Cops confront unruly SXSW crowd

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A reunion show for Canadian punk band Death From Above 1979 was interrupted by police Sunday after a crowd outside Beauty Bar took down a fence.

The duo went on stage around 1:00 a.m. A crowd of fans who couldn't get in to the packed venue gathered in an alley outside to listen to the show, dancing and cheering along despite their limited view of the stage.

At one point, the crowd started thrashing the fence that separated them from the show, and tore a part of it down.

"Some kid came over the top [of the fence], as soon as he came over the top the fence kind of went and everybody started coming in," explained Beauty Bar owner Paul Devitt.

You can see that incident on the first part of this video, posted on YouTube this morning.

As the same video goes on to show, police then arrived and stood in front of the broken fence. Several people in the crowd became confrontational with the officers, jeering and taking videos on camera phones.

Inside, the band stopped playing while workers put the fence back together. 

"It was a hairy situation," Devitt said.

Another video posted this morning from near the stage shows a man telling the crowd that unless the people in the alley cleared out within 10 minutes, the rest of the show would be canceled.

"How about, how about everyone just calms down," drummer Sebastien Granger told a booing crowd.  "Shhh. Shhh. Shhh. Alright, everyone stand still, no, everyone shut up. Put your hand on a neighor's shoulder."
 

Later, a group of officers arrived on horseback. The first video shows one police horse get hit by a cup thrown from the crowd. Police continued dealing with the unruly crowd, and some people say that officers used pepper spray on them during the disturbance .

The horse was wearing a protective eye shield and was not injured, according to Sgt. Anthony French with APD's mounted patrol division.

No officers were injured either.

One of the show attendees who claimed to be maced came to KXAN studios to speak.  He did not want his identity revealed and declined an on camera interview.

He said the riot was 'unnecessary' and the crowd was 'fueled' and alcohol likely made it worse.

He recalled climbing the fence to get water to help soothe his eyes from the pepper spray.

"The police handled it really well," he said.

 Eventually the band resumed playing even though a large group of people remained in the alley, outside the fence.

"Ok, so we are going to play one more song.,"  announced  bass player Jesse Keeler to an applauding crowd.  "But we made a deal. We are going to play this song and you are not going to have a riot outside afterwards right?"

So far there is no official response to the incident from Austin Police or  SXSW.

Devitt was not disturbed by the riot.

"It was kind of cool actually. It was a little touch and go for about two minutes but otherwise, it is great PR, obviously.  This is rock and roll," Devitt added.

However the incident does come one day after the festival's managing director told KXAN that he is considering changes to improve security next year , including limiting free events.

The Death From Above 1979 appearance at Beauty Bar was part of an official showcase, which are free to people who buy festival passes, with some extra tickets sold if there is space available.