24-year-old concertgoer Bird Piché suffered a devastating crowd injury while attending an April 30th Trophy Eyes show at Mohawk Place in Buffalo, NY. During that concert, Trophy Eyes‘ vocalist John Floreani jumped backwards from the stage into the crowd, landing directly on top of Piché, along with several other concertgoers.
As a result Piché, suffered a traumatic spinal cord injury that left her partially paralyzed in the immediate aftermath, with a lengthy recovery process following. Piché‘s mother initially told local news outlet WKBW just after the incident that her daughter had suffered a broken neck from Floreani‘s stage dive.
In light of the incident, over $88,000 was raised via crowdfunding for Piché. Among those to contribute were Trophy Eyes, who offered up $5,000. Mohawk Place also contributed $500 to the cause. Unconfirmed initial reports also indicated that Floreani rode along in the ambulance with Piché to the hospital.
Per a May 2025 report, Piché was hopeful to eventually make a full recovery. However, her complaint, which was filed on November 12th of this year in Buffalo, NY, makes mention of her suffering permanent injury from the incident. While an update on her current health doesn’t appear to have been provided, Piché told NBC News this past May of her condition after the incident:
“…They do think I’ll have full recovery. Nothing is certain, obviously, but they are predicting l will have full recovery of everything. So my legs, it’s involuntary, have been kicking a lot lately. I can’t control it. My arms, they’re — besides my hand dexterity — almost fully there. My fingers don’t have full movement.”
Piché‘s complaint names John Floreani, Trophy Eyes, Mohawk Place and the aforementioned concert’s promoter, After Dark Entertainment, Inc., as defendants. Her suit alleges negligence on their parts in allowing the injury to occur. She is currently seeking judgment on an undisclosed amount in damages for the incident. WGRZ have republished her complaint online in full, should you want to delve in further.
On May 03rd, several days after the incident at the Buffalo, NY concert, Trophy Eyes issued the below statement on the matter:
“As the result of a tragic accident on the night of April 30th, a Trophy Eyes fan was injured at our Buffalo NY show. We elected to immediately shut down the show as John accompanied them to the hospital with their family.
Out of respect for the family, we have refrained from speaking about this publicly so far, but with the blessing of their family we are now able to say how truly heartbroken we are to be here now. Our friend, Bird, is now in recovery, but still has a long road ahead for them. A gofundme has been set up by their family… [donate]
This situation has shaken us all to our core, and we ask for patience while we look to help Bird navigate this difficult time. Please, keep Bird in your thoughts. We remain in close contact with them and will expand on this as new news arrives.
Yours faithfully, Trophy Eyes“
In 2023, Trophy Eyes‘ penchant for encouraging crowd dives made headlines. A fan upset about the matter took to social media to call out the group, stating:
“First time I ever heard of you guys was the concert in Atlanta tonight and the lead singer kept encouraging mosh pits and crowd surfing, which made the majority of us, who were there for Against the Current, feel very unsafe and have to go to the sidelines, which is not fair because we were there before your crazy fans.
I almost had a panic attack. I didn’t even get the chance to find out if I liked your songs because I had to keep worrying about getting kicked in the head.”
Trophy Eyes directly replied on that post via social media, responding “fuck you.” Their terse response quickly went viral, with the band later immortalizing the moment, selling a shirt that featured a screencap of that exchange with the name of the upset concertoger redacted.
Meanwhile, Mohawk Place have been said to have long enforced a no stage diving/crowd surfing policy at their shows due to a 2011 incident. The particular incident saw the venue named as a defendant in a civil lawsuit after a man attending a Terror & Trapped Under Ice show was injured at the venue.
That concertgoer was said to suffered a broken C5 and C6 vertebrae due to that accident and his resulting lawsuit reportedly put the club’s future in jeopardy at the time.
Footage of Floreani‘s aforementioned stage dive at the heart of this lawsuit remains online and can be seen below. In that clip, Piché is understood to be the concertgoer standing close to the front of the stage with pink curly hair.
