Ataris' Singer Kris Roe Implies Drunk Drummer Caused Freakout Video

The Ataris singer/guitarist Kris Roe took to YouTube late Tuesday afternoon to discuss the incident which saw him destroy Rob Felicetti's drumkit during a concert in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Basically Roe cites the drummer's drinking as the source of what led to what Roe described as a "chaotic drum freakout."

In the post which runs over six minutes, Roe -- with his bassist and guitarist on either side of him -- says he wanted to address things personally in a video rather than "send them in a bullshit form letter like most bands would do." Roe then says what isn't seen in the YouTube clip making the rounds is "the incident that led up to this."

"First of all where I wish I totally would've handled the situation slightly differently. I do owe it to our fans to explain that there's only so much bullshit that a band can take before finally leading up to an incident like what happened there," Roe says, occasionally looking at notes he made on a cellular device. "I believe in having a good time, being out on tour is about having fun. I don't set limits on my band, if you want to drink, if you want to have a good time that's up to you. But when we went on stage that night we had no idea Rob had been sitting around drinking for like six hours probably since we got to the venue.

"We walked up onstage and we were just completely surprised when Rob couldn't even play a beat to one of the songs," Roe continues, describing the first five songs before the incident as "completely baffling" and stating Felicetti would "completely miss a cue, miss a beat, not even play the song altogether."

Later on Roe said they asked Felicetti before each song if there was anything they could do to help him get through the set.

The singer goes on to describe Felicetti as a "great drummer," adding he'd never "say anything bad" about him.


"But ultimately you're there to do a job. It's a fun job. There's so many people out there in the world who would love to be doing what we're doing. I would never take what I do for granted and I love what I do. And I love our fans and I want to get that across."

But less than a minute later, Roe seems to throw the whole "say anything bad" idea out the window, inferring the drummer had a drinking problem.

"If you were in my shoes and you had to babysit a guy for the last two weeks and tell him, 'Hey dude, no more drinking, no more drinking, load your shit up, no more drinking' or 'Hey you got to play the songs, don't get too wasted,' ultimately you're going to get pissed off," he says. "And that was several weeks of build up of us having to babysit a guy. And I'm not going to throw this guy under the bus, but if he's out there talking shit about us we're going to set the record straight."

So far Felicetti has yet to comment on what happened via Twitter or some other mode.

Roe also said he "was embarrassed" for what Felicetti was doing, namely taking the fans and his job for granted.

"Ultimately this is our life, this is what we love to do and we're not going to have somebody misrepresent us," he said. "You don't go out on tour and you let your fans down and then you sit there and make me look like an asshole. What am I guilty of? I threw some fucking drums at a guy."

Roe then added that throughout The Ataris history there have been "some substance abuse issues" with previous members in their history and "there's a reason why those guys aren't in this band."

"There's a certain line that if you cross that and you can't give a good show to the fans you shouldn't be playing in a band. Where I love Rob and I love to play music with the guy, like I said I have nothing bad personally to say against the guy, that night on stage was an embarrassment to all of us and an embarrassment to you."

Roe concluded by saying he'd play the Providence gig alone acoustically. A tour of Asia in early 2013 is also in the works and finishing a long-awaited studio record.

"For all you fucking naysayers we're going to have a record out next year and we're actually going to have a record of some old material that you never heard out this year."

Before ending the video also Roe mentions bands like The Replacements and Jawbreaker -- who he said broke up onstage -- as groups who have had their onstage issues.