Vital Remains Get into Mid-Show Tiff with Club Owner Over Jesus and Cross Hanging on Stage

The House of Blues in Orlando, FL (as well as the one in Anaheim, CA) has become famous for banning metal bands that the venue’s owner, Disneyland, finds to be objectionable. Machine Head’s quarrel with the venue was the subject of much ballyhoo a couple of years back, and just last week Warbringer became the latest victim of the Disney banhammer. Those bands are the latest in a long line to be axed down by Mickey Mouse, and what’s been especially funny/confounding about the situation is that none of them have been especially satanic or offensive.

One band that is definitely overtly satanic: Vital Remains. Which didn’t stop another venue across town in Orlando, The Haven, from booking them this past Saturday night, despite the fact that the club’s owner is a Jesus devotee.

Part-way through the band’s set, frontman Brian Werner noticed a cross hanging above the stage, pulled it down to much applause from the audience, and when the club owner — who was standing nearby — vocally objected, Werner offered a very fair response: “That’s fine, don’t worry, we’re not gonna break it or anything. You can go put it away. But I’m not having this on our stage while we’re singing songs about Satan.” The club owner then took the stage, Jesus raised to the sky, and well… Werner’s next response was a lot less measured than his previous one! Check it out:

I kinda feel bad for the club owner: it’s her venue, she can decorate it as she pleases, and surely she just got caught up in the moment and didn’t know what she was stepping into when she got up on the stage. On the other hand, she believes in a mystical man in the sky that’s looking down at and judging all of us… so, yeah, I’d say logic doesn’t apply here.

[via Lambgoat]