Rose Funeral: The Uno Incident?
NOTE: Devin Shidaker is no longer in Rose Funeral, even though for some reason he’s still listed as a member on the band’s MySpace page. Our apologies for including his name when we initially ran this story.
UPDATE: A source very close to the band tells us that this entire story is true. So that sucks. Original story follows…
Alright. So we’ve been getting e-mails about this since Thursday, and Vince and I struggled with whether or not to run anything about it because, well, the internet can be a terrible place full of nonsense, and we have no way to verify whether or not this event ever actually occurred. But now we’ve gotten so many e-mails about it, it seems like we have to say something.
Still, two disclaimers before we move forward:
- This should be treated as an unsubstantiated rumor until further notice. Like I said, we’re currently unable to verify if there’s any truth to this story or not.
- We’re not making any judgments, positive or negative, about Rose Funeral’s music. Whether or not we or anybody else thinks they’re a good band or not is the very definition of “beside the point” in this instance. The point is whether or not one or more members of the band did something really heinous.
And with that being said, here’s the story, as described to us via various e-mails from people who claim to have been present when this all went down…
Apparently at the Tulsa, OK stop of Nile’s current (MetalSucks co-sponsored) tour with Immolation, Krisiun, and Dreaming Dead, there was a last-minute line-up change, and Rose Funeral were announced as the new show openers. A group of concert goers, at least one of whom is said to be all of seventeen years old, decided to play a game of Uno near the stage in protest.
Now, let’s stop right here for a second: yes, playing a card game while the band is performing, within the band’s eye sight, is a dick move. Whether or not it’s any ruder than actual heckling is up for debate. Regardless, it doesn’t justify what allegedly happened next.
I wasn’t there (obviously), so now I’m just going to re-print the first hand account of reader Michael Booher:
“We played two and half games. At first Rose Funeral didn’t seem to care, but then before their last song I heard the vocalist [Tim Russel] say “What is this shit?!” and they just continued on with their totally sweet breakdowns. After they were done I put the Uno deck up and the guitarist [Ryan Gardner] touched Ronnie’s shoulder and said, ‘Hey are you the guy that was talking shit on YouTube?’ [We’re also not clear what this is a reference to, but it’s worth noting that Ronnie is apparently seventeen years old. – Ed.]
“Ronnie: ‘No, that would be him,’ and he pointed at me.
“Me: ‘Yeah it was me, what’s up?’
“Rose Funeral drummer [Dusty Boles]: ‘Let’s go outside!’
“Me: ‘No, I want to see these GOOD bands first.’
“Rose Funeral guitarist: ‘No, let’s go, NOW.’
“Me: ‘No, I want to see these GOOD bands first.’”
At this point the guitarist apparently spit in Michael’s face; Michael, in turn spit back. Then:
“Dusty Boles: ‘Let’s go outside.’ [At which point Boles is said to have removed his shirt. – Ed.]
“Rose Funeral bassist [Dale Hammond]: ‘Hey, is that the guy?’
“At about this time a guy who works at the venue got in-between us. So it came as a surprise when I got hit in the back of the head. It made me take a step forward and then I ended up in some pussy headlock that I got out of way too easily. I didn’t know this at the time, but Rose Funeral’s merch guy was the one who hit me in the head, and the guitarist is the one that got me in a headlock.”
Right around this time venue security apparently got involved, separating Michael and his friends from the band and instructing the concert-goers to be careful about wandering the venue alone, lest they get jumped by the members of Rose Funeral. The evening continued without incident until:
“I start walking back to the front, just in time to see Ronnie get hit by someone. [Dusty Boles] was choking him and BJ pulled him off. I don’t know who hit him, but I only saw the guitarist so I started walking towards him again, only to have the guys working [at the venue] get in my way again. Ronnie said he didn’t do anything, he just started getting hit and every time he turned around to see who hit him, he got hit in the back of the head again by someone else. A guy working [at the venue] took Ronnie outside and some other guys took the guitarist and drummer outside. I followed, thinking they were just going to let them kick Ronnie’s ass ,but it ended up being a few guys talking to Rose Funeral, a few talking to Ronnie, so I went back inside and laughed with my friends. After about fifteen minutes, Dreaming Dead had set up, and Ronnie wasn’t back. I found the [venue employee] who grabbed my arm and dragged me away and asked him what was going on. He said ‘This makes me fucking sick, I hate that it happened, but your friend got kicked out. The tour manager wants him gone, there’s nothing I can do.’ WHAT THE FUCK! Ronnie gets hit for no fucking reason and HE GETS KICKED THE FUCK OUT?!”
Now Michael is obviously coming from a biased place and never liked Rose Funeral in the first place, but, again, that’s beside the point; the point is whether or not the band attacked a seventeen year old kid and his friends.
Now… the story gets a little more interesting still. Reader Kyle Heider sent us a screencap of the following exchange between Rose Funeral and a non-fan over Facebook; the exchange has since been removed [Note: apparently the Rose Funeral part of this exchange is not actually Rose Funeral, but, rather, Mike Alfaro, who runs a fan page for the band… click here for more details]:
So that obviously looks pretty incriminating.
Again, we have no way of confirming these events; I asked Michael Booher if there was a police report or anyone had captured any of this on video or whatever, but the cops were never called and no one whipped out a cell phone to record the incident.
But if Rose Funeral really did jump some concert-goers, well… there’s no circumstances under which I can see that as being okay. It’s just not cool to use physical violence against hecklers (or card players, as the case may be). Period.
And if Rose Funeral didn’t do this and it’s just a bunch of pissed-off kids trying to spread lies, well… never cry wolf, guys.
If anyone else has any additional information about (or, better yet, evidence regarding) this event, please let us know ASAP.
-AR
