Music venue 013 in Tilburg has cancelled an upcoming show by British punk rap duo Bob Vylan in the wake of the backlash over the band’s comments on stage in Amsterdam.
The Dutch-Jewish research institute CIDI called on people who attended the concert at Paradiso on Saturday to file police complaints after the band’s singer chanted “death to the IDF”.
Bobby Vylan also dedicated one of the songs to the right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead in Utah last week, calling Kirk a “piece of shit” and commenting: “If you chat shit, you get banged”.
In a statement, 013’s management said Bob Vylan had “clearly crossed a line” and accused the band of ”trivialising political murder”.
Bob Vylan had been due to perform at Paradiso in July, but the show was postponed after two masked men held up a banner outside the venue with the slogan: “If Bob Vylan plays that night, Amsterdam will stand and fight.”
Bob Vylan’s next scheduled performance at Doornroosje on Monday is still due to go ahead, but venue manager Joris Holter said he would be talking to the artist about the content of the show.
“Glorifying murder”
“We can’t simply let the show go ahead, but I don’t want to cancel it either. That’s too easy,” Holter told NOS.
“Glorifying a political murder is unacceptable,” he added. “I was really pissed at those guys. It doesn’t help one bit.”
Bob Vylan posted a response on social media site X, better known as Twitter, denying that the band had celebrated Kirk’s death.
“I did call him a piece of shit,” he said. “That much is true. But at no point was his death celebrated. If it was, go find me a quote.”
Calm down. pic.twitter.com/k6jeeedRvB
— Bob Vylan (@BobbyVylan) September 14, 2025
The band sparked outrage at the Glastonbury festival in England in June by chanting “death to the IDF” in a televised performance. The BBC said it had received nearly 3,400 complaints and a police investigation is ongoing.
Dutch police said they would discuss the complaints against Bob Vylan with the public prosecution service, who will decide whether to bring charges.
Amsterdam’s mayor, Femke Halsema, said she would await the prosecution service’s decision, but said in a post on Bluesky: “Artistic freedom doesn’t mean that concert-goers or Amsterdammers should ever threatened or face calls to hatred or violence.”
