Over 60 People Tossed from A Perfect Circle Show in Reading, PA for Violating “No Photos” Policy

If you’ve attended any of the shows on A Perfect Circle’s current arena tour of North America, you’ve no doubt noticed the band’s strict “no photos and videos” policy, with ejection from the venue threatened as punishment for lifting your cell phone out of your pocket. At last week’s show in Brooklyn there were printed warning signs posted all around the venue entrance, a security guard outside screaming the policy into a megaphone and a custom message from the band displayed on all the venue’s video screens before the band’s set:

Most people adhered to the rules, a combination of respect to the band’s request and not wanting to risk ejection… but probably more of the latter. This being 2017, though, I did witness a few rogue photo-takers get away with snapping a quick shot for prosperity, but I also saw hawk-eyed security watching the crowd closely and I watched one fan be forcibly removed.

According to David Farrar, the General Manager of the SMG Managed Santander Arena & Santander Performing Arts Center in Reading, PA — where A Perfect Circle performed on Saturday night, November 4th — the venue staff forcibly removed more than 60 people for taking photos during the band’s set.

The revelation came on Instagram in a commented response to one concert-goer’s successful attempt at snapping a few photos. Farrar boasted, “Your [sic] good. We tossed over 60 people last night for taking pics..” and then elaborated in another comment that “this was 110% the bands [sic] policy and has been for TOOL, APC, and Pusicifer.. it’s not a new policy.”

Aside from Farrar’s clear lack of grasp on spelling of the English language, he doesn’t come off like the bad guy here: indeed, we’ve heard of this sort of thing before at Maynard’s direction. As much as I think nearly everyone agrees that seeing hundreds of phones foisted in the air takes away from the concert experience, there’s no sense in fighting it… that behavior is not changing any time soon. Although, to Maynard’s credit, the policy certainly did result in a whole lot less cell phone photos and videos than usual.

We’ve screen capped the Instagram exchange below in case it gets deleted. Take a look.

Thanks: Anthony R.