Father John Misty Cuts Festival Set Short After Lecture About “Evil”: Watch
Father John Misty took the stage yesterday at XPN Festival in Camden, New Jersey. His audience did not hear anything off of I Love You, Honeybear or Fear Fun—they got a speech. As XPN reports, he took the stage and was offered a guitar, but turned it down. Instead, he started talking about the “numbing” role entertainment plays in people’s lives and how “stupidity just fucking runs the world.” Throughout the lecture, he repeatedly referenced a battleship located near the stage:
“I always thought that it was going to look way more sophisticated than this when evil happened. When the collective consciousness was so numb and so fucking sated and so gorged on entertainment. … How entertaining should this be right now with a fucking battleship in the background and this shit on TV, how fucking fun should this be? How fucking fun can it be? Can it be real in any sense? Like, I cannot play ‘Bored in the USA’ for you right now. No no no, because guess what? I soft-shoed that shit into existence by going, ‘No no no, look over here, it’ll never actually be that bad because we’re too smart.’ And while we were looking in that direction, stupidity just fucking runs the world because entertainment is stupid! Do you guys realize that?”
At one point, he said, “It feels better to be angry than it does to be fucking devastated that shit looks the way it looks.” When the crowd cheered for that sentiment, he rebuked: “No no no, don’t even cheer for that. Maybe just take a moment to be really fucking profoundly sad. It’s a lot less sexy of a festival look.”
He then performed a 10-minute improvised piece which reportedly referenced current events, the battleship, drones, and the song’s length. Then, he covered Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on a Wire,” told the crowd he loved them, and walked off stage, cutting his set short.
Following media coverage of the set, he posted a statement to Instagram. Find his statement, some tweets he sent following the set, and some footage below.
Pure entertainment
— FARMER JAH MISERY (@fatherjohnmisty) July 23, 2016
24/7
— FARMER JAH MISERY (@fatherjohnmisty) July 23, 2016
Amused to death
— FARMER JAH MISERY (@fatherjohnmisty) July 23, 2016
A very heated #fatherjohnmisty , can’t say I blame him. #xpnfest
A video posted by Elise (@beetle_bumm) on Jul 22, 2016 at 8:33pm PDT
A video posted by GSBMS (@gardenstatebeardos) on Jul 23, 2016 at 12:15am PDT
A photo posted by Father John Misty (@fatherjohnmisty) on Jul 23, 2016 at 11:19am PDT
A photo posted by Father John Misty (@fatherjohnmisty) on Jul 23, 2016 at 11:22am PDT
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