According to reports, Beck is pulling out of Arcade Fire’s North American tour
Arcade Fire’s first North American tour since frontman Win Butler was accused of sexual assault has been canceled and Beck has yet to respond. Less than two weeks before the tour’s original start date, it was revealed that Beck would no longer serve as the opening act for Arcade Fire.
According to Billboard, Beck has canceled the tour; Haitian group Boukman Eksperyans will now take Beck’s place. Beck has not spoken about his departure from the tour as of this writing and has not made any official announcements through any of his official outlets.
The decision comes about seven weeks after Wynn Butler, the lead singer of Arcade Fire, was named in multiple allegations of sexually assaulting women. Butler denied all allegations, saying in a statement that while “all of these relationships were consensual,” he was “extremely sorry for anyone I have affected by my behavior.”
Several Canadian radio stations stopped playing Arcade Fire’s music in response to the news. The band continued to tour with Butler, playing 20 dates in Europe, the UK and Ireland in the weeks following the public disclosure of Butler’s allegations.
Notably, their performance at London’s O2 on September 8 went ahead as scheduled despite the revelation of Queen Elizabeth II’s death just hours earlier. Feist, who did not directly address Butler’s controversy but still supported the first two shows (in Dublin), donated the money she raised from merchandise sales to a regional women’s aid organization in tacit support of Butler’s accusers.
Feist pulls out of tour with Arcade Fire following sexual misconduct allegations against Win Butler, saying ‘I can’t go on’ https://t.co/bdnb2OVRCX pic.twitter.com/9IlERRPqXq
— CONSEQUENCE (@consequence) September 1, 2022
Feist left the tour after the first two shows, despite receiving criticism from fans, saying in a statement that there was no way he could recover after experiencing any version of [what Butler has been accused of]and also there is no one way to re-educate offenders.
Making sense of unfair treatment can be a lonely journey. Both staying and leaving will not help me solve this problem. But I can’t go on. The North American leg of Arcade Fire’s tour is scheduled to kick off in Washington, DC on Thursday, October 27 and run through early December with a total of 20 shows.
Meanwhile, Beck shared a cover of Neil Young’s “Old Man” in September. However, Young appeared to object to the cover when it was used in an ad for the United States’ National Football League (NFL).