Indie band fired from NHL gig claim it was over lyrics ridiculing Jeff Bezos as a ‘total jerk’

An indie band claimed they were fired from a National Hockey League gig after they sang lyrics calling Jeff Bezos a ‘total jerk.’ 

Seattle-based group Who Is She? was scheduled to play as the house band on January 25, 27, and 28 at the Climate Pledge Arena during the Seattle Kraken games, which Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is a minority owner of. 

The group is now claiming they were kicked to the curb after their gig at the arena – which Amazon owns the naming rights too – after singing a modified version of Le Tigre My My Metro card, which pointed fun at then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani. 

In the modified lyrics, the indie group sang: ‘Oh, no Jeffrey Bezos / He’s such a total jerk / Shut down all the bookstores / Billionaires do not work.’ 

Seattle-based group Who Is She? was scheduled to play as the house band on January 25, 27, and 28 at the Climate Pledge Arena during the Seattle Kraken games. They were asked not to return after their January 25 show (pictured)

They sang a modified version of Le Tigre My My Metro card, which originally pointed fun at then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani

‘Since it’s a cover song, our intent was to come up with a good couple lines to replace the 1999 Le Tigre lyrics to make it more specific to Seattle,’ they told the Seattle Times. 

‘Replacing Rudy Giuliani’s name with Jeff Bezos made sense to us and his arena seemed like a great place to say it. We thought it was funny and well-received. We doubt an actual billionaire — or anyone who is paid or sponsored by said billionaire – feels that four women playing a cover song that contained a tame joke is capable of doing any damage whatsoever.’ 

The band even ‘cut out the few curse words’ despite not being asked to and change other lyrics to make it relate to the hockey game. They even invited their friends and parents to Saturday night’s games, only for them to not being invited back to the Saturday and Sunday games. 

They claimed they were fired for the dig for the lyric change. However, the team reportedly implied the band was drunk. 

‘The Seattle Kraken welcomes a variety of artists to play at our games and we do not believe in censoring those artists, as is reflected by the variety of acts who perform at Climate Pledge Arena,’ the team said in a statement. 

In the modified lyrics, the indie group sang: ‘Oh, no Jeffrey Bezos / He’s such a total jerk / Shut down all the bookstores / Billionaires do not work’

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is a minority owner of the team 

Amazon owns the naming rights to the Climate Pledge Arena. The team implied the group was drunk while performing, but they denied it 

‘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.

‘This decision was not related to the band’s choice of song. We require that our artists are professional, punctual and avoid consuming alcohol during their performance,’ the team said. 

However, the team denied being drunk, telling the Seattle Times: ‘We were not drunk, and saying that we were would be a lie. We imagine that’s why the Kraken’s carefully worded PR statement only implies that we were rather than actually accusing us.

‘We will admit, however, that after we were fired, we did drink the 5 Coors Lights we had previously avoided in the green room fridge.’ 

They also claimed the team’s implication was ‘sexist,’ as their image as ‘women who laugh a lot and like to have fun’ doesn’t equate to being drunk. 

‘We’re not sure why anyone having a drink at a hockey game of all places would be such an issue in the first place,’ the band told the Times. ‘But the fact that we truly weren’t inebriated, at all, just makes defending ourselves that much more exhausting.’