Pennywise, Alesana & The RV Fight

Alternative Press reported on what went down following Sunday’s show at Invesco Field At Mile High with an exclusive statement from Alesana frontman Shawn Milke and a follow-up interview with Dragge.

“Just to clear the air of any rumors, last night upon returning to our bus after a night out with friends, both our band and our tour manager were attacked blindly by two very drunk members of Pennywise,” Milke said.

“Alesana is a non-violent band and always has been.  We do not encourage or willingly participate in any violent activities.  The two guys entered our bus and, without any instigating on our part, began punching us and trashing our bus.  We are eternally sorry that this event took place and had it not been for the Denver police showing up and restraining our assailants, the night could have been tragic.  Luckily, no one in our camp was injured.”

Dragge admitted that he and Pennywise bassist Randy Bradbury were in the wrong, explaining that the incident resulted because of a misunderstanding that quickly got out of hand.

The guitarist said he and his bandmate were returning from a bar when they thought they had spied the RV of The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band.

“We’d been hanging out with those guys and since it was our last night on the tour, we wanted to drop by and say goodbye. They were driving a very distinctive RV, and I thought it was the only one on the tour,” Dragge said.

The Pennywise fellows walked into the RV and when they found nobody there, decided to wait for Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band to show up. The band never showed up because it turns out Dragge and Bradbury were actually in Alesana’s RV.

Alesana’s tour manager walked into the band’s RV and had a few questions for the Pennywise bandmates, asking, “What are you guys doing here?” and “Who are you?”

Although the tour manager told the guys they needed to get out of the vehicle, Dragge stayed put and said “I’m gonna make a sandwich real quick.”

Looking back on the situation Dragge told Alternative Press that was “typical, smart-ass drunken Fletcher behavior.”

When the Pennywise band members wouldn’t get out of the RV, the tour manager rounded up some of his team members for back up.

“All of a sudden, there’s me and Randy and six other guys in this kitchen area, and I think someone grabbed Randy’s arm saying, ‘Let me escort you off the bus.’ It wasn’t violent. But everybody had been drinking and push came to shove. It’s kind of a blur, but it turned into a little bit of a melee. … We were in the wrong. We were in the wrong place and [Alesana] came to get us off their territory. It turned into a situation where we felt like we were outnumbered, even though we’re obviously older and bigger than those guys. It turned into self-defense mode.”

The Denver police showed up and Dragge said he was “blasted with the taser about five times.” The guitarist was arrested on assaulted charges and spent the night in jail. He was released around 5 p.m. Monday after Alesana dropped the charges.

Pennywise and Alesana will meet up again early next year for Australia’s Soundwave Festival. The fest takes place in various venues throughout Australia Feb. 26-March 7.

“We have nothing against those guys and we’re thankful they dropped the charges,” Dragge said. “I’m sure we’ll end up on tour, having a beer with them and laughing about it.”

Click here for the Alternative Press story.