A quick Google search will tell the story. At a gig at San Francisco’s Yoshi’s nightclub, the lefty folk singer and rabble rouser cleared the house when she shouted “You can tweet that Michelle Shocked says God hates fags” direct quote. The place descended into an uproar and folks began leaving in droves.
The house sound was cut, the show ended, and the brouhaha commenced.
Two upcoming gigs have already been cancelled (Novato and Chicago) with more sure to follow. I really wonder how many promoters, PB expressly included, will be willing to chance another outburst like this.
See now, if we had the “Sunday Morning Westboro Baptist hour”, this would all be good news. But that’s not what we do. We do a gospel hour, where we all touch base with our spiritual connection to each other, or gratitude for the love around us, our humble ability to serve for the good of each other.
Now, assuming this all went down as I’ve read, that really blows in so many ways. Aside from the bigger picture of having such displays of hatred and intolerance in the places you least expect it, this puts the Planet in a tough spot. Do they join ETown and other promoters in canceling her set? Or, in the interest of some of the spirit of forgiveness, rebirth, and awakening, does she get a chance to come and redeem herself? Do we bring in someone (Reverend Tim, to the white courtesy phone, please) to baptize her on stage in Crunchy Frog?
Just playing a little :evil advocate here. I know how I would encourage the Planet to act (can her!), but I like to keep an open mind…at least more open than Ms. Shocked
This whole thing is sad. Come on, Michelle! We expect better from you. PB does have s little time to decide what to do. If nothing changes, or she continues to say stuff like this, they need to cancel her set. If she asks for forgiveness and changes her ways, maybe she deserves a shot at redemption. I remember years ago she did a late set at the fest and really annoyed the audience because she kept complaining she couldn’t feel the audience or hear them. We weren’t loud enough. It’s like she wasn’t aware she was playing outdoors at the end of a long day. A couple of her band mates could be seen rolling their eyes at her. A couple years later she did redeem herself and did a good gospel set (that was released as the album “To Heaven You Ride,” I think.)
I always liked Michelle, but was turned off that first time I saw her at Telluride, and this latest meltdown really makes me think she needs help.
If they cancel her, maybe they can find a way to bring Johnny C back for another gospel set! It just ain’t right that he isn’t at the 40th!
I do have confidence that PB will do right by the Festivarian family.
If she wants to ruin her career and burn all the bridges behind her then she can continue her rants. :evil
I just don’t want to see a tidal wave of people leaving the festival grounds at Telluride, so it may be better to tell her what we think and cancel her. :thumbsup
All good ideas. Darrell Scott’s gospel set on Father’s Day was wonderful.
At this point you almost wonder if Michelle is going to want to perform again. She may cancel her schedule herself.
And this all just happened, and we’re still learning details. I don’t want to jump to conclusions, and it doesn’t look good.
I really like to give people the benefit of the doubt and I did read one account that said some thought the remark was made ironically. I hope so, and will say I, personally, question at the very least the judgement/mental health of someone able to utter those words in a concert setting, bad joke or not, and I’d like to hear how she’s going to respond to all this.
That said, I seem to recall the first time I saw her in Telluride (years ago) that the generator gave mid-set and she just kept on belting it out. Does anyone else remember this? I do have the right artist, don’t I? She was full of positive energy and love and that, combined with the incredible talent, beauty around us (in the earth and in each other) is what keeps us coming back year after year is it not? I give her props for that but there is a lot of time and change between then and now. Besides Cake issuing their Bush-ism, I don’t recall another time, in 20 years this year, feeling negativity from that stage, despite the wildly different viewpoints of all the myriad people who’ve taken it as well as those of us in front. If Michelle Shocked needs help, I hope she gets it. I also hope and believe Craig and the Planet care enough to not venture a guess at whether she’ll go all WBC on us during our Sunday love charge. I don’t want to pay for hate.
I say let her play. If she is having a melt down she needs Tride as much as we do. If she really does hate we will peacefully set her straight. No pun intended. 10,000 bright, shining happy faces of all colors all flavors. 4 days of love are hard to fight off and by Sunday she will be like putty in our hands. :lol
Wow, what a strange story. I can’t wait to see what she says about this, but she does need to say something quick. I really hope it was misconstrued, but looks like it was planned (according to someone who was in charge of tweeting about the event).
I was REALLY looking forward to the Sunday performance because I have enjoyed her in the past. But also because she was going to be paired with the Campbells. If her little rant turns into something that she truly believes, then that intolerance is something I would need to avoid.
So bring on the Campbells without her and leave the intolerance to the Westboro Baptist Church idiots. Or maybe she could play a tweener with Ted Nugent.
Well to me, it seems as though she does believe what she said.
So, unfortunately, she had a case of “foot in mouth” - regardless of impact or the strength of her conviction.
For me, any level of intolerance is not okay, I hope she is able to have a change of heart and be open to the thoughts, beliefs, and convictions of the rest of society, rather than the closed minded minority.
M
(If she really does hate we will peacefully set her straight.~ Landshark)
I think Craig needs to go ahead and cancel Michelle’s set before any more time slips by.
A walk out during her set, accompanied by “booing,” which is what I’m afraid will happen if she’s allowed to perform, would just put everyone in a really bad mood and ruin the rest of the Sunday morning gospel set.
Frankly, I can’t imagine why Craig would allow her to perform on Sunday, after what she did in San Francisco.
Hopefully, the cancellation won’t create any financial penalty for PB. :flower
I’m a bit hesitant to offer Crunchy Frog as a baptizing agent…partially due (obviously) to potential chemical burns but also because of the well-known high moral standards of Camp Run-A-Muck (yeah…keep laughing jerkwads). That sort of verbal spewing is certainly not going to stir my loins (or the loins of others of our camp) enough to make us just blindly offer a wash of Crunchy Frog just to clear her sins away. Unless…she was maybe some sort of renown bacon and waffle chef…WAIT! No! Not even then! But seriously…No. She has thrown some very hateful things toward some very good friends of mine and of yours. Very little room for debate from where I sit (at my computer wearing Sam Bush boxer shorts).
I am not so quick to jump on the ban wagon here. Do you really think a women that has been around the block as many times as MS would say that with much thought behind it? Lets not crusify like the Dixie Chicks. I hate that kind of mentality. Lunch mobish to me. What she said does not even make any sense if you think about it . :huh God and hate :huh One bad spew does not make an entire carier. Everyone on the Planet spews she just happened to do it in front of hundreds. Give her a break. Stop the Lynce Mob mentality. :medal
Tride is an open oppertunity to explore through music. Perhaps we should open our hearts to her. When folks talk about hate, they are the ones in need. Group Hug of 10,000 :cheers
And my next question would be, could she be struggeling with some identity issues herself? Stay open artist change in front of us through the years and do we really expect then to remain unchanged, unaffected. Its that very reason we love them, they evolve with time and us and it is a cummulitve experience. Good and bad. I still love Bela even if I have not really understood where his head is at as of lately :medal