It is always irritating on some level or another when a band cancels a show, or can’t play a date for which you have tickets for. Especially when you bought the ticket specifically to see that one band play. I somewhat lucked out; I had considered purchasing tickets for the Septic Flesh, Moonspell and Deathstars show in Calgary earlier this month.
The intent would have been to see Deathstars, as I have not had the opportunity to see them since 2007. Myself and a friend were planning on making the trek, but ultimately decided that other aspects of life were going to prevent us from doing so. In hindsight, a great decision. Why? Turns out Deathstars did not play the Calgary date. Reasoning? The drive from Vancouver to Calgary was deemed too long for the bus driver. This is the post from Deathstars’ Facebook page:
“We are not able to make the Calgary show unfortunately.
After heavy consideration due to the routing of the tour the band is forced to cancel the show in Calgary tonight.
Without risking the safety of anybody on the bus with too long hours for the driver, it was a critical decision that had to be made.
The band is of course very sad not being able to do the show, but hope to come back soon and make it up to everybody who had been looking forward to the concert.”
It appears that Deathstars did not play Indianapolis, for the same reason that they did not play in Calgary. The Portland date was a no-show as well, although for a good reason. (The bus was rear-ended traveling from the previous show). Having made the drive from Edmonton to Vancouver (or Vancouver to Edmonton, which is roughly 200km further than Vancouver to Calgary) in a single day multiple times with either one person doing all of the driving, or two people sharing driving duties, it is definitely not an impossible task. To me, claiming that the tour routing is too difficult is a pretty lame excuse. The other bands in the lineup managed to drive the distance. If there was concern about driving distance, why was this not considered in the planning stages of the tour? Why not have two people who are able to divide driving responsibilities? It seems like a serious lack of foresight from whomever was tasked with planning, and ultimately, likely left many fans disappointed.
Again, I am glad that I didn’t drop my responsibilities and drive to Calgary for the show. If I would have bought a ticket, I definitely would have been disappointed that the band I had wanted to see decided to drop the date. I would have been on the verge of being infuriated with the excuse given, knowing perfectly well that even though the drive from Vancouver to Calgary traverses a few mountain passes, it is still able to be done in a single day. It seems unprofessional to cancel due to the reason given; if Deathstars do decide to play either Edmonton or Calgary in the future, it makes me wonder if I should even purchase a ticket.
