James Alex takes to the stage solo at the Black Cat Tuesday. (Photo by Kristie Chua)

Beach Slang and Bleached announced a shared tour earlier this year and launched it at the Black Cat on Tuesday.

To the surprise of many, however, Bleach Slang band leader James Alex revealed only hours prior to the show that he would undertake the tour alone and without his three bandmates.

The Philadelphia-based vocalist and guitarist explained his reasons with a statement on Facebook:

For us, Beach Slang has always been and will always be a safe place for everyone. It was built to be welcoming. It was built to be soft. If we are going to continue to exist, we have to exist in this way.

There have been allegations involving sexual assault and our guitarist, Ruben. Although this occurred four years ago and prior to him joining Beach Slang, we cannot in good conscience continue with him. We believe survivors and we want to believe Ruben, but until we learn more information, we don’t feel it’s appropriate for him to be a part of Beach Slang.

We strongly support survivors and organizations such as www.rainn.org and we encourage you to use their resources if you need help. We will be making a donation to RAINN at the conclusion of this tour to do our part in helping to ensure these resources are there for those who need it.

Given the timing of this, our only option is to play as Quiet Slang (James solo acoustic). I mean, giving up never seems to fix things. Maybe today, we can start putting some stuff back together. The Bleached Slang tour starts tonight in Washington, DC. Maybe that’s a good place to start.

Keep each other safe,
Beach Slang

And so it was that James undertook his Beach Slang tour solo with the three ladies of Bleached — Jennifer Clavin, Jessica Clavin, and Micayla Grace — sharing the bill.

Here are a few pictures of James Alex performing as “Quiet Slang” at the Black Cat on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016. All photos courtesy and copyright of Kristie Chua.

Here are a few pictures of Bleached performing at the Black Cat on Tuesday.