Woman Injured at Trophy Eyes Files a Lawsuit Against the Band, Promoter, and Venue
I might be taking the unpopular opinion here, but crowd surfing and stage diving is fucking stupid. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll gladly jump in a mosh pit, but crowd surfing is just fucking rude to the people below you. When crowd surfers come near me I generally get out of the way if I can. It’s a completely inconsiderate thing to do and it’s better suited to a 14-year-old at an Imagine Dragons concert than it is for a metal or hardcore or punk show. Unfortunately, Trophy Eyes are learning that the hard way as they’re now facing a lawsuit over their lead singer stage diving and landing on a woman’s neck.
You might remember Bird Piché, the woman who was injured at a Trophy Eyes show at Mohawk Place in Buffalo, New York back in late April. Mohawk Place had a strict no moshing policy which Trophy Eyes frontman John Floreani ignored when he stage dove into the crowd, causing Piché a “catastrophic spinal cord injury.” We reported back in May that Piché was expected to make a full recovery, but it’s been a long, hard recovery that’s still ongoing, and healthcare in America is criminally expensive. Trophy Eyes kicked in $5,000 to Piché’s GoFundMe page for her recovery, and the venue kicked in $500. Wait, that can’t be right, the venue has to be able to afford more than $500 fucking dollars, right? Nope, they kicked in $500. Wow.
According to Lambgoat, who got a hold of the full lawsuit, Piché is suing the venue, the promoter After Dark Entertainment LLC, Trophy Eyes, and Floreani himself, claiming they created “unsafe and/or dangerous conditions.” What’s probably not going to work in the favor of the defendants is the fact that the band has a history of getting aggressive towards fans who complain about moshing at their shows, and the fact that it’s not the first time this venue has been sued for someone getting injured at a concert. The last time they were sued was when a man named Mike Bird (there’s a strange number of Birds in this story) was injured at a Terror and Trapped Under Ice show, and that lawsuit nearly bankrupted the venue. So I imagine this lawsuit puts the future of the venue in jeopardy.
We’ll keep you updated on what happens with the lawsuit.
