US Metal Band Cancel Show After Being Told Their Guns Were Not Welcome At Venue

Michigan metal quintet King 810 have cancelled a show over a venue's weapons policy — their second performance to fall through in the space of a fortnight over gun issues — after being told they could not carry on the premises.

As The Independent reports, frontman David Gunn made use of the band's Facebook page to release a statement explaining that, prior to their scheduled show at Detroit's St Andrew's Hall on Saturday night, "every case we were carrying was wanded and searched", as were the band members themselves "every time we entered the venue".

Although Gunn says he and his cohorts were "fine" with being searched, problems truly began with the insinuation that they were on the receiving end of discriminatory behaviour on the part of the venue, claiming that, "During this process, they let us know that they don't do this to other groups and that essentially they were singling us out."

"After informing them that a few people in the group are licensed to carry for security measures, we were still not allowed to come onto their property with protection," he said. "Michigan is an open-carry state."

"We've made this stand completely clear," he continued. "We had every intention of playing and were looking forward to the show, as the biggest one of our careers to date."

Two weeks prior to the Detroit cancellation, in Chicago, the band had the plug pulled on them over their "excessive use of guns and violent imagery", as TeamRock notes.

The band had been scheduled to play at the city's Thalia Hall, but were told by a promoter that Chicago had seen unprecedented gun crime over the past 12 months and the venue had received several complaints about their plan to host the gig.

In that instance, the show was not only cancelled, but the group were apparently banned from returning to the venue.

Even then, Gunn maintained that firearms and gun culture were an inherent part of his band, and used the death of Dimebag Darrell and the shooting at Paris' Bataclan Theatre as justifications for their approach to carrying weapons, explaining in an earlier Facebook video, "With all due respect ... if anyone ever comes through the front door with automatic rifles they’re not gonna be able to kill 150 people at a King show; they'll probably be shot from the stage."

"So, the guns aren't going away and we don't apologise for anything."

It's essentially the same line as the group have taken with their fresh dispute in Detroit, with Gunn summarising his stance as being "not about shows or weapons … [but] about our inherent rights."

"This is not an easy decision to make, but we have to answer to ourselves first and foremost," he said.

He has since followed up with a three-minute video in which he further explains the band's position and decision, telling the band's fans, "We apologise that we can't play, but we don't apologise for the decision that we've made."

King 810 played the first two shows of their ill-fated tour for new release La Petite Mort, Or A Conversation With God, without incident.