Disgusted NYC venues say they were duped into hosting punk bands with alleged neo-Nazi imagery
Two Queens bars were duped into letting bands touting alleged neo-Nazi imagery book shows this month – until massive online backlash alerted the establishments’ owners to the purported hate ties.Juan Bar in Corona and Trans Pecos in Ridgewood were scheduled to host the bands Volahn and Zoloa on Jan.26 and 27, respectively.
Eduardo Ramirez, a member of both groups, has opened for the Nazi-affiliated band Inquisition and fronted other bands with swastika-like logos, in addition to being spotted sporting band tees of the “infamous nazi band Graveland,” according to a compendium of hate bands by German metal fest Hellseatic.Ramirez – the leader of a collective of Aztec- and Mayan-themed black metal groups in southern California – has also been pictured with the cofounder of Wolves of Vineland, dubbed a “Neo-Volkisch hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.The planned events were far from the first time bands with alleged Nazi ties have booked shows in the Big Apple.In 2016, the now-shuttered Williamsburg, Brooklyn, watering hole Black Bear Bar hosted a skinhead punk festival, complete with a crowd that performed Nazi salutes, according to the Brooklyn Paper.Trans Pecos owner Todd Patrick, 49, told The Post that his venue canceled the Zoloa show “within an hour” of the massive backlash on Reddit.“Trans Pecos booked this event through a friend who often steers punk and hardcore events in New York City: we were familiar with Salvaje Punk, who is local and has played here many times, but we didn’t know the other bands on the bill,” Patrick said in a statement.“When the Reddit post explaining the controversy with Eduardo Ramirez got forwarded to us by many people, it was news to us,” he said.
“We did our research and quickly concluded that there was a lot of evidence that this guy has a history of connections to neo-nazi groups.Neo-nazi ideology is the antithesis of what Trans Pecos stands for, so we let the organizers know that Zolo...