Seattle Band, Team Disagree on Reason for Cancellations

A Seattle band says singing about Jeff Bezos being "a total jerk" ended the group's three-game residency early at the city's NHL arena, for which Amazon owns the naming rights. The Kraken suggested the group's drinking and unprofessional behavior were the problem, the Seattle Times reports, which band Who Is She? didn't appreciate. In performing a cover of the 1999 Le Tigre song, "My My Metrocard," the band changed lyrics to: "Oh, no/ Jeffrey Bezos/ He's such a total jerk/ Shut down all the bookstores/ Billionaires do not work." Who Is She? played before and during the team's game last Wednesday, in which the Kraken beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-1.

The musicians said Monday that a team employee told them after the song—which had its name tweaked to "My My Orca Card," a reference to the Seattle area's transit system—that they wouldn't be back to Climate Pledge Arena after that first gig, saying only they "weren't a good fit for hockey." When the band asked if the Bezos lyrics were the reason, the employee reportedly said, "That didn't help." A team statement said it wasn't the song but added that it requires artists to be "professional, punctual and avoid consuming alcohol during their performance." The band said no one was drunk but conceded that "after we were fired, we did drink the 5 Coors Lights we had previously avoided in the 'green room' fridge." Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy owns a minority share of the team. (More Seattle stories.)