Koffin Kats bagged by Navajo Police

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — On Wednesday night, more than 100 people anxiously waited for headliners The Koffin Kats to take the stage at the Day Customs garage, but the nationally touring psychobilly band barely got out one note when Navajo Nation police showed up and put an end to the show.

However, The Koffin Kats are putting on a free show today at noon to make up for it. The band is scheduled to be in Phoenix Thursday night.

The tribal policewoman who spoke to organizers at the entrance said that it was past curfew and if they did not shut down, the organizers would be arrested for contributing to the delinquency of minors.

She said that the police department was getting complaints from parents that their children were at the show.

Rancid Savage Productions put on the show, also including rockabilly and psychobilly bands All Hallows Eve, Kats of Horror and 12 Step Rebels, each of which played their sets. At 10 p.m., The Kats went on stage as scheduled, but the set was put to a quick end, and the fans — some who came from Chinle, Gallup and beyond — were disappointed to say the least. They started chanting for the band but The Kats couldn’t play.

“You do what you can, and it sucks because you want to play for really cool kids like this, but we don’t want anybody going to jail,” Eric Walls of The Koffin Kats said after the show was shut down.

Randall Hoskie with Rancid Savage Productions said that since he had been told by police at a previous show that the curfew was 11 p.m., he had been planning to shut down at 11 p.m.

“We even told The Koffin Kats that 11 was the curfew,” Hoskie said.

“We’ve always had shows here all the time,” he said, adding that police sometimes stop by and check around but they had never put an end a show until Wednesday.

“I wouldn’t say this is raising delinquency,” Hoskie said, noting that it gave the kids something to do and kept them out of the trouble.

“She said there was parents complaining their kids were in here. They (parents) should have come in and picked them up,” he said.

The police who showed up at the concert said that the curfew was at 10 p.m., Hoskie said. A curfew is included in Title 17 of the Navajo Nation Code, subchapter 23.