Sam Carter, the lead singer of the British metalcore band Architects, stopped a show in the Netherlands Friday night to call out a man he'd seen grope a woman in the crowd.
"I’ve been going over in my fucking mind whether I should say something about what I saw in that last song,” Carter told the audience at a music festival in the Netherlands, signaling to the rest of the band to stop playing.
He went on to chastise — though not identify — a man he said he witnessed grab a woman's breast while she was crowdsurfing near the front of the stage.
"I saw a girl, a woman, crowdsurfing over here, and I'm not going to fucking point the piece of shit out who did it, but I saw you fucking grab at her boob," he said. "It is fucking disgusting and there is no place for that shit."
“I saw it. It is fucking disgusting and there is no fucking place for that shit,” he added as the audience cheered. "It is not your fucking body and you do not fucking grab at someone. Not at my fucking show.”
A Dutch radio station posted video of the moment on social media and it has since gone viral.
'So, i've been going over in my f*cking mind about whether I should say something about what I saw during that last… https://t.co/PDrJE3Ip6y
Carter also shared the footage, tweeting, "There's no room for this at any kind of show."
There's no room for this at any kind of show. https://t.co/u0gk4wnQNT
People applauded the singer for taking a stand against sexual harassment.
@samarchitects As someone who has been sexually harassed /inappropriately touched at a concert before this means a lot to me. Thank you xx
"This happens all the time and nobody ever says anything," one woman wrote on Twitter.
@samarchitects Thank you Sam 🤝💖 This happens all the time & nobody ever says anything
"Watching this made me want to cry," someone else said.
@samarchitects Thank you so much, watching this made me want to cry. Knowing there are musicians who see this bulls… https://t.co/byRKSh8Nt4
Carter's words earned the band a lot of new supporters.
@3FM @Architectsuk I have never heard this bands songs before but I'm gonna fukken check it out now. Respect 🖤
@samarchitects 51 year-old dad of an 18 year old music fan. Never heard of you or your band until today. You now ha… https://t.co/yzVRf009sZ
And a bunch of new "mom fans."
@3FM @Architectsuk I have no idea who you are but I can tell you that I love you and you have a new 'Mom Fan' in Portland, Oregon. ❤️
...even if some can't hang with the actual music.
Carter isn't the first artist to call out a sexual assault during a performance. Last month, Circa Survive guitarist Brendan Ekstrom walked off-stage midshow to stop what he thought looked like a man harassing a woman in the crowd, The Independent reported.
“It wasn’t cute. It was alarming. I’m almost forty and flirting doesn’t look like that," Ekstrom explained on Twitter afterward. "Maybe it’s that I have a daughter or that I’m older.
"I really don't know but it made me furious to watch a girl forcibly remove someone's hands from her body multiple times."
The comments helped draw attention to what many women see as a persistent problem in the music industry.
@safegigs4women @Architectsuk Thank you for what you did, do and stand for. It's been too long that girls and women… https://t.co/RBV7xO1ue9
We've had a flurry of activity overnight thanks to @Architectsuk - thanks so much for what you did. We need more bands to do the same