It's hard enough going on tour as it is, but the Trump administration certainly isn't making it any easier for bands trying to play across the US -- particularly if those bands are not from here. In the past few days, the French electronic band Yelle and the Canadian rocker Matthew Good have both canceled their upcoming US tour dates, citing the country's current political climate.
Yelle had a handful of US tour dates and one Montreal show scheduled this fall celebrating 20 years since their formation. "There are multiple reasons why we came to this decision," the band wrote on Instagram Wednesday. "The current political climate in the US, especially in regard to immigration and freedom of speech, is very worrying. We are now traveling as a family with our young child, so more than ever, we need to feel safe. In addition, the overall costs of this tour are becoming barely possible to balance and it is putting a great financial burden on us."
Good shared a statement on his own social media last week announcing he was canceling his US tour, explaining the financial stressors of touring internationally right now. "This is not fair to [US fans], and I’m very well aware of that, but the truth is, every week that goes by, I have a deeper disdain for what’s going on there politically," he wrote. "Recently, it was announced that after a year of an imposed digital services tax, we (Canada) are backing down from that, to appease Mr. Trump’s government. This was approximately 2 billion dollars in revenue that has been accumulating, and we’re walking away from that."
He continued: "Add to that, the massive increase in visa costs, the fear mongering that even after we have our visas, we may still be denied entry if we have something negative to say about the current GOP, and I end up in a situation where I’m biting my tongue, and losing what credibility I had to stand up and say something. Myself, and my band will lose a week’s worth of work, and that really hurts, but giving up 30% of our earnings to a withholding tax, walking on eggshells at the border, and actively participating in the silencing of opinions, is a bigger cost to me personally."
Earlier this year, Montreal singer-songwriter Bells Larsen also had to cancel his US shows due to anti-trans policies that prevented him from obtaining a visa. Also this morning, Steve Miller Band canceled their US tour dates due to the threat of extreme weather; he didn't point fingers at climate change-denying right-wing policymakers for that, but I sure will! See Yelle and Good's posts below.
