The Cult's Ian Astbury Breaks Up Fight Between Fans in Audience

We've seen musicians point out possible trouble brewing in the crowd to security at shows, but during a recent concert in Washington, D.C., The Cult frontman Ian Astbury actually took it upon himself to interject when he saw a fight brewing right in front of the stage.

As the band was performing the song "Rain" at The Anthem last night (July 19), Astbury stopped singing long enough to jump into the crowd and address both men in the midst of their conflict. The interaction stemmed from a taller audience member in the audience blocking the view of a smaller audience member. Uploaded to YouTube by Creative Underground and shared by TMZ, the video can be seen in full below.

At the 13-second mark in the video below, Astbury drops the mic and hops offstage into the crowd. He is visibly seen pointing at one of the audience members, addressing what he just saw in the crowd. The audience member seems to take it well, and gets a hug from the singer. Then Astbury turns to the other audience member having a brief word before he returns to the stage to finish the song.

After the song concludes, the singer then offered the audience a bit of an explanation of what had happened. "Brother, never ever put a chokehold on somebody. That is not fucking cool," said the singer. He then added, "I don't want to see that. Stop crying. It's a fucking rock show. You don't like it? Stand at the back." Singling out one of the men, he added, "You're tall. You're bigger than everybody. I know, but you're standing at the front of a rock show, what do you think?" One of the two participants had cleared out of the area, so Astbury suggested that they could move forward with the show.

The Cult are currently ramping up to a new album. Under the Midnight Sun is on target for an Oct. 7 release through Black Hill Records, with the band recently releasing the new song "Give Me Mercy." Stay up to date with The Cult's touring here.