Quick anthropological lesson: In the U.K., rather than flashing middle fingers as a "fuck you" gesture, they put up a backwards peace symbol known simply as the V sign. As NME reports, that's the gesture Los Campesinos! frontman Gareth Paisey posted on Twitter in Haim's general direction Saturday when the bands were playing across the street from each other in Manchester.
https://twitter.com/grthdvd/statuses/409755608930603008
The Haim sisters responded in kind with some help from their sizable audience at the Ritz:
@grthdvd played a gig across the road from a Los campesinos gig tonight pic.twitter.com/oAtw77avmg
— HAIM (@HAIMtheband) December 8, 2013
Fiery Haim bassist Este offered further context from her personal Twitter:
YOU FUCK WITH ME I FUCK WITH YOU HARDER. AND I LOVE EVERYONE THAT WAS AT THE SHOW TONIGHT❤❤❤❤
— Este Haim (@jizziemcguire) December 8, 2013
Haim fans lined up outside the venue to yell at Paisey and pummeled him with vitriolic tweets. Paisey, who instigated the exchange, seemed surprised by the avalanche of Haim-fan hatred he brought upon himself, tweeting that it was all in good fun and that he's done the same thing before with other bands. ("I just love the #banter," he explained.) He retweeted some of the vitriolic messages from HAIM supporters and encouraged his own fans not to fling mud at Haim. He also found himself a new favorite song when all was said and done.
https://twitter.com/grthdvd/status/409990293447258112
In other antagonized hand gesture news, this remains one of the greatest moments of the college football season:
