We've reported on not one but two Russian Cannibal Corpse shows that were shut down. The initial report gave the excuse of "technical reasons" but due to earlier hints of protest from Russian religious groups, it's clear the real reason why the shows were shut down.
Now that Cannibal Corpse has safely left the country, they have released a statement detailing the events of what happened and it was not pretty:
"A message to our Russian fans:
"As you all are certainly aware by now, our concerts in Ufa, Moscow, and St. Petersburg were cancelled. We were present in these cities and ready to perform each of these shows but were not permitted to. In Ufa the power was turned off shortly before the show (we were told because the venue was late on rent), and in Moscow and St. Petersburg we were told that we did not have the correct visas and that if we attempted to perform the concert would be stopped by police and we would be detained and deported (prior to the tour we had been told that we did have the correct visas and that all of our paperwork was in order).
"Our show in Nizhny Novgorod also had problems. In that city we performed half of our set before being stopped by police. We were told the police needed to search the venue for drugs and that the show had to be terminated.
"These are the reasons for the cancellations as far as we have been told.
"On the brighter side, we had a fantastic time performing in Krasnodar, Samara, Chelyabinsk, and Yekaterinburg. We were able to play our full set in all four of those cities.
"We came to Russia excited and prepared to play all of the scheduled concerts, and we apologize that we were not able to do so. It was beyond our control. We are extremely disappointed. We have played in Russia many times and we love our Russian fans. Hopefully someday the situation for us in Russia will be different and we will be able to return."
So it turns out three shows were cancelled. At the top, you see a photo of Russian SWAT members evacuating a venue, here are two more photos the band shared…
The St. Petersburg Times reports 18 fans of the band were arrested after protesting the cancellation in St. Petersburg at the last minute.
Needless to say, with the situation in Russia the way it is currently, between this, the Marilyn Manson cancellations and Behemoth getting kicked out, you won't be seeing too many bands touring there any time soon.
