“We never intended for our name to be provocative or hurtful.”

Canadian post-punk band Viet Cong faced controversy on their recent tour when a planned gig at Oberlin College was cancelled by the promoter on the grounds that the band’s name “deeply offends and hurts Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American communities.”

The band had previously said that their chosen name was had “zero political connotations”, and now they’ve shared an open letter explaining that they now “better understand the weight behind the words”.

“Our band, Viet Cong, has existed for a little over three years now. When we named ourselves, we were naive about the history of a war in a country we knew very little about. We now better understand the weight behind the words Viet Cong. While we don’t take any concerns about the name lightly, we feel it is important to let you know that we never meant to trivialize the atrocities or violence that occurred on both sides of the Vietnam War. We never intended for our name to be provocative or hurtful.

We truly appreciate the seriousness of the feedback we’ve received, and we will continue to be open to listening to issues and concerns from all perspectives.

With love from the band Viet Cong.”

If you want to know what they sound like, listen to ‘Continental Shelf’ below.