Front Porch Step
During today's Warped Tour stop here in Nashville, show-goers were surprised to see Front Porch Step listed on the schedule. As I mentioned in this week's Critic's Picks, the singer-songwriter (real name Jake McElfresh) canceled his Warped Tour dates after young women (some of whom were underage — McElfresh is 23) accused the singer of manipulating them into exchanging nude photos with him. The story was reported by everyone from Alternative Press to the New York Times.
Understandably, many people weren't happy to see him when he took the stage. (AltPress.com has video.)
After learning that FPS was playing, Dan Campbell of the Wonder Years cancelled his performance on the Acoustic Stage, and several musicians in the Warped world have taken to social media to express their disappointment. Hayley Williams of Paramore Tweeted:
I still believe in you, scene. Demand better bc you deserve better. No more excuses for boys just "being boys". https://t.co/iafnf78Vyw— hayley from Paramore (@yelyahwilliams) July 1, 2015
The Scene reached out to Warped founder Kevin Lyman to ask why Front Porch Step took the stage. Lyman said McElfresh appeared "as part of the 8-month therapy program, with his counselors and all his supervisors here."
"I’ve been trying to encourage some of these girls that accused him to please file charges and not one person would," Lyman continues. "Now will he be on the whole Warped Tour? No. But it’s a process of his rehabilitation and he came in and played his 20 minutes and left."
I also asked if McElfresh had been paid — during the performance, in response to a heckler, McElfresh said ”The difference between you and me is that I know who I am, and I fucking am very proud of that. So you can go ahead, watch my set. Thank you very much. Thanks for the ticket money."
But Lyman says McElfresh was not paid for his appearance. "He didn’t get paid. I didn’t pay him. We didn’t announce him until he was on site, nobody knew he was playing. This was a one-time supervised part of a rehabilitation process. The other process could’ve been, just like anyone, if he had to go to trial or court. Since no one has filed a charge, for me it’s time to move on. He’s not on the whole tour, this is one piece of a puzzle of trying to bring people back that have made mistakes in their lives. He could be going to jail, and if there had been charges against him I assure you he wouldn’t have been here."
