Watch Soundwave 2014 Band Nearly Start A Riot,

After the much-publicised drama in the lead-up to Soundwave 2014, the festival’s kick-off in Brisbane on Saturday saw an Aussie band begin kicked off the tour.

Sydney deathcore band Thy Art Is Murder invoked the ire of Soundwave promoter AJ Maddah during their afternoon set at Brisbane’s RNA Showgrounds when they encouraged fans to storm the stage.

Ahead of performing their track ‘Reign Of Darkness’, frontman CJ McMahon allegedly told the audience, “if you’re going to hurt someone, put them in hospital,” before fans began accepting his invitation to take to the stage (as the below fan footage shows).

The five-piece allegedly told the crowd, “there are thousand of you and dozens of security. Smash them. All of you get on the stage,” according to a tweet from Maddah.

The Soundwave boss was furious with the band for putting punters, and the festival, at risk for “encouraging people to smash security, wreck the barrier and fuck shit up,” tweeting that, “we nearly had police cancel the show.” Adding: “It is one thing to pull up a few people. Another thing to tell people to bash security and invade the stage and break shit.”

Really fucking clever. Risking the lives of my staff, the police, security and injuring your own fans. And destroying other bands’ equipmenr
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) February 22, 2014

Following the incident, Maddah called the band “disrespectful arseholes” in a (since removed) tweet that also used Thy Art Is Murder as an example of Soundwave’s preference of booking international acts over local artists; “And that, is why we do not have many Australian bands on Soundwave.”

Maddah also announced that the band were to be removed from the Soundwave 2014 lineup.

Thy Band Are Fuckwits. Thy Band Are Kicked Off Tour. #SW14
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) February 22, 2014

A few hours after however, Maddah met with the band and revoked his decision to kick them off the tour. “Hopefully we’ll see a more considerate band on the rest of the tour,” he posted on Saturday, adding, “they’ll stay on provided there are no further displays of gross stupidity.”

Thy Art Is Murder then issued the following statement on their social media: “apologies to all affected by our set today at Soundwave Festival. We will see you tomorrow 4pm at Stage 6A Sydney;” the band played their hometown Soundwave without reported incident.

Band dramas seemed to have dogged the touring festival this year, with the multiple band cancellations (Newsted, Megadeth, Whitechapel, Stone Temple Pilots et al.) and “pissing contests” over timetable shuffles being enough for Maddah to label this year’s Soundwave “a total nightmare.”

Despite the logistical issues, Maddah has indicated that next year’s Soundwave could see the annual event scaling back to an “East Coast only” festival, hinting that this year’s Perth Soundwave at Arena Joondalup could be the event’s first and last at the new site after ongoing battles with Perth’s Claremont Council. “We’re looking at 4 cities,” Maddah recently tweeted of plans for Soundwave 2015 – “I count Adelaide as East Coast.”

Those plans may include a hop across the pond; after a fan said Soundwave should consider hitting New Zealand, Maddah replied: “I loved what I saw at [Big Day Out] this year. Excited fans, supportive media and Government… Would love to if we can make it work.”

Having wrapped up in Brisbane and Sydney over the weekend, Soundwave 2014 continues this weekend – hitting Melbourne and Adelaide before finishing in Perth.