Music

Indie rockers Speedy Ortiz set up hotline to ensure fans' safety at shows

by Jeremy Mersereau

On-the-rise Massachusetts indie-rock group Speedy Ortiz are taking something else with them on their fall tour besides essentials like hot plates and neck pillows.

In a Facebook message posted earlier this week, the band announced that they had set up a hotline that concert attendees can text if they’re being harassed or feel otherwise unsafe at one of Speedy Ortiz’s upcoming shows. Kudos to them, that’s a little bit harder to procure than a neck pillow.

According to the announcement, texts sent to the hotline will go directly to the band, who will then work with venue security to provide aid. The band says that all forms of harassment and intolerance will not be permitted, and specifically calls out racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia, and homophobia, as well as “all other oppressive and marginalizing actions and microaggressions.”

“We played a big festival and I went out and about for maybe an hour and a half, and there were maybe three different instances where I had to tell someone to stop disrespecting me,” Speedy Ortiz frontwoman Sandy Dupuis told Newsweek. “I was like, ‘If this happened to me in the hour and a half I’ve been outside, I can’t imagine all the people that have been dealing with this all day long and have nowhere to go. There are people who might be stuck in a dangerous situation and fear that going to security might further enrage the person that’s causing the problem.”

Going by fans’ comments on the Facebook thread, Speedy Ortiz’s fanbase is mostly on-board with the move, with only a few naysayers openly questioning the necessity of such a hotline:

Though many both inside and outside the band’s/the-music-world-at-large’s orbit might see the experiment as a prime example of the ‘coddling’ of the millennial mind, the hotline’s advocates do make their case very effectively:

Speedy Ortiz are the first ones to point out that the hotline is an experiment-in-progress, saying in the announcement that “It’s a new system we’re trying out and we’re sure it will require tweaks along the way, but we hope in the long run it can make our shows safer and more fun for everyone.” The success or failure of the hotline remains to be seen, but the intentions and actions are noble. I don’t know if I can see an average member of venue security effectively and positively helping out (or understanding the concept of a “microaggression”) after a text to the hotline, but giving this a try is a step in the right direction.