In just a few short days, the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has threatened to thwart any indoor plans for the winter months — especially in New York, where cases just cracked a new single-day record. But for LCD Soundsystem, who are in the midst of their 20-night residency at Brooklyn Steel, the show must go on: The band released a statement on social media this week explaining their decision to not cancel their upcoming shows.
“For starters, we’ve all known that there are risks playing these shows,” James Murphy and company wrote. “When we planned them, we thought we’d be in better shape, COVID wise, by now, but it didn’t pan out… We know that we and our team (and the team at Brooklyn Steel), in many ways, face the most risk of getting rick, just by virtue of being at every one of our 20 shows. But we said we would play, and people are coming, so we are playing.”
While LCD acknowledged the risk of playing live shows, they pointed out that almost 50 percent of the tickets to their residency were purchased from out-of-town. “So here’s what we’ve decided: You need to make your own decision as to whether you feel safe coming to see us,” they continued. “If you don’t, you can go to axs.com to get your money back. You’ll be first in line for tickets the next time we play in NYC. We won’t hold your money, or reschedule… You just get first crack next time there’s a gig here. If enough people want to cancel, we’ll cancel the shows and refund everyone, putting you next in line as well. It’s the best we can come up with.”
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LCD Soundsystem have three dates remaining of their Brooklyn Steel residency (one of Consequence’s top live shows of 2021) on the 19th, 20th, and 21st of December. Read the band’s full statement below.
For those who prefer to stay safe at home, LCD Soundsystem are streaming a new holiday special on Amazon Prime on December 22nd. The part-sitcom, part-concert film is directed Tim & Eric’s Eric Wareheim and stars Macaulay Culkin.
— lcdsoundsystem (@lcdsoundsystem) December 18, 2021