Oxbow’s Niko Wenner Issues Statement After Eugene Robinson’s Departure, Says the Band “No Longer Exists”
Days after founding member of experimental noise rock band Oxbow Eugene S. Robinson announced he was leaving the band over “irreconcilable differences,” another member of the band has issued a statement about the sudden cancellation five shows in France last month, as well as the current state of the band.
In a post on his and the band’s Instagram stories, guitarist/keyboardist Niko Wenner posted a brief statement that didn’t really give a whole lot of detail as to why things have fallen apart for the band. Rather than try to decipher what he said, here’s Wenner’s statement in full:
“Niko Wenner, Oxbow update.
“An accusation was leveled at me, Niko, during our 2024 European Tour.
“It’s probably not appropriate for me to give details since the allegation is still unresolved. The alleged incident, said to have occurred in a crowd, involved only myself and the person making the accusation. None of the others in Oxbow were there.
“The accusation led to the cancellation of the last 4 shows of our tour, all in France.
“I have always greatly enjoyed playing in France and I apologize to anyone who had intentions of seeing us there.
“Eugene Robinson has at least for now left the band, as he has already made public in his latest substack article.
“As it stands now Oxbow as a band no longer exists. Whether this is a permanent state of affairs remains to be seen.”
That last bit is pretty drastic, as the band’s been around since 1988. From what we can tell, something bad happened involving Wenner and an accuser of some kind. We don’t at this time quite know what this accusation could be, but it sounds pretty serious.
When you compare what Wenner said with the statement Robinson made last week, it sounds like something incredibly bad happened and it made the latter musician reconsider his involvement in the band. For clarity’s sake, here’s Robinson’s exit statement that he posted on his Substack page.
“While I don’t feel that my life is being threatened, my physical life, I do feel, under the weight of irreconcilable differences, none of them aesthetic or musical, that I now must leave OXBOW. Recent circumstances have caused me several dark nights of the soul and while it feels/seems crazy to kill my involvement in that which I started, I think it necessary so that maybe a kind of healing can take place that will make OXBOW a comfortable place for me to be again. If not, then not.
“So the last five shows of the tour were scrapped and I’m sitting in a cheap hotel in Fuengirola, Spain, thinking of how the band began, and how the last video we just released from Love’s Holiday was so aptly named. “All Gone” it was and perhaps seems to be.
“So that’s where we are, and this is where I am. For the first time in just about forever I don’t have any idea of what to do. I’ve always envisioned that by bringing OXBOW to the masses I was engaged in what might crazily be considered G-d’s work. Bring me your lonely, downtrodden and so on…a tribe for people who have no tribes. Sure I’ve punched people in the face at our shows before but this was usually a course correction for people who thought punching me in the testicles was sexy.
“However, the very real prospect that we might have contributed to the misery of the world makes me sick to my stomach.”
Sounds like some real bad shit went down. We’ll be sure to update as we learn more.
