Concerts are a very intimate thing. It is getting you as close as you can possibly be to your favorite band and watching them perform your favorite songs. When people are faced with this intimacy, some people kind of forget that there are other people there for the same reasons that they are. They think that they are the most important thing, and they end up doing something dumb and annoying. Then there will be angry reactions from anyone involved and that turns the intimate concert experience into something possibly violent (while obviously not including the potential danger of moshing). This past week a video went viral of the band “The Story So Far” and their lead singer Parker Cannon drop kicking a girl to the crowd for deciding to jump onto the stage and taking a selfie up there. The girl thought she was the most important person there to actually try and take a selfie on stage and ultimately faced violence by the band themselves for it.

Now for those who don’t know, there is a general rule at concerts that you are not allowed to go on the stage for too long of a time (that is even if the venue allows for you to go onto the stage). It’s disrespectful, it’s distracting and it is pretty downright annoying. So on one side the girl who took the selfie on the stage was dumb in her own right for doing something like that. People were trying to watch their favorite band, but instead, they are getting a sight of some chick on her iPhone, so obviously this would annoy and frustrate the band. But on the flip side, is it ever appropriate to use violence as Parker Cannon did to let the girl know that it was not OK? Parker was wrong in his own right as well for this and took drastic action to teach this girl a lesson.

There is, however, a way to justify each side and people are able to formulate their own opinions off of that. The first side is obviously against the singer Parker Cannon. The argument is that Parker should have never used violence and physically kicked the girl off the stage. He may have been annoyed, but he should have been the bigger person in the situation, especially if it was a fan. They say it makes him look like a low tempered douchebag who needs to learn to take situations lightly.

The other side starts with the obvious disrespect of it. She was potentially distracting the band during their set, which is dumb itself, but she was also distracting the fans by just chilling up on stage like this selfie was the most important thing for her to ever do in life. They also argue that she should have known what kind of show she was at. The Story So Far is regarded as a Quasi-Punk kind of band, and punk shows are known for being a bit rough. I know many people who have had bruises, busted lips and even broken noses at these kinds of shows, so it’s no secret what goes on. So shouldn’t she have clearly thought that disrespecting the band would lead to something extreme? I obviously am not on either side. Both of them were dumb, and both led to dumb consequences. The girl dealt with the dropkick, and Parker got hit with the backlash of angry people. The girl should have never gotten up and should have been aware of how idiotic she was being, while Parker should’ve remained level headed (despite the excitement of playing a show) in favor of not letting the situation turn to what it did.