Soundwave 2014 Band Faces Court Over "Unruly" Airborne Incident

As you’ve probably noticed, the 2014 Soundwave tour has been filled with more than its fair share of drama.

The festival has crossed off only two dates of the national tour, but already audiences have seen a Tony Abbott mannequin being beheaded on stage by ‘undying chaos-demon’ and Gwar frontman Oderus Urungus, only to be attacked for the stunt by monarchists, and Sydney band Thy Art Is Murder being (temporarily) kicked off the tour by a very pissed off AJ Maddah for starting a near-riot.

Now the latest Soundwave-related incident sees the ongoing dramas joining new heights – approximately 30,000 feet in the air, to be precise.

The lead singer of Las Vegas heavy metal outfit Five Finger Death Punch is facing charges for an incident on the band’s Qantas flight from Brisbane to Sydney on Saturday, as FasterLouder reports.

39-year-old Ivan Moody (born Ivan Greening) was apprehended by Australian Federal Police when the plane would touch ground at Sydney airport “following threatening… unruly behaviour,” in the words of a Qantas spokesperson.

The news first broke when a passenger onboard the frontman’s flight recognised him and tweeted:

The singer from five finger death punch just got pulled of our plane by the police when we landed in Sydney!
— Rick Diesing (@RickDiesing) February 22, 2014

While Qantas did not go into details about the incident, an anonymous tip-off from the metal forum Lamb Goat claimed “[Moody] appeared to be very intoxicated and tried to sit in first class but was asked to move to his seat shortly after taking off.”

The same tip-off also alleged that Moody “assaulted one of the female flight attendants and created a scene when they refused to serve him alcohol. Upon landing two police officers entered the aircraft and escorted him off.”

Since then, today the AFP released a statement confirming the nature of Moody’s arrest. According to the release, the frontman was charged with one count of assaulting cabin crew and appeared in a Sydney court on Tuesday.” The matter is now finalised and it is not appropriate for the AFP to comment further,” an AFP spokesperson said.

Importantly, the incident hasn’t seemed risk the band’s placement on the Soundwave tour, with promoter AJ Maddah responding to a fan on his prolific Twitter account to say the LA band are set to continue with their touring duties on the Soundwave 2014 lineup.

@Misplacedfat I don’t know the finer details. Yes, they are still playing.
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) February 25, 2014

After wrapping up in Brisbane and Sydney last weekend, Soundwave 2014 hits Melbourne and Adelaide this weekend (view the revised set times below), before the festival wraps up in Perth, at it’s new home at Arena Joondalup.

Maddah has also hinted that the Perth leg could be Soundwave’s first and last at the new site after ongoing battles with Perth’s Claremont Council, while indicating that the annual event would be scaling back to an “East Coast only” festival next year. ”We’re looking at 4 cities,” Maddah recently tweeted of plans for Soundwave 2015 – “I count Adelaide as East Coast.”