Let us put a question to you, what is the most annoying crowd behaviour you’ve witnessed at a gig? For us, it’s idiots who feel the need to film and photograph every waking moment of the show on their smartphone, which coincidently is the same gripe of one very disgruntled DJ who took matters into his own hands to stop such behaviour a few days ago.
The producer that we speak of is none other than the innovative EDM pioneer, Richie Hawtin, who was performing a set in New York City a part of Time Warp over the weekend. During his set, Hawtin noticed a punter to his side propped-up above the rest of the audience, filming both his set and the crowd.
Clearly pissed off, Hawtin, without any real warning (from what footage shows) proceeded to push an entire speaker in the direction of the woman, to which it toppled off the stage and fell straight into her, as Stereogum report.
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Ironically, this was all caught on film by another member of the crowd, and has since circulated the internet like wildfire, many calling-out Hawtin for a dangerous and nonsensical action.
Hawtin has spoken on the issue, stating that he had no intention for the speaker to fall on the woman. You can read his full apology posted on his Facebook:
Did Ritchie go too far? Or is this sort of out of character action a sign (albeit, inappropriate) that more restrictions need to be placed on the use of smartphones at live music events?
The case of Hawtin is not the first of its kind, with this year alone seeing a rock legend furious with smartphone usage, as well as more drastic of a band calling on the crowd to “beat up a fan” for using their phone at a gig.
Watch the fan-filmed video of the incident here:
