Combichrist Boot Blood on the Dance Floor Off Tour for Alleged Pedophilia Past
Never heard of / don’t care about either of these bands? Me neither. But read on.
Blood on the Dance Floor have quite the controversial past, with accusations flying around the Internet that bandmember Dahvie Vanity has a penchant for young girls below the age of consent. There’s even a Tumblr page on which Vanity’s alleged victims share their stories about being victimized, taken advantage, groped, forced to perform sexual acts and more. As far as I know none of these cases have been borne out in court, and it’s worth noting that all the submissions are anonymous, but the accusations and incredibly damning and they just keep going and going. Here are some examples:
Combichrist knew none of this when they invited Blood on the Dance Floor to open for them on their fall U.S. tour, but we’ve learned from Under The Gun Review that their fans were so quick to bombard them with links containing stories like the above after the initial tour announcement that they were forced to boot BOTDF from the tour almost immediately. Combichrist explained in a Facebook post:
To our fans,
As you’ve seen with all of our tours, when we select our support acts, we attempt to bring acts that will help introduce Combichrist to fans outside of our fanbase. This has worked well for us in the past, and it was in this spirit that we invited Blood On The Dance Floor to tour with us. Like all announcements, we knew that this decision would be met with some concern but we thought that the different styles would be the source of conversation. We were not aware of the controversy about their past behavior. It has been difficult to read everything posted today; our sole goal is to bring you a kick ass tour that you can be excited and proud of and it’s become clear that we won’t be able to do that with the choice we made. As a result we have released Blood On The Dance Floor from this tour and are rethinking our direct support. We expect to have a new announcement for you shortly.
Thank you for your honesty and integrity.
You stand by us, we stand by you.
Combichrist
Blood on the Dance Floor posted their own response, denying everything (of course):
Due to unfortunate circumstances, we must announce that we will no longer be touring with Combichrist, and honestly we have the social media to blame. It’s truly sad, and quite pathetic that people are willing to stoop as low as to spread some sick, twisted rumors about me, and it’s even more sad that people feed into it. I have NEVER been convicted of any crime that I have been accused of, but I feel as though I have been shackled by defamation. We have ALWAYS treated our fans as they were family, and we give the the upmost respect, as we hold our family in the highest regard. Anyone that knows us, or has been around us for any amount of time would know that we are nothing but gentlemen when it comes to females, and we would never allow harm to come their way. Sadly, these atrocious lies that are being spread about me have become a raging wildfire, and it’s gotten out of control, and sadly it has crippled some relationships. To conclude, we would like to thank our FAMILY for all of the support and loyalty you have shown us, despite the slander that has been attached to our name. We love you with all of our hearts, and we truly apologize for the inconvenience. We will make it up to you in 2015 by having out very own headlining tour upon the completion of our upcoming record. Again, we apologize if we let anyone down; we didn’t realize how out of control the ignorance would be.
Yesterday Combichrist announced that William Control would be stepping in as support, with Darksider and Davey Suicide as the openers. The tour’s lineup is just as shitty as before, but at least it’s way less rapey; parents of pre-teens will rest a little easier knowing their sons and daughters won’t be subject to the shenanigans of a gross, pedophiliac, 30-year-old man that dresses and conducts himself like a teenager.