American metallers All That Remains were literally rocked by the Japanese earthquake while they sound checked, but played their show as scheduled in Tokyo.
As reported on Billboard, frontman Phil Labonte said it was both a surreal and frightening experience:
"The band was on stage and I was in the back with our tour manager when everything started shaking.
"
The local crew was like, ‘Yeah, it’s an earthquake.’ The light fixtures were shaking, all the doors were shaking back and forth pretty hard."
As the quake continued, the band was ushered out of the venue for their safety. Labonte continued:
"Everyone had filed out of their buildings, and you could tell people were concerned."
"I started thinking, ‘OK, maybe it’s a little bit bigger of a deal than I realized.’ There was an aftershock and you could actually see this skyscraper nearby swaying back and forth. It was unnerving to see something that big moving as much as they were."
However the band agreed to play their show that night after discussions with local promoters:
"[The promoters] were like, ‘The show’s going to go on. If you’re cool with playing, we’ll do it.’
"Our perspective was like, ‘What the hell else are we gonna do? If we don’t play, we’ll just sit in our hotel rooms and be nervous.’
"It was cool. It was a show they projected to be sold out; by the end of the show probably 150 people showed up because all the trains were down and there was no transportation. And the people that came to the show were really, really, really happy that we played for them. They expected the show to be cancelled and were glad it wasn’t."
Thanks for the report to RockAAA.com.
