A Seattle punk-pop group that played this week as the “house band” between periods at a Seattle Kraken game at Climate Pledge Arena won’t be playing again this weekend as previously planned, the band tweeted Friday — along with a clip of a song from its first performance criticizing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
However, an executive with the Seattle Kraken says the decision not to have the band back for two more scheduled performances was unrelated to the song or to the lines about Bezos.
The band Who Is She? shared the video on Twitter on Friday afternoon, two days after playing during the Kraken’s 6-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks. In the video, they’re seen performing on the concourse platform high above one end of the ice rink at Climate Pledge.
The short clip is overlayed with lyrics to a song they called “My My Orca Card,” a Seattle-centric take on the 1999 Le Tigre song “My My Metrocard.” The song takes aim at Bezos, the tech billionaire whose company put the name on the venue where the band was playing.
Oh no, Jeffrey Bezos.
He’s such, a total jerk.
Shut down, all the bookstores.
Billionaires do not work.
Amazon has close ties the arena and the team. The company’s CEO, Andy Jassy, is part of the Kraken ownership group, and Amazon secured the rights to name the arena after its environmental initiative.
The band said in its tweet that “in an unfortunate turn of events” it wasn’t welcome back at “Jeff Bezos’ Climate Pledge Arena” to play during games against the Calgary Flames on Friday or during the game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
Kraken Chief Marketing Officer Katie Townsend told GeekWire on Friday that the song wasn’t the reason the band won’t be coming back. She said the team welcomes a variety of artists to play at games.
“We do not believe in censoring those artists, as is reflected by the variety of acts who perform at Climate Pledge Arena,” Townsend said. “However, we reserve the right to part ways early with an act if their behavior does not meet the professional standards we expect. We also must ensure that the act is appropriate for the family audience that attend our games, and we require our artists are professional, punctual and avoid consuming alcohol during their performance.
“As such, Who Is She? will not be playing the next two games. We wish them well,” Townsend said.
Who Is She? consists of Robin Edwards (guitar, lead vocals), Bree Mckenna (bass, backup vocals) and Julia Shapiro, (drums, backup vocals) according to the band’s Bandcamp website, which lists an album titled “Seattle Gossip.”
GeekWire reached out to the band on Twitter for their take on events and we’ll update if we hear back.
The lyrics to the original Le Tigre song are a bit spicier than what was played Wednesday, and they have a New York City focus, with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani as the villain of choice.
Oh, f**k! Giuliani!
He’s such! A f**king jerk.
Shut down! All the stripbars.
Workfare! Does not work.
Amazon bought the naming rights to the redeveloped former KeyArena in 2020, and chose “Climate Pledge Arena” in a nod to its initiative to become net carbon neutral by 2040. The Kraken began play in the arena in October 2021.
