From Ashes To New singer Danny Case threatened a fan over a water gun

From Ashes To New vocalist Danny Case threatened a fan from the stage at the band's August 21 show at Treasure Island Amphitheater in Welch, Minnesota, after the fan sprayed the band with a water gun. Case told the man he would be leaving without his teeth if he tried it again, then dared him to do it.

By Case's account the spraying was not a one-off. He said he had told the fan mid-song to stop, and wrote afterwards that the man had carried on and sprayed them at least six times before he said anything from the microphone. He described his own response as what any rational person would do, and closed the post with a line aimed at anyone thinking of copying it: "Don't mess with performers."

Somebody nearby tried to calm the exchange down, and Case pushed back at that too, telling the fan he had the leverage and could come off the front of the stage to reach him. He posted the video of the whole thing himself, which is how most of it travelled.

Matt Brandyberry, the band's other vocalist, took the argument to Facebook and said the water had hit him in the eyes. "Imagine if it wasn't water," he wrote, asking readers to picture a chemical instead and to think about whether that would change how the reaction looked. "Would everyone suddenly understand his reaction then?"

Brandyberry also asked that his bandmate not be measured on one night. He described Case as "not violent in nature at all," said he is fairly sure Case has never been in a physical fight, and put some of the wording down to that. Brandyberry, by his own account, used to fight a lot and has since changed his life, and said he will always have his brother's back.

The band's advertised dates run to December. From Ashes To New play Louder Than Life in Louisville on September 17, a festival that has already published its daily running order, then Aftershock in Sacramento on October 1, an Australian run opening in Marrickville on October 9, and two nights at Capital City Music Hall in Harrisburg on December 11 and 12. Those dates sit on the tour guide, and the rest of our metal coverage runs on the genre hub, including a crowd crush that injured 23 people at a London festival.