By Ben Richardson
Thirteen years have passed since Oakland metal stalwarts Machine Head promised to “let freedom ring with a shotgun blast” on their album Burn My Eyes, and it now appears that frontperson Robb Flynn and company should consider cramming new casings into the figurative chamber. The band’s ongoing Black Tyranny tour - which stops at the Warfield on Friday, Oct. 12 - has been marred by a pair of bizarre last-minute venue changes, both prompted by the inscrutable and unexpected objections of international media conglomerate the Walt Disney Company.
Disney owns the land under the Anaheim and Orlando branches of the House of Blues chain, venues that were slated to host Machine Head and support acts Arch Enemy, Throwdown, and Sanctity during stops on September’s national tour. Two days before the long-since-booked concert in Anaheim, the show was abruptly moved to a different venue by concert promoter and House of Blues parent company LiveNation, which cited pressure from the landowning behemoth as the reason for the switch.
Machine Head claimed on their Web site that Disney objected to the “violent imagery, undesirable fans, and inflammatory lyrics” associated with the band. According to an interview conducted with the Los Angeles Times, Flynn also suspects that the group’s “anti-war and anti-administration lyrics” had an effect on Disney’s decision.
If only for reasons of consistency, Disney went on to bring the hammer down on the band’s subsequent Orlando show, again waiting until the last possible minute to make their objections felt. Concerts with more explicitly gruesome band Cannibal Corpse were also moved from the Anaheim and Orlando House of Blues locations, and an Anaheim show with death metal grandfathers Obituary was canceled outright.
Official response on Disney’s part has been damningly cryptic, culminating in an official statement through LiveNation communications VP John Vlautin that is stunning in its utter uselessness: “In consultation with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, the House of Blues will provide a mix of entertainment for guests visiting Disney Resorts."
Well, shit. That’s a big surprise. Presumably the House of Blues won’t not provide entertainment, or provide an unmixed (blues-only?) selection of musical acts. Vlautin and Disney do not deign to address the important questions that arise out of this bizarre series of events, which I enumerate below:
1) Machine Head has played both the Anaheim and Orlando Houses of Blues before without incident. Why the sudden shift in policy? Was there a change in personnel, or were the lyrics on Machine Head's new album, The Blackening, specifically offensive to the Disney thought police? Is Flynn right to cite the specifically political nature of the lyrics on the new disc?
2) What is to become of future metal shows at Disney properties, including dates by Static X/Shadows Fall, Suffocation, and Edguy?
3) Why are metal audiences and bands being particularly singled out by this policy? The two venues in question have hosted concerts this year by non-metal artists such as Snoop Dogg, the Game, and Akon, neither Disney staples nor individuals very interested in self-censorship. Are these acts left alone because Disney fears accusations of racism and/or are they protected by their overweening popularity? Borderline metal case Alice in Chains plays the Orlando HoB tomorrow, Oct. 11. Is there a stark difference - in terms of Disney’s stance - between Machine Head’s vitriolic political lyrics and William DuVall singing graphic songs about a heroin addiction he never actually had?
This entire dust-up smacks of the mistakes of an overzealous subordinate being papered over by a monolithic corporation, one that can afford to be mute on the issue. Although I suppose it is Disney’s right to influence what kind of performances take place on its property, it should articulate its stance more clearly and enforce its policy more consistently if it is to avoid the tentative accusations of prejudice I make above. If the company insists on censoring or otherwise denigrating metal, they should at least be compelled to explain that that is indeed what they are doing.
Machine Head perform Friday, Oct. 12, 7 p.m., at the Warfield, SF.
digg •
del.icio.us •
sphere •
google
•
