Pitchfork

Still in disbelief that the kind, mild-mannered Jeff Tweedy could have punched a dude in the face at last Monday's Springfield, MO Wilco show? We were too...until Pitchfork reader Melissa Hanson sent links to YouTube videos of both the incident and Tweedy's apology.

At roughly a minute into the Woody Guthrie-penned favorite "Airline to Heaven," a crazed fan flies out of the audience and onto the stage, raising his arms above his head and, you know, rocking out. Tweedy plays it cool until said fan goes in for a smooch. Tweedy is rightfully taken aback and swats the dude's face before going in for the choke (a light one, admittedly). Totally justified, in our humble opinion.

He then gives a short speech, and Wilco picks up "Airline to Heaven" from where they left off earlier.

In the second clip, Tweedy apologizes to the crowd, saying, "I feel terrible. I don't like to fuckin' punch somebody in the face. Why would I? It sucks. It sucks, man." At this point, someone from the audience calls out ("The Thanks I Get" lyric) "we can make it better." Tweedy responds, "We can make it better than that!"

"I was having a really good time, but now I feel like going and sitting down somewhere. But I know we can't do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to let the bastards win!"

On their official website, Wilco have issued a statement about the incident. It reads, "It was clear fairly early on that security was a bit lax at the Shrine Mosque. We had decided in advance to not have a barricade in front of the stage (a mistake?) so the band and crowd could be as close together as possible. The band prefer it that way...

"During the first encore a young man jumped onto the stage and did the requisite salute to his pals. While we certainly do not encourage that kind of behavior, we were prepared to let it go, as he was, it seemed, heading back into the crowd. Just when it appeared he was walking off the stage he turned around and moved towards Tweedy from behind. Jeff did not see him approaching, but felt the guy's hands on his head. To this, Jeff reacted. As Jeff put it... 'I really regret what happened last night. I wish it had gone another way... and i suspect had i felt safer on that stage, had security been doing a better job all night long, well things would have gone differently. He approached me from behind... and I reacted in defense to get him away. I didn't know what his intentions were... and I had to get him off of me. I'm sad that it happened at all.'"

For the full piece, click here.