Priests at Basilica Soundscape 2017 (more by Samantha Marble/The Creative Independent)

DC political post-punks Priests had been on tour in Europe surrounding their appearance at Paris’ Pitchfork Avant-Garde, and they played a show at Netherlands venue The Hague which they cut short after being heckled by a man in the crowd. Singer Katie Alice Greer has now given a statement on the incident, which she says is “An apology for cutting our set short in The Hague + thoughts on (not an apology for) being endlessly harassed. Very tired of it!” The statement begins:

To our audience in The Hague + elsewhere, I bid you all good night and walked off stage two songs early after a guy yelled “play something we can dance to” — I apologize to the people who wanted a few more songs, it wasn’t fair to you. This wasn’t our best show for a number of reasons both within and outside our control, I hope we get to do better for you next time. I have never walked off stage early before and hope to never be moved to do so again. It wasn’t the worst thing anybody’s ever yelled at me on stage but it is the first time somebody yelling made me so tired I just had to call it a night for my own mental well being. It isn’t fair to me, or to any person in our band, to expect that we’ll continue to perform after being disrespected. We are not wind up dancing monkeys where you put in a token and we do whatever you want. This is our show, not yours. I’m so deeply tired of unsolicited men telling me how to do my job. This is one instance that affected others so I am addressing it, but there are many instances, almost every day on the road, that have no other witnesses, and I have to take a quick read on myself to see if I have the wherewithal to address this, educate someone on why this is an inappropriate way to address me or any other musician, especially a woman. “Free educator” is not my job. I am a musician. A woman/non-binary person has never once given me unsolicited instructions or “suggestions” on how to do my job. I have lost count of how many times I’ve been heckled by men. In six years I’ve been heckled by a woman only once, No nb hecklers as far as I know

You can read her full statement below.