Why was The Murder Capital’s Germany show canceled? Controversy explained

The Murder Capital, an Irish band, was supposed to perform at the Gretchen in Berlin, Germany, on May 10, 2025, as part of their ongoing Blindness World tour. However, the band's show was canceled after the venue objected to the band's flying of the Palestine flag.

Germany has recently seen crackdowns against pro-Palestine symbols and protests, under the country's anti-semitism and anti-hate speech rules. The country recently had all of Kneecap's shows canceled due to that band's outspoken criticism of Israel.

After the cancellation of the show, The Murder Capital's lead James McGovern, holding a Palestine flag, gave a speech criticising the cancellation of their show and elaborating on their pro-Palestine stance:

"I'm speaking totally from the band's point of view. I'm not speaking from our crew or from our management or anything like that OK. Its just from our point of view. We pulled into Berlin this morning, we had no idea that we weren’t allowed to fly this flag here today. We found out early this afternoon. This is from the band’s point of view."

The singer continued:

"We discussed it for an hour at length, what we should do, we came to the decision that we were not going to take the flag off the stage. That was a decision pretty easily made, but we discussed possible outcomes – what if they decide to cancel the show? We thought about all of you deeply, because we care about you deeply, and I mean that."

The singer went on to elaborate how the authorities rejected their alternative thought of replacing the flag with a banner indicating their support for Palestine as well:

"And our decision was that we’re gonna put the flag on stage. We put it up at about 2 pm as we set up the stage ready to play. After that we said, we discussed a little bit on and off would we replace the flag with a banner reading 'Free Palestine'. They wouldn't allow us to do that either. So it’s not just about national flags, it’s about political statements."

The singer added that their decision to showcase the Palestine flag and their support for the Palestinian people stems from a humanitarian viewpoint:

"To us, this isn’t just a political statement, it’s a humanitarian statement. We’ve been saying that in interviews for the whole time that we’ve been speaking about it as people. It’s not all about politics, it’s about people who are dying and being slaughtered every day, and that’s happening right now."

The singer went on to state that the band felt it would be wrong to remove the Palestine flag just to keep the venue happy and that they appreciated their fans. The singer ended the statement with the words 'Free Palestine.'

The Murder Capital Cologne show has been canceled

Soon after the cancellation of their Berlin show, The Murder Capital's Cologne venue show was also canceled, with the Cologne venue, Gebäude 9, also refusing to allow the band to display the Palestinian flag on stage during their show.

The Murder Capital eventually resorted to putting on an acoustic show at the Rheinpark in Cologne, Germany, on the same day as an alternative to the canceled venue show at Gebäude 9.

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The Murder Capital and fellow Irish band Kneecap have been at the forefront of expressing Irish support for Palestine in the entertainment sector, alongside others such as Mary Wallopers, Eugene O’Hare, and Sinéad Cusack.

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