The deadliest of the attacks took place at Le Bataclan, a 1,500-person capacity concert hall, where American band the Eagles of Death Metal were playing.
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Band co-founder Jesse Hughes told Vice he ran offstage after the gunfire erupted and went looking for his girlfriend in a dressing room.
“I opened up the hallway door and that’s when I saw the shooter and he turned on me and brought his gun down an the barrel hit the door frame and I was like “oh f***k”. “I bailed off my stool nearly immediately [when I heard shots]…I turned, looked through my drum hardware to the side of an amp and that’s when the second round started”.
Grief and guilt wrack the band members as they return to that night during this talk with Vice, though they say the Eagles of Death Metal will continue – and that they want to return to Paris.
“From my perspective I see the shooting, I see the pops go off, the lights flashing … and I have to make the decision: Do I really want to run across the stage or do I want to go in this room, and hope for the best”, McJunkins recalled. Our friends went there and died.
The band’s lead singer on the night, Jesse Hughes, said Mr Alexander protected a friend of his by “staying quiet and never call[ing] for help until he bled out, because he didn’t want anyone else to get hurt”.
“As soon as we get there [the room], there’s a few people who’ve been shot and who were bleeding”, he said.
In a mini fridge, McJunkins said the group of survivors found a bottle of champagne, which they held onto as a potential weapon against the attackers. “This guy was holding her and keeping pressure on her wound”, he said.
Bassist Matt, along with another group of fans, barricaded himself into a separate room, which was starting to get flooded, making them worry that the water trickling out of the room would alert the gunman to the fact that there were people in there.
According to Homme, the text exchange read: “Bro everyone got shot”. It went on for 10 to 15 minutes. So many people put themselves in front of people’.
What happened next was a desperate attempt to find a way out, even as the gunmen continued to massacre people inside the venue, including the band’s merchandise vendor, Nick Alexander.
“We have to finish the tour”, Homme added.
“At first I thought it was the PA cracking up and then I realised real quick that it wasn’t”, he told VICE founder Shane Smith.
“Although bonded in grief with the victims, the fans, the families, the citizens of Paris, and all those affected by terrorism, we are proud to stand together, with our new family, now united by a common goal of love and compassion”.
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Describing how the scene unfolded to Vice, guitar player Eden Galindo says it took him a moment to realize just what was happening when the shots were first fired.
