Strung Out has posted an official statement clearing up the recent hullabaloo surrounding their canceled South American dates. Contrary to what you may have read, the band has not broken up, but they did encounter some troubles starting in Caracas, Venezuela.
Things started off on a bad note right when we flew in to Caracas Venezuela were our merchandise got confiscated. (We had to leave 14 boxes of merch behind and we didn't get our stuff back for 9 days, when we did, we received 12 boxes back…bullshit) Then we find out that our flights that where booked to Brazil had all been canceled because the airline they were booked on "Varig" went bankrupt. Things began to get shitty.
The band goes on to explain the mishaps and travails that they endured, including delayed showtimes, fights and broken promises. The band is going to be continuing on to Brazil and the Dominican Republic in hopes of playing their scheduled show there.
Official South America Statement
Ok, so were do I even start about this whole mess. First I must say, don't believe Internet rumors until you hear the real deal from the horses mouth. Next we must deeply apologize to each and every fan that was planning on seeing us play, and to every promoter that put their hard work and time into making a show for us. Trust me when I say we are very saddened by everything that happened and we can only let you know that we are very sorry for this situation. This tour was so important to us and we had been waiting to come to South America for over 10 years. There was nothing more that we wanted then to come over, play awesome shows, and have a smooth tour. Well, smooth and professional was very far off from how things were going. Things started off on a bad note right when we flew in to Caracas Venezuela were our merchandise got confiscated. (We had to leave 14 boxes of merch behind and we didn't get our stuff back for 9 days, when we did, we received 12 boxes backâ¦bullshit) Then we find out that our flights that where booked to Brazil had all been canceled because the airline they were booked on "Varig" went bankrupt. Things began to get shitty. We went to our tour managers (organizer of the tour) apartment were we would stay for the next 10 days. We had no problem at all with our accommodations and everyone's mindset was, we will just get through this and hopefully everything will smooth out (We've never had 10 days off at the begining of a tour). What we encountered was a lot of smoke being blown and empty promises. The Brazil tour dates had to be changed right away as did the Dominican Republic date. This caused more hassles. We moved on and tried to stay positive about everything. Everyday, we would be told something that would end up not happening. Things didn't seem to be getting done properly at all from our current standpoint. They were only getting more and more sketchy to all of us. We were just looking forward to (what would now be) our first show in Caracas and getting this tour off the ground. The organization of the first show was a mess. Doors opened 2 ½ hours late (doors were at 8..show didn't start till 10:30). This caused more stress because we were supposed to leave to the airport at 4:00am to catch our flight to Colombia. When we finally returned to the apartment, a fight broke out. (NOT between any band members) This fight was the final straw in the lack of professionalism that we had been exposed to and witnessed over the past 10 days. It was the straw that broke the camels back. This became one of the most emotional times our band has ever gone through and the majority decision was, this isn't right, nothing feels right, we have to get out of this fucked up situation right away. Was it a hard decision? FUCK YES IT WAS. For our own sanity and health, it was what we had to do. This explanation of what happened might be a bit vague but its because were trying to leave a lot of the details out that we don't think need to be made public cause it will just turn into a bunch of shit talking (message board is a prime example) but, we must stress the fact that the lack of professionalism carried on, killed this tour. So for the record we of course did not break up and all the crap you've been reading on the net (message boards, myspace, etc.) has been exactly thatâ¦BULLSHIT & HEARSAY. The only ones that know what the real deal of what brought this turn of events, is everyone that was living in the apartment and a few others. To all the promoters that we just left hanginâ¦seriouslyâ¦we are so fucking sorry for this. This is the worst situation our band has been confronted with in our 13 years of being together. Anyone that knows our band or has worked with our band knows, this is not at all typical of us. We've never canceled a tour. We want everyone to know that we careâ¦we care a lot and it hurts. Please let us know what we can do to make things up. We are planning on continuing our shows in Brazil and the Dominican Republic and we'll try to salvage whatever other shows we can. We will keep everyone informed of what's happening as we find out over the next couple days. We do want to mention, that we had a great time in Venezuela and met some awesome people whom we made friends with. We'd like to thank all of you (you know who you are) for being so nice to us and offering all your help.
Love Strung Out