Pantera fans in Hungary are getting an extra night with the groove metal tribute act and it’s all thanks to the fact that promoters in Vienna canceled the band’s scheduled May 31 show.
Earlier today, the band announced the additional date at Budapest’s Barba Negra. Though the band doesn’t explicitly say this is a makeup date, it’s obvious that it’s happening on the same day as the originally canceled Vienna date, so…
For those that don’t remember, Pantera‘s had a couple of their European shows canceled in recent weeks. Reasons mostly stem from outrage that organizers would allow the band to perform after Phil Anselmo‘s checkered history with racist gestures and remarks. The outcry resulted in the band’s Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park performances in Germany this June getting canceled. Then, less than 24 hours later, organizers in Vienna put the kibosh on their date on May 31 as well.
Anselmo was infamously seen throwing up a Nazi salute and yelling “white power” at Dimebash, a Dimebag Darrell memorial event, in 2016. Anselmo tried to defend the situation as a tasteless joke about white wine he was allegedly drinking backstage and that he was responding to fans antagonizing him, a defense that was widely written off as an excuse.
A lot of the effort to get Pantera’s dates canceled came from the German Green party, which told the Nürnberg city council that Anselmo “repeatedly and deliberately made Nazi gestures and yelled racist slogans.” Similarly, a German author called for a boycott against Pantera back in December.
It’s unclear if the band intends to make up the two shows that were canceled in Germany, but as of now, Viennese Pantera fans are going to have to make the trip to Budapest to get their fix.