitter feud between Father John Misty and band member Timothy Showalter.
Furthering your entertainment career by calling entertainment stupid
— Timothy Showalter (@Strandofoaks) July 23, 2016
Funny it didn’t happen at a big pay day fest. Instead at fest run by an amazing group of hard working people bettering their community
— Timothy Showalter (@Strandofoaks) July 23, 2016
Stay off the internet and go on a hike. People work hard and love music.
— Timothy Showalter (@Strandofoaks) July 23, 2016
Shows have saved my life. The stage is a privilege more importantly FANS are a privilege. Go on a lecture tour if you have so much to say
— Timothy Showalter (@Strandofoaks) July 23, 2016
If everyone is watching, you know that you will get attention. Benefiting from the problem is not the solution. So sick of this shit
— Timothy Showalter (@Strandofoaks) July 23, 2016
Start a charity, work for habitat for humanity, volunteer, whatever. Be productive.
— Timothy Showalter (@Strandofoaks) July 23, 2016
Coming as no surpise at all, Father John Misty fought back to the statements Showalter made on his page.
.@Strandofoaks Entertainment is context. History is full of disgusting forms of entertainment justified by cultural bias and passivity.
— FARMER JAH MISERY (@fatherjohnmisty) July 25, 2016
Check out the videos below to catch the whole speech.
#fatherjohnmisty #xpnfest #philadelphia
A photo posted by Elise (@beetle_bumm) on
