News : LCD Soundsystem Cancel Final Three Brooklyn Residency Shows Amid Latest COVID-19 Spike

LCD Soundsystem canceled the last three scheduled shows of their Brooklyn Steel “You Are Here” residency on Sunday (Dec. 19) due to the latest spike in COVID-19 infections. “You all have spoken. The last three shows are cancelled,” they wrote in an Instagram post calling off the Dec. 19, 20 and 21 gigs.

“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.”

The announcement came just two days after the band said they would not be icing the shows amid a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases in New York as the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the global pandemic begins to race across the U.S. The James Murphy-led group thanked their fans for reaching out to them about canceling their tickets — and for buying them to begin with — and apologized to the ones who wanted to come out to see them during what was planned as a 20-show run.

“To the people who made plans — travel or otherwise, or who fought to get these tickets,” they continued. “Of course, you’ll get your money back, and, as we said the other day, you will be first in line for tickets next time we play in nyc.. 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 us all.”

The LCD news comes amid a spate of cancelations of live events in New York — from the shuttering of Broadway shows and the traditional Rockettes holiday extravaganza at Radio City Music Hall — including the eleventh-hour decision to air the midseason finale of Saturday Night Live without an audience or musical guest Charli XCX.

Over the weekend, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned in interviews that the country is in for a very rough winter due to the latest coronavirus mutation, urging the unvaccinated — who represent the majority of those who are getting the sickest and dying from COVID-19 — with the WHO reporting that Omicron cases are doubling every 1.5-3 days; Fauci said Omicron is expected to be the “dominant strain” in the coming weeks.

The CDC recently published data reporting that unvaccinated people face a 20 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19 and a 10-times greater risk of testing positive than fully vaccinated people who have also gotten a booster. New York broke its record for the highest single-day COVID case count since the beginning of the pandemic for a third consecutive day, with more than 22,000 positive cases.

Check out LCD’s statement below.