Eagles of Death Metal performing at Le Bataclan last night, via Instagram

Several victims of last night’s fatal attack on an Eagles of Death Metal concert in Paris have been identified. 

Nick Alexander, who was running merch sales for the group, has been confirmed dead by the British Foreign Office, the BBC reports. Best Coast, who worked with Nick Alexander during a recent European tour, tweeted, “RIP Nick Alexander. It was a pleasure to share laughs + tour with you.” They also shared a link to a Go Fund Me memorial fund. The Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney told Rolling Stone, “[Alexander] was a really organized, super hard worker, really funny. I remember him always very content with being on tour. It was what seems to make him the happiest … He was just a sweetheart, that guy.” Fall Out Boy guitarist Joe Trohman tweeted, ”Just found out Nick Alexander was one of the people murdered last night in Paris. Great guy. I’m horrified.”

Guillaume B. Decherf, a 43-year-old French reporter for Les Inrockuptibles, was also killed, according to Les Inrocks’ website. He recently reviewed Eagles of Death Metal’s Zipper Down for the site.

Mercury Records staff member Thomas Ayad also died, Universal Music Group chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge confirmed in a note to staffers obtained by Billboard. Grainge’s statement did not say whether other Universal employees were among the dead, though the BBC reported earlier today (via regional news) that two of Ayad’s colleagues had also been killed.

Update 11/14 5:41 p.m.: MGMT, who knew three people at last night’s concert, including Nick Alexander, have released a statement about the attack via Facebook. Read excerpts below:

Delphine, our wonderful record label French bulldog, who fought tooth and nail for us to do the things we wanted to do; to be crazy; to go on French TV wearing Thanksgiving costumes with a vat of pudding; who took us to marvelous places in Paris; she was at Le Bataclan. She is okay. Unharmed somehow.

Arnaud, part of the pair of French live music promoters who saw us play a show at Glasslands in NYC in 2007 and said “we want to bring you to France”. They did. Arnaud and his partner Pascal placed a big bet on us and we have never forgotten. Arnaud was shot in the chest last night. We have heard he made it to the hospital, had surgery and will survive.

And we also just found out Nick Alexander, who was one of the top crew members and merch sellers MGMT has had and one of the nicest guys in rock. He sold merch for us on our two European tours in the Fall of 2010, including those three nights at Le Bataclan. We are crushed to find out Nick is one of the victims of last night’s insanity who didn’t make it. If you have a t-shirt from that tour, wear it proudly to honor Nick.

Update 11/14 10:02 p.m.: The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach was playing at Le Trianon in Paris with his band the Arcs last night during the attacks. He spoke with Rolling Stone about finding out the news after the show, having “survivors’ remorse,” his relationship with Nick Alexander, and more. Read an excerpt below:

We had gotten offstage at Le Trianon last night when the news started to trickle in. We heard sirens, but we didn’t know what was going on. People started telling us there was a shooting. Then I heard there was a bombing at the Eagles of Death Metal concert. I said, “Are you kidding?” I texted [Eagles of Death Metal member] Josh Homme and I said, “Are you alright?” He said, “Yeah, I’m in L.A. Why?” I didn’t put two and two together that he didn’t tour with them. So I said, “Oh thank God, I just heard a horrible story.” Then it turned out to be true. It’s just awful.

We were playing a club almost the same as the Eagles of Death Metal: a 1,500-seat, 150-year-old theater [three] miles away from them, an American band. It’s crazy. They locked down the building. We were there for about an hour. We heard there were still gunmen on the loose. We knew there were two separate hostage situations. We were on a balcony. We had a good vantage point. We were hunkered down listening for gunshots. We had people guarding all the doors, which were all locked up. We saw the helicopters flying above us; police cars just screaming by.

Our tour manager made the decision to get us all out of there, even though the president said that the borders were closed. So at midnight, we made a break for the bus and just hopped on and rolled out of town fairly easily and made it all the way to Milan without any trouble. We saw a lot of police cars and ambulances. There were a lot of people in the street, just looking, looking around. People seemed to be in disbelief.