Wavves Crash at Primavera, Cancels European Tour

Image via MySpace

It was a tempestuous weekend for no-fi San Diego musician Nathan Williams (a.k.a. Wavves) at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, suffering what Pitchfork reported as a “self-destruction” onstage. Apparently upset with the sound in his monitors and the festival conditions, Williams’ frustrations projected further onto his drummer, Ryan Ulsh, and the impatient audience, as bottles flew toward the stage and curses were thrown from it. The “set” not fully over, Ulsh ended up exiting the stage in annoyance, leaving Williams alone facing a booing crowd and a cut mic.

Continuing the odd saga, Williams took to his blog, Ghost Ramp, to explain himself and apologize, before later deleting the entry (thanks, again, to Pitchfork for the cache):

I think in the back of my head I knew I wasn’t exactly mentally healthy enough to continue to tour the way I have been since February. Honest truth is this has all happened so fast and I feel like the weight of it has been building for months now with what seems like a never ending touring and press schedule which includes absolutely zero time to myself. I’m sorry to everyone who has put effort into this and to everyone who supported me. Mixing ecstasy valium and xanax before having to play in front of thousands of people was one of the more poor decisions I’ve made(duh) and I realize my drinking has been a problem now for a good period of time. Nothing else I can do but apologize to everyone that has been affected by my poor decision making. I made a mistake. Not the first mistake I’ve made and it for sure wont be the last. I’m human. Don’t know why I chose the biggest platform I could imagine to loose my shit, but that’s life. You live and you learn.

The Primavera Sound Festival marked the eve of a giant European tour for Wavves, which has since been understandably canceled in light of the circumstances.  All of this may be attributed to a climactic year that built the band’s hype and expectations too high and garnered them attention from every which-way after their acclaimed LP, Wavvves, was released earlier this year.

We obviously wish Nathan the best, and recommend a lengthy (and deserved) mental vacation to relax and get healthy.