CRADLE OF FILTH A No-Show In Ecuador: An Eyewitness Report

British extreme metallers CRADLE OF FILTH cancelled at the last minute their scheduled appearance at Plaza de Toros Quito in Quito, Ecuador on Saturday (Sept. 25). The following eyewitness account was e-mailed to BLABBERMOUTH.NET by a web site visitor in Ecuador:

"Last night, Saturday the 25th, CRADLE OF FILTH were scheduled to play here in Quito, Ecuador, at the Plaza de Toros Quito with three local opening acts not worthy of a mention. The show was programmed for 8pm. The gates were opened at 7pm, and then we had to wait until 9pm for the show to start, because there had been som rain in the afternoon and it had affected the equipment, according to the organizers, but the audience was assured that it was a temporary delay.

"On the stage, there was a weak backline, a cheap-ass drumkit, and none of the CRADLE theatrics. The sound was pathethic during the three sets, with long breaks between bands. The guy in charge of sound seemed to be fiddling around with everything the whole time.

"In between sets, the air became filled with tear gas, signaling that outside things were no picknic. There had been some confrontations between cops and the people inside before. This all lasted until 12pm when some wuss came up on stage and said that because of the rain, the airport was closed and the band was stuck in Guayaquil (Ecuador's second largest city),and that they would take off for Quito in twenty minutes. All the while, planes had been going over the Plaza in full view of everyone, and the rain had been no storm, so it's very likely that this excuse was bullshit. He told people to wait. Knowing this, some of us realized that even if they came, they were probably bringing all their gear with them, and it would take a long time to set everything up, so even if we had waited, it would have been at least a three- to four-hour wait, in the cold night. Some waited, and some left. The wiser left.

"The 20-minute wait had been intended for police reinforcements to arrive at the scene. Obviously, they already knew that there was going to be no show, and the situation was going to be bad. The cops were setting up with bikes, horses, and dogs, and told the ones that left to take off quickly, because it was going to be ugly, and the whole area had already been a battlefield while the concert had been going on. The floor was covered in places with glass and some blood was also seen. Inside, a while after the announcement, the lights had been shut off, and some people on stage signaled to the crowd that the show was over. People took apart the barriers and took the stage, destroying and stealing everything they could. When they came out, the cops went after everyone on a ten-block radius.

"I was among the ones who took off rather early, so the final outcome of the night is still unknown to me, but this is what happened."

UPDATE: A message on the official CRADLE OF FILTH web site attributes the cancellation of the band's show in Ecuador to the fact that "the airport in Quito [was] closed for repair work. We had to return to Bogota, Columbia and this will not effect any other South American shows," the group write.