The Murder Capital take stand after Berlin venue refuses to allow Palestine flag
On May 10th, Irish post-punk band The Murder Capital were set to play a show in Berlin. When the venue did not allow the band to display the Palestine flag on the stage for the show, they refused to play.
The band was lined up to play at Gretchen, a Berlin dance and nightclub, as part of their world tour following the release of their latest album, Blindness.
However, at about 6pm local time, they posted an Instagram reel that showed frontman James McGovern holding a Palestinian flag and addressing a crowd in an outdoor space.
“I’m speaking only from the band’s point of view,” McGovern began. “We had no idea we weren’t allowed to fly this flag here today.” The musician then details an hour-long discussion between the band as they considered how best to proceed. At 2pm, he explains, they decided to put the flag on stage.
Importantly, they discussed the possibility of replacing the flag with a “free Palestine” banner, but the venue also disallowed this move. “So it’s not just about national flags, it’s about political statements. And to us, this isn’t just a political statement, it’s a humanitarian statement. We’ve been saying that in interviews for the whole time we’ve been speaking about it as people.”
He continued: “It’s not all about politics, it’s about people who are dying and being slaughtered every day.”
Ultimately, “it would be the wrong thing to do to take [the flag] off the stage just so that the venue is kept happy.”
They then turned their gaze to the recent cultural discussion regarding whether music and politics can, and should, intersect. This comes in light of controversies such as singer Kehlani’s cancelled shows, as well as the counter-terrorist investigation into fellow Irish outfit Kneecap, both suffering due to their vocal pro-Palestine stance. McGovern shared that, “We wish live music and arts and theatre could be free of political discussion, but with the world as it is, unfortunately, it just cannot be.”
Later that day, as the sun was setting, videos began surfacing of a show in an open space that appears to be a car park taking place, depicting the band playing an acoustic set for a large circle of fans. “Thank you, Berlin, for sticking around with us. Free Palestine,” a message on their story read.
In a responsive statement on Instagram, the venue explained their point of view: “We as a venue have a “no national flag” policy since many years. […] This is also written down in our venue specs so the artists get to know about that.”
It continued: “We try to be a safe place for many different communities and really believe that music is able to build bridges – beyond borders and nationalities. Therefore we deeply believe that national flags are not helpful all at.”
The club then clarified their positioning on the crisis in Palestine, writing: “Regarding the Middle East, we try to support the Palestinian community as well as Jewish and/ or Israeli people. We also present artists from all over this region.”
They ended with a recognition that their stance may not be entirely popular: “And of course we know that there will be a huge shitstorm under this post. But for doing a club like we do, we need to remain true to ourselves and our beliefs.”
At the time of writing, The Murder Capital have yet to respond to this statement. Their video of resistance has reached over 200,000 viewers in less than 14 hours.
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