This is kind of wild.
Megadeth played a rare gig in Beijing, China last night and after about an hour, the set was cut, allegedly stopped by officials. According to the Beijinger:
Signs indicate that the performance may have been shortened or stopped by officials, with one well-known track, "Skin of My Teeth," played instrumental instead of with its usual lyrics.
For a band with a 30-year career, there seemed to be an inordinate number of instrumentals and extended guitar solos. The band also did not play several of their best known songs including "Holy Wars" and "Angry Again."
Megadeth founder and lead singer Dave Mustaine's comments at the end of the show may have indicated some kind of official action to stop. "Thank you for leaving so that we can come back and play again," he said from the stage as the band waved to the crowd after performing "Peace Sells…But Who's Buying?"
Mustaine has stayed quiet on the topic on social media, with his last tweet thanking the promoter of the gig:
Thanks to our promoter for taking us to Bian Yi Fang for dinner last night. It was delicious, and spending time together was even better.
— Dave Mustaine (@DaveMustaine) October 6, 2015
China has some serious censorship laws and if you take a minute to think about it, you can see how a song like "Peace Sells…But Who's Buying?" could be offensive to such a regime. Megadeth have one more gig in China, in Shanghai on Thursday before heading to Japan. It will be interesting to see if it goes down without incident.
UPDATE: Dave Mustaine revealed the band didn't play "Holy Wars" at the request of the Chinese government.
The police let us playing there, but I had to respect their laws about religion & politics. We'll play it in Tokyo https://t.co/PyrlOOjFFx
— Dave Mustaine (@DaveMustaine) October 9, 2015
