{"id":540058,"date":"2026-04-19T22:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T22:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/540058\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T22:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T22:12:12","slug":"the-strokes-end-coachella-performance-with-fiery-political-video-condemning-us-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/540058\/","title":{"rendered":"The Strokes end Coachella performance with fiery political video condemning US government"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Strokes<\/a> ended their set at weekend two of Coachella <\/a>with some politically charged messaging.<\/p>\n

While the indie rock band performed their song \u201cOblivius\u201d for the first time in a decade Saturday night, they showed a video montage that accused the CIA of enforcing regime change through political violence and concluded with footage of Israel bombing Gaza<\/a> and the United States bombing Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The video on the massive LED screens alleged that the CIA has been linked to the deaths of foreign political figures, including Panama’s Military Leader Omar Torrijos, former President of Guatemala Jacobo \u00c1rbenz and former President of Ecuador Jaime Rold\u00f3s Aguilera. It also gave voice to the conspiracy theory that the U.S. was involved in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. <\/p>\n

Footage of recent bombings in the Middle East were captioned, \u201cOver 30 universities destroyed in Iran.\u201d Another explosion was then shown with the caption, \u201cLast university standing in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singer Julian Casablancas<\/a> repeated the statement in the song\u2019s chorus \u2014 \u201cWhat side are you standing on?\u201d \u2014 until the video abruptly ended and the band walked off the stage. The Strokes did not return The Independent\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Strokes perform at Coachella 2026 (Reuters)<\/p>\n

While the band played the protest video for the first time during Saturday\u2019s performance, Casablancas criticized Donald Trump\u2019s administration during weekend one of Coachella by making fun of the prospect of the military draft<\/a> amid the ongoing conflict in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys excited about the draft? Oh, wait, not the NFL draft,\u201d Casablancas joked. \u201cIn six months, I think everyone who\u2019s eligible for the military has to register. You guys excited? Well, I hope to lead one of the Coachella units. The sexiest unit in our proud military, I\u2019m sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite online speculation, there is no reason to believe that this weekend\u2019s political video was deliberately cut short or that The Strokes will be blacklisted from future lineups. Coachella did not return The Independent\u2019s request for comment on the performance. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Strokes played a political video in the background of their weekend two Coachella performance (YouTube\/Coachella)<\/p>\n

The political protest, which was shown in full on the festival\u2019s official livestream, comes in stark contrast to another bold statement made on the Coachella stage last year.<\/p>\n

Irish trio Kneecap sparked backlash <\/a>when they used their performance at the Southern California desert music festival to condemn Israel for the genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The band showed a graphic that read \u201cF*** Israel, Free Palestine\u201d during their set as frontman Mo Chara said at the time, \u201cThe Irish not so long ago were persecuted at the hands of the Brits, but we were never bombed from the… skies with nowhere to go. The Palestinians have nowhere to go. This is their f***ing home, and they\u2019re being bombed from the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the performance, critics including Sharon Osbourne <\/a>called for the rap group to have their US work visas revoked over the \u201caggressive\u201d statements. Kneecap responded to Osbourne at the time in a statement to The Independent saying, \u201c[Our] statements aren’t aggressive. Murdering 20,000 children is, though. Or executing 15 medics and burying them and their ambulances.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[6225,5343,96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-540058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-culture","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}