Ethel Cain wants her concerts to be pure fun. After fans complained about negative behavior from fellow concertgoers at Cain’s shows, the “Strangers” singer urged her fans to treat each other with respect.
“I very much hate hearing that anyone attending our shows walked away with a negative experience because of bad behavior in the pit,” Cain wrote on her Instagram Story ahead of a show in London. “Barreling to the front, slapping people’s hands away when I reach for them, verbally insulting people, it’s all just not very nice.”
“I come and I play these songs because I love them and I would hope the reason you’re coming is because you love them also,” she added. “There’s really no room for anything else at these gigs. Please do not give us the reputation of being a band that has a negative concert experience for fans.”
Cain wrote that she wanted people to “feel safe and excited” to see her perform and not feel like they have to “fight for their lives” to hear her music.
“I greatly value community and love between those connecting through shared experiences and I find it really disappointing and disheartening to think that would not be the case for some people because of the callousness of others,” she wrote.
The post from Cain arrived after fans complained on Reddit about accessibility issues and misbehavior at Cain’s show at London’s Roadhouse. “Gig etiquette has gone out the window since covid and no one looks out for each other anymore,” wrote one attendee on the platform.
The statement from Cain also comes almost a year after she told Rolling Stone that she already doesn’t love performing.
“Maybe someday, if I can figure out a way that I can perform that is better for me, but the standard setup of, ‘Go out, be in front of a bunch of people’ — I don’t like to be in front of a bunch of people,” she said at the time. “I don’t like to be the center of attention 100 percent.”
Discussions of concert etiquette have been going on for several years since live shows returned after the pandemic. Just last summer, a fan was detained after throwing a phone at Bebe Rexha during a show in New York City.
