Architects slam hecklers after being assaulted in Australia: “This isn’t a fucking game, this is our fucking lives”

Architects kicked off an Australian tour in Adelaide last night (February 17), however the show was quickly derailed when a heckler rushed the stage and attempted to assault guitarist Josh Middleton.

According to several attendees on social media, the band were four songs into their set – performing ‘These Colours Don’t Run’ from 2012’s ‘Daybreaker’ album – when an unidentified man rushed the stage, made an attempt to physically attack Middleton and screamed obscenities into a microphone; he was reportedly “dragged out of the venue by four security guards” (per concertgoer Dani Brown) and thereafter handled by police.

Prior to the incident, the man was said to be loudly heckling singer Sam Carter, demanding that Architects perform older material out of “respect” for late guitarist Tom Searle (who died in 2016). Carter addressed this in a speech given after the man was removed: “To turn around and see someone fucking run onstage, and fucking run at Josh… And fucking grab the mic and start shouting whatever the fuck he was shouting – that is fucking insane.

“This isn’t a fucking game, this is our fucking lives. I don’t know who the fuck that person thinks they are, to come up onstage and fucking try and assault Josh or fucking do whatever they were – but the other fucking thing is, when he was on the fucking floor, screaming in my fucking face, telling me to respect Tom and play some fucking old songs – I’ll tell you what, we were just playing the fucking oldest song in the set, you stupid fuck.”

Carter went on to lambast the notion that Architects would intentionally disrespect the late Searle’s memory, continuing: “We respect Tom every single fucking day of our lives, and every single moment that this band has continued on with. So to turn around and [see] that my fucking best friend is being fucking attacked by somebody, get the fuck out of here. It’s just music.”

The frontman’s attention then shifted to hecklers and trolls altogether. “This is the thing that people need to understand,” he said, “this shit that goes on the internet – the way that people fucking talk to each other – it can’t fucking carry on like this. It’s just fucking music. We’re just up here doing our fucking best – there’s no need for violence, there’s no need to run up onstage and do this shit in 20-fucking-23.”

“Look,” Carter said in closing, “life goes on. Life really, really does go on. And let me tell you, life is very fucking fleeting – we do not know how long we are on this fucking Earth for – so I am not going to let some fucking piece of shit ruin my night…”

Have a look at footage of Carter’s speech below (via Wall Of Sound):

[embedded content]

Speaking to NME, Brown said the entire altercation between Architects and their stage-invader “lasted like [five to 10] seconds” but resulted in the band leaving the stage “for about five minutes or so”. She explained: “When the guy was off the stage four security guards had to drag him out, one on each hand and foot. They carried him like that outside and out of the venue. Later in the set, my friend and I went out to get a drink and saw him talking to police next to a police paddy wagon. Couldn’t see if he was in handcuffs or anything though.”

Architects went on to perform the rest of the Adelaide show without issue – “it didn’t really affect the band’s performance,” Brown said – playing a further 19 songs after the incident (for a total track-count of 23). According to setlist.fm, most of the songs were pulled from the band’s last two albums ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ (2021) and ‘The Classic Symptoms Of A Broken Spirit’ (2022).

In a four-star review of the latter, NME’s Andy Price called it “an album that solidly caps the canon of a band that has always quested to expand the language of 21st-century metalcore”, noting that “the incorporation of more prominent electronic influences bubble and contort under the headwinds of some deliciously visceral guitar”.

Architects’ Australian tour will continue in Melbourne tonight (February 18), before taking the band to stages in Sydney and Brisbane. See here for more details.