The room had been buzzing in their absence, “Are they going to play ‘Pumped Up Kicks’? They’ve got to!” The band re-entered, and Foster asked us if we’d seen the news this morning. Another school shooting had been reported this morning in Seattle. More people were dead and injured. “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. It’s only going to get worse. So instead of playing that song Foster asked for a moment of silence. It took a few seconds for the fuzzy guitars and amps to fade out and the crowd to truly comprehend.
And they took a moment of silence.
The beautiful, gilded, ecclesiastical venue became a vacuum. Foster The People let the silence extend as long as the crowd would allow it. Disappointingly, it was broken by the ignorant, testosterone-fueled, blindly patriotic chant of “U.S.A.”. Our love of America isn’t the answer to violence against humanity. As Foster had expressed, we are the answer. Humanity is the answer. If we want a change, our silence must become words – demands for change. “We make the laws.” We have the voice. We the people.