An entire tour cancelled over five words? That's new.
An entire tour cancelled over five words? That's new.
Tenacious D's New Zealand tour cancellation is unprecendented.
I’ve seen shows cancelled over Visa issues.
I’ve seen concerts called off because of illness.
Over the past 18 months, many festivals have been canned because of extreme weather events.
Plenty of gigs haven’t happened because of “unforeseen circumstances” – industry code for “we just couldn’t sell enough tickets”.
I’ve seen a rapper troll New Zealand fans for 12 straight years by never arriving at his shows.
Earlier this year, Blink-182 set a new low by calling off a sold out Christchurch concert for no discernable reason, then sticking the boot in by going ahead with their Auckland show and saying: “Fuck Christchurch.”
There are many ways for a concert to get cancelled.
But I have never seen an entire tour scrapped over five words.
Overnight, that’s exactly what happened with Jack Black’s joke-rock duo Tenacious D, who were nearing the end of their two-year Spicy Meatball Tour trek.
In case you’re catching up, here’s a quick re-cap: at a show in Sydney on Sunday, Jack Black’s band mate Kyle Glass quipped, “Don’t miss Trump next time,” while telling the sold out crowd his birthday wishes.
The fallout was swift.
First, a prominent Australian politician called for the band to be deported.
Then the group’s Newcastle show was postponed.
Overnight, things escalated as Black announced the group’s entire Spicy Meatball Tour – including shows in Auckland and Wellington next week – were cancelled.
That’s not all: all of Tenacious D’s future endeavours were being called off.
In total, six Tenacious D shows have been affected. The band’s tour page has been wiped. Ticket holders have been offered “full refunds” by promoters Frontier Touring.
The cancellation puts a huge dent in a pretty quiet winter touring schedule. Tenacious D was just one of three shows scheduled at Spark Arena this July, and a major rock act isn’t due to tour here again until August 30, when Greta Van Fleet arrives.
I know of several families who were using the Tenacious D tour as their kids’ first major rock show, and judging by the Facebook comments about the cancellation, they weren’t the only ones.
More than that, though, it shows just how widespread America’s tense political divide is. Whatever was on my 2024 bingo card, it did not contain a Donald Trump assassination attempt leading to the joke-rock band Tenacious D cancelling their New Zealand tour.
That truly is the definition of unprecedented times.
Given THE CLIMATE, kinda felt like an easier out than "unforeseen circumstances" to me. I imagined dismal ticket sales, but then again I'm not super familiar with their market!
New theory: all of the above - Jack had a great time here in summer and was like "Kyle bro, we GOTTA go there together", but now it's winter and they're cold and their shows aren't selling and Jack's burnt out on movie publicity and has more to do when they get back (won't have time to work on music any time soon anyway) and they just wanna have a lil holiday at home before regular scheduling, and it's Kyle's antipodean birthday and Trump's just been shot and Jack's like "Kyle bro, what if I told you I could have you home in time for your Northern Hemisphere birthday? All you gotta say is ..."
Remember when the Dixie Chicks were cancelled by America? The Dixie Chicks criticised then President George W Bush over the war in Iraq. That's all.
Personally I think what Kyle Glass said was completely irresponsible, and kind of stupid.
When you're playing to large (international) audiences you can't be a voice for gun violence and expect that no one is going to care.
Besides, when you come from the land of superpatriotism, and your President has addressed your Nation and made a plea to you - to help lower the temperature in politics... 5 words matter.