Renowned punk act NOFX have been “effectively banned” from playing shows in the US after making a controversial joke about a 2017 Las Vegas shooting during their recent set Punk Rock Bowling & Music Festival in Las Vegas.
The band’s frontman Fat Mike has taken to Instagram to say that every date remaining on the band’s current US tour has been cancelled because of the comments made in Las Vegas, rendering the band unwelcome to play any “big venue” in the country.
“Fuck it! I’m not supposed to talk about it, but because of the comments we made in Las Vegas… every NOFX show has been cancelled in the US. We did not drop off the shows…. we were told that NOFX is not welcome to play ANY big venue in the United States. No joke! NOFX has effectively been banned in our own country. This is not our choice, but it is our reality” said Fat Mike in a caption.
The band stirred controversy during their Las Vegas set by jokingly sounding off on a shooting at Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas which left 59 people dead (including the perpetrator), and a further 530 injured.
“We played a song about Muslims and we didn’t get shot. Hooray” said Fat Mike, to which his bandmate Eric Melvin responded, “I guess you only get shot in Vegas if you are in a country band.”
Fat Mike finished the joke with “at least they were country fans and not punk rock fans,” eliciting a mixed response from the crowd.
Further in the statement, Fat Mike apologised to fans for the unfortunate circumstance, saying that he’s trying his best to bring the tour back to the US, however “a lot of people don’t want it to happen.”.
“We are very sorry to our fans, especially the ones in Austin. For now, we are playing in Europe, Mexico, and Canada. The Punk in Drublic Festival is still happening in Europe and other continents. I’m trying my best to bring it back to the US but a lot of people don’t want it to happen. It fuckin sucks!”
“We made a mistake, we apologized, and we gotta suffer the consequences. Maybe it ain’t fair, but whoever said life was. We are just very thankful that our fans are being so supportive. Thanks to all of you!!!!!
See y’all in Slovenia tomorrow!”
NOFX issued a full apology for making comments on the shooting earlier this month, saying what they said was “shameful”.
“There’s no place here to backpedal. What NOFX said in Vegas was shameful,” the post began. “We crossed the line of civility. We can’t write songs about how people in this world need to be more decent, when we were clearly being indecent.”
“All members of the band would like to sincerely apologize to anyone who experienced loss from the Vegas shooting 8 months ago, and to anyone who was at our show who lost a loved one or a friend, or who had to witness the incredibly senseless violence that night.”
Listen to NOFX’s ‘Franco Un-American’ here:
