Ariel Pink Addresses Recent “Gross” Onstage Behavior: “I Can’t Defend It”

Ariel Pink apparently offended some fans in the audience of a recent San Francisco concert. An anonymous concertgoer at his October 14 show at the Chapel—the first in a four-night residency—wrote about the experience on Reddit. They claimed that Pink was physical with Charlotte Ercoli—his girlfriend and bandmate—and at one point “pinned her down to the stage and got on top of her.” (Ercoli later wrote that the two were “just having fun.”) One fan tweeted that he walked out of the show because of Pink’s behavior. Tonight, Pink addressed the shows in a series of tweets.

He began by saying that his first show at the Chapel was “a blast”—“I got very drunk and overdid everything and wrecked my vocal chords and managed [to] offend with my antics.” He then claimed that he “toned down the ‘theatrics’” at his subsequent Chapel shows. “Sometimes I alienate when I should aim to inspire,” he wrote. “I’m tone deaf and not sensitive enough to the real plight of women these days. my behavior onstage was gross and I can’t defend it.” Find his tweets below.

Yesterday, Ercoli defended Pink’s behavior during the show. “Wow. Turns out a girl can't have fun with her boyfriend on stage without being victimized by feminists,” she tweeted. She sent Pitchfork the following statement:

Ariel and I have been together for years. We are just two Jewish guys up there roasting each other. In this political climate people are very sensitive. And for good reasons that we stand by. I am sorry if we made anyone uncomfortable but I can surely report it's all in good fun on our end and we were just feeling “a little keyed up”/rowdy to be kicking off the tour. We are very close and can play around with each other in that way, but have tamed it down “up there” in order to avoid stirring up fear. Thank you all for the concern. I own ariels ass, don't worry.

In 2014, during the promotional cycle for his album Pom Pom, Pink made headlines for controversial interviews, including one where he insulted Grimes after she called him a misogynist and another where he talked about being “maced by a feminist.”