Band changed their mind after initially posting the shows would go on as planned

LCD Soundsystem has canceled the final three shows of its 20 show Brooklyn Steel residency due to concerns over the omicron COVID-19 variant. The band shared the news on Sunday (Dec 19th), which was the first of the final three.

“You all have spoken. The last three shows are canceled. You good people who want to return your tickets and try again another time have spoken, but so has the new info, the hospital capacity, and those of us in the band, crew and venue. We certainly had enough cancellations to make the vote count, but we also, now with all the new info, want to stop for our own sakes,” a statement reads.

“We tried. We really did. We were heartened to see so many more masks at the last show. We were incredibly thankful for everyone who wanted to make it work. But it will have to wait, again, until we find out what this new wave means to all of us.”

Two days prior, the band shared it was performing the final shows, despite the risks as well as upsetting some as COVID cases rise again. However, the band was leaving it up to the fans to make their own decisions about attending.

“For starters, we’ve all known that there are risks playing these shows. When we planned them, we thought we’d be in better shape, COVID wise, but it didn’t pan out, so we’ve been in a bubble together for months, our families, our crew. But we play in a room of thousands every night, so we know there are riskis. We know that we and our team (and the team at Brooklyn Steel), in many ways, face the most risk of getting sick, just by virtue of being at one of the our 20 shows,” they shared on December 17th.

“But we said we would play, and people are coming, so we are playing.

“But let’s be very, very clear — we are not saying by playing that we think it’s not a place you can catch COVID or anything else, really. It’s become clear that more and more people use soft data like ‘See? This sports team is playing in front of fans!’ to assess whether something is risky or not. I get it, but that seems nuts. Us playing the show is in no way an indicator that it’s safe to attend.”

“Yesterday, we all got to the venue and talked about cancelling. I was almost sure we would, but it seemed very last minute. We talked about asking/requiring guests to wear masks (which we did, to very little effect). We talked about how people were going to very, very angry at us regardless of what we did. We learned that almost 50% of the tickets bought were from out of town, so there are people who’ve traveled, booked hotels, etc., to see us. They would likely be very, very irate if we cancelled all of the sudden, There are people who are angry at us for playing, as well.

“You need to make your own decision as to whether you feel safe coming to see us. If you don’t, you can go to axs.com to get your money back. You’ll be the 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.

“Please, please, please do what’s best for you, your health, your families and your community. We’ve all had to think about that a lot. We will play again, so don’t worry about these particular shows.”

Ticket holders to the Brooklyn Steel shows that were either canceled or decided against attending will be refunded and get first allotment of a future New York City area show.

LCD kicked off the residency on November 23rd. The shows were their first since 2017.

The omicron variant is becoming the dominant COVID-19 strain. Due to rising cases, Jingle Ball Miami canceled the Sunday concert, and Coldplay, Jonas Brothers and Megan Thee Stallion were forced to cancel performances due to positive cases within their camps. Doja Cat and Lil Nas X also revealed they each tested positive and pulled out of the Jingle Ball Tour last week. Also, Charli XCX canceled her Saturday Night Live appearance on December 18th due to rising cases. Many Broadway productions also returned to silence following positive cases within their camps.