The Press Release:
The annual Monsters of Rock Cruise, the world’s premier hard rock/heavy metal experience at sea, is returning in 2022 to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Departing out of Miami, Florida, promoter On The Blue announced the five-day/five-night full ship charter cruise will set sail February 9-14 aboard Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas, visit two ports in CocoCay, Bahamas and Labadee, Haiti, and features performances from rock icon Alice Cooper, along with performances from over 35 artists.
The public on-sale kicks off today (5/11) at 9:00 am ET, with cabins starting at $1,799.00 per person (double occupancy, not including mandatory taxes and fee supplement). For more info and booking, visit MonstersOfRockCruise.com and follow @MonstersOfRockCruise on Facebook and Instagram, and @MonstersCruise on Twitter. Continue reading Monsters Of Rock Cruise Announces 2022 Excursion→
Thought the band has not yet made an official statement about the matter, it appears as though the Japanese Heavy Metal band Loudness was denied entry into the USA and that all scheduled appearances have been cancelled. The Reggie’s Rock Club Facebook posted the notice below the logo and so far only one website seemed to have the story.
“Due to the new strict policies the US government has placed on foreigners entering the country, Loudness was denied entry into the United States and sent back home this morning. All shows on the US tour are canceled”
Since the news “broke” several other websites have cited the first one that said anything (which is Sleaze Rocks) but there has still been NO official statement from the band regarding the issue or a proposed resolution to it and rescheduled dates. Some of the venues have removed the bands gig from their schedules while others appear to remain on sale at the time of this update but I have given the “delete” to the whole bunch down below since its probably a big sayonara for this go round. Sorry about the terrible pun because I wanted to see them too. It’s been too long since our nation has had some “Rock and Roll Crazy Nights”.
The Cancelled Shows: 4/19: Reggie’s Rock Club
4/20: The Metal Grill — Cudahy, Wisconsin
4/22: Shannan’s — San Juan, Puerto Rico
4/25: B.B. Kings — New York City, New York
4/27: The Revolution — Amityville, New York
4/28: The Chance Theater — Poughkeepsie, New York<
4/29: M3 Rock Festival — Merriweather Post Pavilion — Columbia, Maryland
PiercingMetal Thoughts: If this is really resultant of President Trump’s travel ban then I can firmly say that this sucks and it will likely be something that Metal fans should get used to with numerous foreign musical visitors. I am not too sure if this ban currently includes Japan but there is definitely something up here. Refunds are available at the point of purchase so get on that before you risk missing out on getting your money back. Good luck to Loudness on their return. Whenever that can actually happen.
UPDATE: 4/20/2017: It’s about 11pm by the watch and it seems as though the band has made a statement on the matter. It’s rather vague but here it is.
It is with deep regret that we had to cancel our U.S. Tour for reasons which you are all aware of by now. Thank you to all the promoters and venues, and especially to YOU our fans for your understanding and support. ROCK! “LOUDNESS deeply apologizes for any inconvenience that this may cause our fans. We plan to learn from this experience, prepare more accordingly, and we promise to put on a U.S. tour again in the near future. Please wait a little while longer until that is possible.”
Additionally it appears as though the record company stated that in the past how the band just came over to tour based on invitation letters as opposed to working visas. When one considers how this is the third time that their touring has been halted before it began, the fault lies on the band as opposed to any administration (since this would have happened under President Obama before the newly elected Trump). I’ll speak honestly here and shake my head at the bands lack of realizing how travel here always requires a visa for working purposes ESPECIALLY after the 9-11 attack. They are not new to the process of global touring so this really should have been understood and properly addressed. What do you readers think about all this?
The Thunder In The East will shake Times Square at the venerated B.B. King Blues Club. Don’t miss out on one hell of a Rock and Roll Crazee Night.
*** This show was originally scheduled for Stage 48 and all tickets for that show will be honored at the new location.
The Loudness show and subsequent regional tour have been cancelled. Refunds are available at point of purchase and no rescheduled dates have been announced at this time.
Artist: Loudness Title: “Rockshocks” Label: Crash Music Release Date: 3/7/2006 Genre: Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Rating: 2/5
When the band first appeared on the US Metal Scene I have to say that I was blown away by the power of some of their music for when they released “Thunder In The East” they were surely setting themselves up for musical success on this side of the ocean. Sadly, Loudness only rose so far in the eyes of fans and while they maintained a core fan base it never really escalated past that and to many the band was no longer interesting or being followed. The band formed originally by Akira Takasaki, Minoru Nihara, Masayoshi Yamashita and Munetaka Higuchi were excellent technicians musically, and were also able to deliver quite the catchy number every so often. Being from Japan this could not have been easy in terms of both the creation of such music and getting acceptance for it with an audience that was finding itself in a Heavy Metal surge that was incredible to behold. During the bands first adventures here we were finding Motley Crue holding strong with bands like Whitesnake, Dokken and Poison growing in popularity, and gaining levels of dominance over various sectors of fans. This release itself is a mystery to me for it is almost a greatest hits collection but instead of finding the tracks I remembered I found complete re-do’s of them. To be brutally honest they are less than stellar and it makes one wonder what brings a band to do this kind of stuff in the first place. We saw Twisted Sister do it with “Still Hungry”, the complete revisit to the original “Stay Hungry” since this was “how fans should have heard it in the first place”. After that dismal release I determined that this is probably done due to licensing and rights to the music that made the band the most success. Re-recording it gives the performer control over the music once again but cheats the listener from what they remembered and does not allow them to think back on the times that they first heard it. Continue reading “Rockshocks” by Loudness→
