GOATWHORE – Austin, Texas, U.S.A. 2022

GOATWHORE – Come And Take It Live, Austin, Texas, U.S.A. April 30, 2022

Purveyors of Satanic madness, GOATWHORE came to Austin, Texas with BRUJERIA. Unfortunately, due to over zealous, overly aggressive staff at Come and Take It Live and C3, I don’t have much coverage to give you, the reader.

The night started out with immediate problems. Two workers from c3 security firm were overly aggressive at the door. They weren’t aware of the press pass system where I have to go inside with my camera to get my press pass. One worker was very aggressive, one I didn’t know, since everyone who works there knows who I am, I asked him “are you new hear?” He became extremely aggressive and one of the security guards for Come and Take It immediately became aggressive with me, telling me to “cool it.”

I was unhappy with how I was treated trying to get in and told the stage manager and issuer of the pass, the door lady, about their mistreatment. The door lady said she would take care of it. The overtly aggressive member of C3 was taken out of the door security and given more responsibility as securing the back stage area. I was back there with the stage manager and I had a photographer shooting the side stage. Unfortunately, due to poor lighting, none of those photos were worthy of sharing in this article.

I figured it was ok to go back stage and shoot. I was shooting GOATWHORE’s last song of the night and the C3 guy, after repeatedly asking for our passes, accosted me again asking for my pass. I told him we had already gone over that. Then he impeded my video shoot and became very aggressive, getting in my face and yelling for me to “GET THE FUCK OUT!!!” I told him I’m a journalist and to get out of my face. I asked if he were kicking me out and he said yes, so I moved away from the backstage area to near the front to finish my coverage.

Watch the video here on SKOTOSE’s Instagram page and decide for yourself if these measures were unnecessarily aggressive and triggering to any person, especially a disabled person like myself. Notice his aggressive hand gesturing and proximity. His hand nearly strikes my phone and he is so close that my phone camera goes blurry and shows only a small part of his upper body.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CdFkVYilY0H/

Then, I immediately went to the door lady and told her I was assaulted. Then  the CATL staff member asked if I were accredited and she said yes. Then the overly aggressive Bama got in my space and then assaulted me. He grabbed me by my vest top and tried to literally throw me out the door, which would have caused serious injury. I am a master martial artist, so I pulled guard. He still slammed me to the ground, injuring my back and punched me in the jaw. The door lady grabbed his arm and told him to stop.

Then the head of security at Come and Take It Live treated me like I was the issue and was aggressive in his proximity. This was after I took fifteen minutes to get off the ground. My back and neck and jaw were extremely sore. The club told me to get off their property. They didn’t call the police when I said I wished to press charges and told me to get off their property. So I hobbled over to the gas station next door and called the police. I pressed charges against this person and apparently he was arrested (I don’t know because the police officers never notified me.)

This was the worst concert experience of my life. I was harassed and assaulted numerous times because I was doing my job. C3 had no clue who I was, even though I’m a prominent journalist in the area and have promoted CATL for a decade. C3 and Come and Take It impeded my job, my First Amendment right to press and physically assaulted me. Now I am banned from the club for being assaulted. Journalists or anyone in this regard should not be treated this way. I feel like all my promo for the club was a waste of time. Their security measures are draconian, and some people have expressed to me that this, and them making bands pay to play keeps them away from the club. The club is hot, small, their security is aggressive and the off-limit areas in the club change from show to show, so you never know if you are supposed to be upstairs or not.

This was not the first time, as in 2017 I was verbally assaulted on two separate occasions. I will never go back to that club and I will post the truth, as you can see in the above-mentioned video.