Ben Weasel - SXSW Incident

SXSW Incident

On Friday, March 18, 2011 at Austin, TX's SXSW Festival, Foster was involved in an altercation with two women during a Screeching Weasel performance. The first woman threw an ice cube at Foster, upon which Foster threatened to beat the woman up and referred to her as a "skanky whore." The woman then spat beer or water at Foster, who responded by punching her in the face. A club owner, also female, then came on stage and grabbed him from behind. Foster turned to face her, then punched her twice in the neck and abdomen before being pulled to the other side of the stage by a bouncer, where Foster clapped his hands together over his head and gave the thumbs up; in reaction some of the crowd did applaud.

On March 20, Foster posted an apology on his website BenWeasel.com stating

"I want to apologize to both the club owner and audience member involved for my actions during our show at SXSW on Friday night. While their actions were outside of my control, my regretful reaction is wholly my responsibility. Whatever my feelings are about fans crossing the line like that, I wish I could have that moment back and deal with it in the same spirit as I did the preceding 60 minutes. Since I can’t, an apology is all I’ve got and I sincerely hope those people will accept it. Up front, I wish to say that I am sorry to the fan and any others who were involved. As a husband, father, and a musician on the public stage, I understand that it is my duty to always take responsibility for my actions in a socially acceptable way, and most especially in the face of confrontation." — Ben Foster.

Following the incident, several bands who were slated to appear at WeaselFest in Chicago dropped out, including Chinese Telephones, Chixdiggit, The Soviettes, Teenage Bottlerocket and Kepi Ghoulie. On March 23, 2011 the other four members of Screeching Weasel all resigned from the band citing the SXSW incident as the reason. On March 31 it was announced that the entire WeaselFest had been cancelled. In August, Weasel issued a full article on Screeching Weasel's website describing his whole point of view on the situation.