The Swell Season have arranged for group counseling sessions to help fans who witnessed a man commit suicide at their show in Saratoga, California last week.

The man jumped from a building onto the stage where Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova were performing.

The band met with folks at the Kara grief support center in Palo Alto, California to make arrangements for the estimated 1900 fans who witnessed the tragedy.

Glen and Marketa also released this statement urging fans to attend:

“At some point over the weekend we met with grief counselors to help try and make sense of this situation. While we likely will never gain the answers we need, what we did get out of the conversations were of great service to our mind, body and soul. In regards to coping with what we witnessed it was a step in the right direction. We have come to realize that some of those in attendance may be in need of similar counseling and may not be receiving it. Our hearts go out to you and we want to encourage you to talk to someone who has experience in these types of matters.”

The Swell Season also announced recently that the band is on hiatus, and will eventually be no more, though they say that this is not related to the recent tragedy.

This is such a HUGE HUGE gesture, especially since it was in no way the band’s fault.

Good to know there are still good-hearted people in the world.