Gorgatron, Casket Robbery, and Voraath have been embarking on the Mechanical Necrosis Tour since the beginning of June, and on the morning of June 20th, they had their scheduled show in Rapid City, South Dakota abruptly canceled by the promoter, Kipple City Productions.
The cancellation stemmed from a misunderstanding where the promoter mistook the bands' stage plot and input list as a demand for gear and proceeded to cancel the concert, instead of trying to communicate with the bands or agents. All the while the bands have driven 8 hours to get to Rapid City. Yeah, that blows.
Following the cancellation, Kipple City Productions took to social media to publicly slander the bands, their booking agents, and the entire metal genre in an out-of-touch and extreme manner. Check out screenshots of parts of the conversation below.
The promoter's actions quickly ignited a firestorm of backlash from artists of all genres and fans, condemning his behavior and defending the integrity of the bands and the metal music community at large.
"Thanks to everyone for the overwhelming support and understanding for today’s headache/cancellation with a promoter that decided to not communicate a misunderstanding and completely jumped the shark. ONWARD!!!!" wrote Gorgatron on a social media post addressing the situation.
Story update: The promoter has shared his side of the story today (June 22nd) on a social media post, saying that the confusion was resolved during the morning of the day of, but other "demands" from the bands were unacceptable.
"The 14-person catering rider was the deal breaker at that point. It was well beyond the 200 allotted in the contract. I was already going to lose a few hundred on this show and I was willing to do that. But to receive a catering rider not in the contract from the tour manager the day of the show is a breach of contract. And the extra cost was unacceptable. If this had been sent even a day prior it would have been worked out. But to send it the day of the show when I have to load in and build a stage at 8 am is BS."
Obviously, there was a complete communication breakdown here, but as much as the catering rider could have been to blame, resorting to social media to tell bands to go and f**ck themselves hardly speaks of an attitude that aligns with the willingness to solve any misunderstanding.
