Via FacebookWill Eastman, a DJ and a co-owner of U Street Music Hall, apologized yesterday to his club’s patrons for the action taken by a security guard during a set last weekend by the Swedish pop star Robyn.
On Saturday, the night before the first of her two shows at the Verizon Center, Robyn dropped by the popular club to perform some of her songs and conduct a DJ set. Robyn’s music, especially her 2010 album Body Talk, is effortlessly and endlessly danceable, so it was hardly a surprise that U Street Music Hall’s floor was crammed with dancing patrons.
But a flap erupted when a security guard spotted a pair of male patrons dancing together and asked the pair to leave. The security guard, according to The Huffington Post, was an employee of an outside security firm hired for Saturday evening, which was more crowded than usual. The club’s general manager, however, stopped the ejection before it could happen, and immediately dismissed the third-party security guards.
Still, Eastman and his business partners pride themselves on running an egalitarian establishment, and Robyn, in particular, is quite popular in the LGBT community. After hearing of the incident, Eastman took to his Facebook page to offer an apology.
“I’m aghast at hearing this,” he wrote. “While the security guard was fired on the spot, I want to take this opportunity to say that I apologize to our community, especially our friends in the LGBT community, and I’m working right now to ensure this never happens at the club again.”
Eastman continued, saying that the incident “broke his heart” and went against U Street Music Hall’s ethos of being a “supportive, inclusive and forward-thinking environment.”
As compensation, he even offered his own estimable DJ skills to the couple that was hassled by the security guard:
If anyone knows the individuals who were approached by the security guard please ask them to contact me so that I can offer them a personal apology. I would DJ and host a free night at U Hall for them and all their friends and DJs in our community. Shirts not allowed.
Also, watch Robyn perform a cover of Coldplay’s “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall” during her set at U Street Music Hall:
