Cold Cave shows cancelled due to controversial opener Boyd Rice

Cold Cave were scheduled to perform at Montreal’s Il Motor tonight, but the show has cancelled after criticism of support act Boyd Rice, whose alleged Nazi affiliations also resulted in two other scrapped performances last night in Toronto.

The venue owner, Meyer Billurcu said he had booked Cold Cave without realizing Boyd Rice was his support. Posting on the event’s Facebook page, Billurcu said: “Both BSTB and Il Motore have a strict zero-tolerance policy towards any and all forms of prejudice, misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia and violence”.

The Toronto outing last was also pulled, this time by its the promoter. The show was subsequently rebooked to Izakaya Sushi House, which ultimately pulled the plug after pressure became overwhelming.

Booker, Jason Whitney said he “jumped at the opportunity” to book the group after their set was cancelled, Cold Cave being one of his favorite bands. He said he knew Rice, aka noise pioneer NON, was the reason the show was cancelled, but that he did fully anticipate the uproar that would follow.

On the subject of Rice, Whitney posted on Tumblr: ”I have never met him so I can’t speak for his character, and am in no way defending him, but he seems as someone who has done all the things he’s done for shock value. As someone who identifies as Jewish, I would not be doing the show if I believed he was a nazi or was going to push some sort of agenda or hate speech.”

[via FACT]