Chris Adler says Lamb Of God’s decision to cancel their European tour in the wake of last year’s Paris terror attacks was down to a “specific security concern.”
After IS extremists killed 130 people in the French capital – 89 of them at an Eagles Of Death Metal show – on November 13, Lamb Of God were among the acts to abandon their planned tour and head home.
Frontman Randy Blythe later hit out at fans who criticised the decision, saying he wouldn’t “lose any sleep over the inevitable pissy internet comments.”
Now the drummer has given more detail on the decision, saying that security staff at the venue in Tilburg, the Netherlands, where LOG were due to play on November 18, had spotted two men acting suspiciously outside.
Adler tells Elliot In The Morning: “We already knew about the Paris attack, but when we got to Tilburg, we realised that the same night we had played in Germany, about 200 miles away, was the planned attack of a stadium there. There was an ambulance full of explosives that they found.
“So we were glad that nothing happened there. And so we got to Tilburg. And there was a specific security concern at the venue, where the venue security found two grown men outside taking pictures for hours of the facility and where the buses were parked and where the trucks were parked.
“And as they approached them to ask what was going on, the two guys ran as fast as they could, jumped on their bikes and took off. So security came to us, explained that situation and said, ‘We don’t have any credible evidence, and we’re gonna beef up security for the show, but you guys, we wanna make sure that you know what’s going on.’”
The rumours about an ambulance full of explosives in Hannover turned out to be false, but faced with what they knew at the time, LOG opted to head home. Adler says the decision to pull the plug was mostly down to the potential risk to their fans.
He adds: “What really made the decision for us was not that we were scared, not that we were intimidated to play, but the fact that we’ve been given information that something was amiss. So if we go ahead with this and somebody breaks in and does something horrible, more than likely the band will be able to run off the back of the stage and out the back door and we’ll be fine.
“But we’re putting our crew in danger, we’re putting everybody that’s bought tickets in danger, and they have no idea that they could be hurt or coming into this event, that something could be going on. So it felt very irresponsible for us to go ahead with the show knowing that something wasn’t quite right.
“It doesn’t mean that something was going to happen, but had we played the show and something had happened, we’d never forgive ourselves.”
LOG are on tour in North America this month and next, in support of latest album VII: Sturm Und Drang.