Big Thief member Max Oleartchik hails from Tel Aviv, Israel, so a few days ago, the band announced they had scheduled a couple performances in the city. That news was met with backlash given the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict and today, the band decided to cancel the concerts. Barby, the venue where Big Thief was set to perform, is far from pleased.
The venue actually broke the news of the canceled shows via a Facebook post, hours before Big Thief made the reveal themselves. In the post (translated to English via Facebook), the venue had some harsh words for the band, saying the cancelation “just made me sad for you bunch of miserable spineless musicians who are afraid of their own shadow.” It goes on to say, “Apparently you won’t enter the pages of history as influencing artists with agendas as artists of the past were. Be another band that comes and passes from the world like everyone else. I wish you all the evil in the world just as you did to your fans in Israel.”
Furthermore, The Observatorial reports fans who bought tickets to the concerts received a message from the venue that reads, “Big Thief’s show has been canceled because they are cowards.”
In their statement this morning, the band wrote, “Our intent in wanting to play the shows in Tel Aviv, where Max was born, raised, and currently lives, stemmed from a simple belief that music can heal. We now recognize that the shows we had booked do not honor that sentiment. We are sorry to those we hurt with the recklessness and naivete of our original statement on laving in Israel and we hope those who were planning to attend the shows understand our choice to cancel them.”
Read the full translated post from Barby below.
“Pay attention! Big Tip canceled their show in Israel!!!
We didn’t call, we didn’t ask, there wasn’t a producer who contacted and bought the show. This came from them, a request to perform in Israel, and that’s after being canceled due to Corona. The bds have been with us for 20 years he hasn’t changed since the last time they were in Israel. You as a whole have changed, you grew up, you became a Grammy nominees, recommended portals in the world music scene, obviously you have more to lose!!! The Nazi fear boycotts on Instagram just made you fold/scare some paid protesters outside the hall in Europe got your managers pick up their knees ‘and the solution’ let’s skip to israel let’s give up our audience where it’s less important. I’m not asking you to lie on the fence for us or fight our wars. It’s just a small and legitimate thing. I *demand* an end to the hypocrisy! And there are plenty! The world is far from being perfect and in that israel the injustices have existed for centuries and the naive or innocent man who would think that everything will be solved due to threats fears or boycotts actually your cancellation you just made me sad for you bunch of miserable spineless musicians who are afraid of their own shadow. Apparently you won’t enter the pages of history as influencing artists with agendas as artists of the past were. Be another band that comes and passes from the world like everyone else. I wish you all the evil in the world just as you did to your fans in Israel and hope that when you went up like this you will come down and become another passing episode. I learned that I have nothing but my country family and my people and no motherf*cker will break it we will end in blessing with israel live strong and no ripple will break it. And for you dear public, you will find the vehicles to love that know how to respect and appreciate the person and not despise him for making the composition Big Tip!
Cancellations will be made automatically within 14 days to your credit card.”