Well this is gruesome…
According to various sources – including drummer Jorma Vik, in a now deleted facebook post – a man had his ear bitten off in the crowd of an Eagles Of Death Metal show.
The Cali rockers were playing at Toronto‘s Opera House when the incident took place on Saturday May 7.
The male audience member apparently lost his ear following a fight with another man.
Will Schatz, the Opera House’s sound engineer didn’t see the incident take place, but did comment on the crazy nature of the crowd that night.
“I missed all of that so I don’t really know what, how, or why,” he told Aux.tv. “The same time that happened someone threw a drink on the sound board. Liquid got in the board and disabled four faders. I was busy trying to keep the console working so the show wouldn’t stop. That was the craziest Toronto crowd I have ever seen. Not the usual sleepy Toronto crowd.”
“It happened at the same moment that Jesse [Hughes] went on the balcony to play guitar so lots of people missed it,” he said. “All the stories I have heard were different degrees of two guys fighting. One guy was crazy and bit the other dude’s ear off. Then it turned into stories of a brawl where a guy got his ear bit off, then stories about the ear being walked on until someone was able to get it in a cup of ice. It keeps getting more and more exaggerated.”
“A customer picked [the ear] up. She put it on ice and we gave it to the ambulance when they arrived.”
While according to the same website, Athena Ellinas-Towers, general manager of the Opera House said:
“I didn’t witness anything, but there was a confrontation between two individuals. It was brought to my attention by the medical attention. The one gentleman that instigated the whole thing was arrested and charged. I’m not sure of the charges; I just saw him being arrested. The police haven’t followed up with me yet. We called them because this is a serious offence.”
“A customer picked it up, because I didn’t know where it was,” she continued. “She put it on ice and we gave it to the ambulance when they arrived. I asked the police to follow up with me but they never did. This is a first, let’s say. I didn’t actually believe it when someone came up to me and told me what happened. It’s just bizarre.”
While Eagles Of Death Metal/The Bronx drummer Jorma Vik wrote a facebook post confirming the incident, which he since deleted. It read: “a dude in the crowd got his ear bitten off last night at our show in Toronto. First time for everything I guess!”
Click this link for a really disgusting photo of the ear, if you dare.
