Canada’s Arcade Fire kicked off its tour of the UK, Ireland and Europe on Tuesday night – only days after a bombshell report in which frontman Win Butler was accused by four people of sexual misconduct.
On Saturday, Pitchfork published the claims of three women and one person who identifies as gender-fluid about their encounters with Butler between 2015 and 2018 in Montreal and Vancouver.
The 42-year-old singer, who has been married to bandmate Régine Chassagne since 2003, admitted in a statement: “I have had consensual relationships outside of my marriage. Every single one of these interactions has been mutual and always between consenting adults. It is deeply revisionist, and frankly just wrong, for anyone to suggest otherwise.
“I have never touched a woman against her will, and any implication that I have is simply false. I vehemently deny any suggestion that I forced myself on a woman or demanded sexual favours. That simply, and unequivocally, never happened.”
CBC Music and Toronto's Indie 88 have pulled Arcade Fire from their playlists, according to The Canadian Press.
Some fans took to social media to demand that Arcade Fire pull the plug on its tour or, at a minimum, offer refunds to ticketholders who no longer wanted to attend.
But, according to social media posts from Monday’s concert in Dublin, Arcade Fire arrived on stage to “rapturous applause” and the concert was “business as usual.” Butler did not speak much but thanked the crowd “from the bottom of my heart” for being there.
Arcade Fire came out to rapturous applause pic.twitter.com/ZyvE6JZXW4
— Marie (@Morbegland) August 30, 2022
Arcade Fire open the first gig of their world tour in Dublin with Wake Up, which is some PR move - crowd immediately seems to be on their side pic.twitter.com/Q338Ki4zUp
— Christine Bohan (@ChristineBohan) August 30, 2022
Olivia Chau of Limerick tweeted: “I was sad during the show cos I know I won’t see them again. Like a lot of people we came b/c we weren’t going to get refunds.
“I don’t know how the rest of the shows are going to go. If you love the band and can get [past] the news, then you’ll enjoy the show, but I couldn’t.”
Arcade Fire’s opening act, Canadian singer-songwriter Feist, pledged proceeds from sales of her merch to Women’s Aid Dublin, which works towards ending domestic violence against women and children.
While there are calls on social media for Feist to pull out of the tour in light of the allegations against Butler – about which she has made no public comment – Canadian writer Alheli Picazo wondered if she was contractual bound to perform.
“Those in the music industry will know/understand better than anyone else the constraints Feist finds herself in,” she tweeted. "If anything, I think people should call on Arcade Fire to proactively release Feist from any contractual obligations. She can then make a free choice.”
Arcade Fire returns to 3Arena in Dublin for a second show on Wednesday before continuing through the UK and Europe until early October. A string of U.S. dates will be followed by stops in Vancouver and Edmonton at the end of November and then Toronto and Montreal in early December.