Spiritbox frontwoman Courtney LaPlante paused the band’s live performance to remove an aggressive concertgoer from the pit. The incident took place at the Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre in Phoenix, AZ on July 15th.
LaPlante halted the show after drummer Zev spotted a fan behaving violently in the crowd. She made it clear the performance would not resume until the situation was resolved.
“Zev (drummer) is taller than us and he’s up on the kit, and he sees some f*cker right now,” she said. “We’re not gonna play another song and this show is not gonna continue until we make sure everybody out there is safe.”
She then directly addressed the crowd, calling on fans to identify the individual responsible.
“So I need you guys to be tattletales, who’s the f*cking freak that’s hurting everybody? Point him out… Point him out,” LaPlante continued. “He went that way? Well guess what f*cker, we all saw you, and we know where you are. Your ass is gonna get kicked the f*ck out.”
After the individual was identified, LaPlante turned her attention to the fan who had been targeted.
“Hey are you okay bud?.. I know that you didn’t mean to draw attention, I’m sorry to draw attention to you, but that’s fucked up, ok?” she said. “This isn’t the damn gold medal karate match, ok? This is a rock n’ roll show. Alright, it looks like security’s got him. Let that be a lesson to anybody out there who fucks around tonight.”
LaPlante then issued a firm warning to the rest of the audience regarding the consequences of further misconduct.
“Because our security, they’re very nice and they love you guys. But they have let me know that if they have to, they will baptize a motherfucker and they will tune you up,” she added. “Because what’s most important, safety, right? So if anybody falls down, what are you going to do? You’re going to pick them up, k?”
The interruption occurred just before the band was set to close their set with “Soft Spine.” LaPlante chose to halt the show at its most climactic point rather than let the situation slide. Eyewitness accounts from fans indicated that the individual had been physically attacking people in the pit and had knocked at least one person to the ground before LaPlante intervened from the stage.
Rather than leaving the matter solely to security, LaPlante took direct control of the situation. She used the stage as a platform to rally the crowd and isolate the aggressor — a deliberate, public act that made the band’s position on crowd safety unmistakably clear.
The band only resumed the performance once security had physically removed the fan from the venue. The decision to withhold the show’s finale until the threat was neutralized sent a clear message: no song, not even a set-closing one, takes priority over the safety of the audience. The moment has since circulated widely online, drawing praise from fans and the broader rock community for the directness and composure LaPlante demonstrated under pressure.
