Last night at the Matador Music Festival in Santa Barbara, California, Porter Robinson was cut short during his set by city police. Scheduled to play through 11:30 pm, the police interrupted the event at 11:00 pm and asked Porter to stop playing which, Porter did not heed. He was right in the middle of playing his monster tune, Language, and instead of stopping, he decided to finish the song. The police cut the power and accused Porter of “inciting a riot” and was nearly arrested for failing to comply. Porter later updated his twitter feed on the full story of what happened:
the cops cut me 35 minutes short and shut down this show halfway through language. really sorry to everyone to paid to see this show.
— porter robinson (@porterrobinson) April 28, 2013
i got on the mic and said “guys, the cops are shutting us down in 5 minutes. gonna play language. don’t get mad, stay positive.”
— porter robinson (@porterrobinson) April 28, 2013
the cops cut the power two minutes after that, claiming that i was ‘inciting a riot’ by explaining the situation to the crowd.
— porter robinson (@porterrobinson) April 28, 2013
the sheriff told me he was going to arrest me and seize all of my equipment ‘as evidence’. vindictive tyrant is embarrassed about the truth.
— porter robinson (@porterrobinson) April 28, 2013
UPDATE: We are now getting reports that the cops arrived to respond to a noise complaint filed by surrounding neighbors. We will keep you updated as we get the concrete facts.
Below is a video from the crowd which features the moment when the power was cut during Porter’s set. The exact time in the video is from 3:16 until the end. Although this is not much to go on, we will make sure to update as more information becomes readily available.
-Nick Ward @NickWard20
