During The Warning’s European tour stop at Skaters Palace in Münster/Germany, drummer Paulina “Pau” Villarreal collapsed on stage while performing the song “Disciple”.
Videos from the show capture the alarming moment in detail: Poor Paulina had just started singing the second verse of the song when she suddenly stopped mid-lyric and sank forward, her head coming to rest on the rack drums in front of her. It’s chilling to imagine what could have happened had she fallen backward instead, landing on the back of her head on the hard floor of the drum riser, which could have resulted in a far more serious injury.
While Pau was quickly carried off stage, the incident caused immediate concern among fans and her sisters/bandmates, Daniela and Alejandra. Anyway, the remaining two decided to continue the show alone, playing the songs “When i’m alone” and “Kerosene” only with bass and guitar.
According to reports from attendees and Paulina’s own statement on Instagram, she had been feeling ill prior to taking the stage, didn’t attend the meet & greet, but decided to perform anyway out of commitment to the fans. The combination of her illness and the heat ultimately led to her fainting during the high-energy performance.
Paulina later reassured fans through social media that she was feeling better and resting. But unfortunately Pau wasn’t getting better…
CanceLled “The Warning” Show
Due to Paulina’s illness, The Warning had to cancel their show at the Werchter Festival in Belgium on July 3.
But the remaining shows of the Europe Tour are still listed. That’s a good sign, Paulina does already feel better. Let’s hope for the best.
Tour Life is hard!
This is a sad reminder of what circumstances touring bands have to go through. Constant traveling across continents, change of time zones, jet lag, food poisoning due to different bacteria, heavy scheduling and…
Potentially risky Meet & Greet Parties! I know it’s expensive to get access to M&G and it’s so exciting to meet the band. But act responsible and don’t go if you’re sick! At least wear a mask, wash your hands and don’t sneeze around. This is probably how Paulina got the flu.
The Venue and the “Heat”
I never heard of Skaters Palace before, since Münster isn’t the first city international Rockbands wanna go to. I wasn’t there that evening, but reviews online stated that this location isn’t the best for rock concerts.
But what does that have to do with Paulina’s illness? Well, in Videos of that show i can see big pieces of dust and dirt flying through the air. It doesn’t look healthy. It makes me wonder how the backstage area looked. How are the toilets? The catering? I’m not saying anything, just wondering.
Now about that “Heat Wave” rumours everybody talks about. Again, i wasn’t there and don’t know how warm it was inside the venue…
But one thing i can tell you for sure: On July 1 that big heat wave was already over for a couple of days and temperatures were back to normal, talking about super cozy 25°C.
Keep on rocking, Pau!
So, i think Paulina’s incident was caused by a combination of things: Stressful Tour Life + Uncured Flu + A really bad day 😉
I hope Pau will be back on stage really soon, because cancelling shows is the worst nightmare for every band.
But health always comes first.