Japanese Breakfast cancels show at New York venue over hosting of far-right event
By Bryan Ke
July 19, 2022
Indie band Japanese Breakfast have canceled their upcoming Main Street Armory show in New York after learning that the venue was set to host the right-wing ReAwaken America tour next month.
In a tweet on Friday, Japanese Breakfast, headed by Korean American musician Michelle Zauner, announced that their Sept. 27 performance has been cancelled after several people informed them that they are boycotting the venue.
“We have canceled the event because a number of people reached out letting us know they were boycotting the venue because of the Reawaken America tour,” Japanese Breakfast wrote. “We were told the event was canceled and later learned it was secretly still moving forward.”
“It’s a picket line we support and are not interested in crossing,” the band wrote in a follow-up tweet. “We are unfortunately unable to move the event to a different venue this time but we love Rochester and I am sure we will return someday soon.”
The Main Street Armory in Rochester, New York, was supposed to be one of the venues of the band’s 2022 North American tour. Artists who will be featured during select shows at other venues include Florence and the Machine and The Linda Lindas.
Local indie rock band Joywave also announced that they would cancel their Main Street Armory show if the venue were to push through with the ReAwaken America tour.
“We reached out directly to the Armory and heard nothing back,” the band tweeted on Friday. “If the ReAwaken America Tour does take place as scheduled, we will not be playing there in the future. Have heard a few agents behind the scenes feel the same about booking their artists there as well.”
The ReAwaken America tour, which started in April 2021, was scheduled for a stop in Rochester on Aug. 12 and 13. The event was set to feature far-right speakers such as Michael Flynn and Roger Stone.
Flynn, a former aide of ex-President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his interactions with the Russian ambassador and also encouraged Trump to declare martial law after he lost the 2020 presidential election. Meanwhile, Stone was found guilty in 2019 of obstructing an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, among other felonies. Flynn and Stone were later pardoned by Trump.
In a statement distributed to media outlets on Monday, including Rochester’s Democrat and Chronicle, Main Street Armory owner Scott Donaldson announced the venue’s cancellation of the ReAwaken America event.
“[In response] to the outpour[ing] of concern from our community, both good and bad,” Donaldson wrote, “I have decided after careful thought to cancel The ReAwaken America Tour that was scheduled for August 2022.”
Featured Image via The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
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