Underscores has hit out at Houston venue Meow Wolf hours before a gig there, describing them as “misogynistic”.
The hyperpop musician and former NME Cover star, real name April Harper Grey, is currently on the road in the US in support of her third studio album ‘U’, which was released in March.
On Saturday night, the tour arrived in Houston for a show at Meow Wolf, but before the show, she took to her Instagram Stories to explain to fans that she would not be able to bring her normal level of production to the venue for reasons that she said we beyond her control.
“Full disclosure,” she wrote. “We won’t have full production tonight as the venue can’t accommodate it. They’ve honestly been very difficult to work with and have either been rude, misogynistic to my team or just don’t know what’s going on.”
“Still doing the show as planned but wanted to apologise in advance,” she continued. “I’ll make sure to come back to Houston next time with full production.”
In a later post, she clarified that the “general venue staff” had been “very nice” and “accommodating” to her, and said the problems had been coming from “upper management”.
NME has contacted Meow Wolf for comment.
Underscores is also coming to the UK and Europe later this year, with shows in Dublin, Glasgow, Leeds, London and Manchester in November. Find the full list of dates here and find any remaining tickets here.
Underscores spoke to NME’s Alex Rigotti in March, discussing how the fascination with fame expressed in her music led to self-monitoring own life. “I’ve always scrutinised myself like I was famous,” she said. “I’ve always been like, ‘someone’s gonna pick my life apart to pieces someday, so I need to prepare for that’. But obviously some of that is some mental shit.”
‘U’ received a five-star review from NME, with writer Otis Robinson concluding: “More Black Mirror than Twin Peaks, ‘U’ is an intimate hyperpop record portraying snowballing isolation, a digital-age pop star’s yearning under the limelight of the techno-infused Anthropocene.”
