The Good Will Social Club ends band's set after audience members 'triggered'

A Winnipeg band has pulled a song out of their repertoire after lyrics from the tune left some in the crowd during a show at The Good Will Social Club feeling "triggered" Thursday night.

In a statement posted on The Good Will's Instagram page Friday the venue said it ended Summer Dwellers' set early after the band started playing a song it says "condoned sexual violence against women, triggering multiple patrons and staff members."

The Good Will Social Club has house rules banning racist, sexist, homophobic or transphobic comments and said the set was cut short after receiving complaints.

"We stand with and thank those of you in the audience who felt comfortable speaking with staff about your concerns and asking us to do something about it," reads the Instagram post.

"We will continue our efforts to uphold our house rules, including making sure bands read and understand our policy before performing."

'Title of the song is misleading'

But the band says it's all a misunderstanding.

The song, titled No Means Yesis not at all about condoning sexual violence, it's about childhood trauma, the band said in a post on their Facebook page later in the day Friday.

"The song is an autobiographical song about childhood trauma. No Means Yesis about sexual misconduct but not at all condoning violence against women," reads the post.

"We now understand that the title of the song is misleading and we do not in any way condone violence against anyone, especially women.

"We would like to apologize to anyone that was triggered by the title and content of the song."

In the post the band said it had thought of changing the name of the song, but feared performing it may still "trigger fans and audience members."

So instead they are wiping the song off of their set-list.

"The song No Means Yeswill no longer be performed," reads their post. "There is no recording of the song so there will be no need to remove it from our music sharing services.

"From the bottom of our hearts, we apologize for the hurt we have caused to the community with the miscommunication caused by our song and we hope to still have a relationship with The Good WillSocial Club and continue to build our relationships with the Winnipeg music community."

CBC News reached out to the band for comment but were told they stand by the post on their Facebook page.