MIKE WENGREN Denies DISTURBED's Pyrotechnics Caused Damage To CHICAGO BULLS' Championship Banners: 'It's Fake News'

DISTURBED drummer Mike Wengren has shot down reports that pyrotechnics during the band's concert in Chicago, Illinois caused damage to the Chicago Bulls' NBA championship banners.

In a statement released on March 14, the United Center confirmed that pyro caused "minor damage" to the Chicago Bulls' championship banners, forcing the banners to be removed for the remainder of the season. The banners commemorating the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships were damaged by pyrotechnics which were positioned directly underneath the banners.

"United Center is currently working with the Bulls to explore options to repair these banners," a United Center spokesperson wrote in a statement. "While the banners will not be in place for the remainder of this season, we do anticipate them being back in place next season."

The banners commemorate the Bulls' championships from 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 1998.

However, in a new interview with MetalUniverse.net, conducted before DISTURBED's March 19 concert at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Wengren denied that his band was responsible for damaging the Bulls' banners, saying: "That's actually false. So one of the stagehands ran with the story and now it's turned into something… We didn't burn anything. If you think about the size of it, even if you watch the show tonight, you'll see how high it is. We have extensive pyro and the flames are very high, but it gets tested every day. The fire marshals look at it… Everybody looks [at it] before [the concert] during the day. There's no way we could come even close to the banners. So it's bullshit.'

He continued: "It's frustrating for us. Because on one hand, the fan perspective is, 'Wow, their pyro is that incredible, so I've gotta see the show,' so maybe that's kind of cool but then the other hand is as we're continuing on this tour with the same show, every building we go into is now nervous about us causing damage to their building.

"We're big sports fans, especially myself," Mike added. "We were at the game last night. We would never be disrespectful to anyone's building. We are hometown Chicago boys. Why would we desecrate our own team? It's ridiculous. Today, for example, the marshals tested everything. But this building is actually very smart; they have a system where you just have to press a button and the banners roll up. So there's a safe [way to deal with it], but some of the buildings don't have that."

Circling back to reports that DISTURBED's pyrotechnics caused damage to the Chicago Bulls' NBA championship banners, Wengren said: "It's fake news."

On two occasions during DISTURBED's summer 2023 U.S. tour, the band got drenched when a pyro display during the closing song, "Inside The Fire", of the group's concert set off the venues' emergency sprinkler system, pouring water all over the stage and the four members of the group.

DISTURBED kicked off the U.S. leg of "The Sickness 25th Anniversary Tour" on February 25 at Ford Idaho Center Arena in Nampa, Idaho. The trek celebrates 25 years of DISTURBED's seminal debut album which launched the band into public consciousness and is one of the most important and influential heavy metal albums of all time. Each night features two sets of music, opening with DISTURBED playing the five-times-platinum "The Sickness" in full, followed by a full set of greatest hits. Openers on the U.S. shows include THREE DAYS GRACE, SEVENDUST, DAUGHTRY and NOTHING MORE, depending on the date.

Earlier this month, DISTURBED announced the European leg of "The Sickness 25th Anniversary Tour" with support from MEGADETH.

Since "The Sickness" was released in 2000, the album was certified five times platinum by the RIAA, spent a total of 106 weeks on the US Billboard 200 chart, and Revolver named it one of "Top 25 Debut Hard Rock Albums." Billboard said of the title track upon release: "'Down With The Sickness' is, of course, the quintessential DISTURBED song, harnessing all the band's seethe and its now-famous tribal beat and guitar chug into three and a half minutes of alt-metal mayhem. It's menacing, it's rhythmic, it's rebellious."

DISTURBED recently announced the 25th-anniversary edition release of "The Sickness". To commemorate the anniversary, the band reissued the five-times-platinum-certified LP on March 7, exactly 25 years to the date of their original release.

On February 21, DISTURBED released a new single, "I Will Not Break", via the band's own label, Mother Culture Records.