Per various fan reports picked up on by Stereogum, drone metal outfit Earth canceled their show at the TPO in Bologna, Italy yesterday, January 27th, after objecting to a Palestinian flag being draped alongside the stage. According to fans in attendance, Earth guitarist Dylan Carlson took issue with performing while the flag was on display and demanded it be removed before the band’s set. The venue disagreed with his request, leading to the show being spiked.
Stereogum report that staff for the venue then came and addressed the crowd as follows:
“All expenses will be covered by us. These are important expenses for tonight. We once again ask for your understanding regarding this choice, but at this time it is a decisive political choice for spaces like ours, which just a few days ago hosted more than 700 people to discuss how to send this government we’re facing home, and all the kings of the world who make war in this damn world.”
According to Stereogum, venue staff then led the assembled fans in a ‘free Palestine’ chant. Earth addressed the matter on social media, stating: yesterday, January 27th:
“Apologies to the folks in Bologna, @tpo_bologna put politics above music and have cancelled the show tonight, it has nothing to do with us or @freakout_club”
The aforementioned venue have since launched this crowdfunding campaign to cover the €5,000 in losses incurred from the canceled concert. In a statement issued on that campaign page (translated by Google from Italian to English), the venue explained:
“We’re receiving so many messages of solidarity and affection, and we want to start from here: thank you.
A concert was scheduled at the TPO on January 27th. We were asked to remove the Palestinian flag from the stage. This wasn’t an option for us: that flag has always been part of the TPO’s history, dating back to the days of Lenin Avenue, and it speaks of connections, caravans, and a political stance that has never been casual. We therefore decided to cancel the concert.
Culture, mutualism, transfeminism, anti-fascism, self-government, revolution. These are just the latest of the many words we decided should accompany the name of our social municipality throughout its transformations. And just as we are convinced that there is no revolution without art, music, and those who create and work in it, we are proud to welcome within our walls a community that has once again demonstrated its solidarity. Because there is no music or revolution without community. Because joining the TPO is always a political gesture.
For over two years, we have been protesting the genocide of the Palestinian people, in demonstrations, assemblies, and public mobilizations. In the OPT, symbolic and political choices are born from its community and its history. Defending these choices means defending the very meaning of this space.
In the squares as in our space, however, we know that every act of disruption has a cost: it can be criminal, like the complaints that many of us are receiving when thousands of us were on the streets against the genocide, but it can also be economic, like the €5,000 that we will have to pay for the evening’s expenses (and therefore the goal of this crowdfunding).
To cover these expenses and continue to ensure the accessibility and autonomy of the TPO, to support the space and the people who cross it in choosing which side to take, we have launched this crowdfunding campaign.
We know that what happened is making a huge impact among all the artistic communities that have passed through the TPO. We believe the global civil war against the Kings of the world also affects music, even in this country, which has its queen Giorgia Meloni, whom we would like to give a strong push together.
For this reason, we reiterate the appeal issued by the O re O libertà assembly to artists and representatives of the world of culture and entertainment to join the initiative for an international day of protest in Rome on March 28th, with a final concert, as well as the one being organized in London called Together.”
