Musicians = Terrorists??

With Americans on terrorist alert with the war going on and all, the United States isn’t exactly a safe place for political dissidents these days. According to a report by Pitchfork Media, Montreal’s Godspeed You! Black Emperor learned that lesson the hard way.

While travelling through Oklahoma on route to a gig last week, GY!BE were reportedly detained for several hours at a gas station. The nine-piece band pulled up in their two vans and white-paneled equipment truck and began milling about, as people are apt to do at gas stations. The station’s staff took one look at the scruffy group of lefties and immediately called the cops to reporting the group as a pack of potential terrorists.

Police and FBI agents soon arrived on the scene and proceeded to question members of the band for about three hours. After realizing that the band were ultra-serious politically motivated experimental musicians, but otherwise pretty much harmless, the coppers sent the GY!BE crew on their way without pressing any charges. The band later relayed the whole story on stage, but per usual, haven’t released any sort of press release on the matter.

GY!BE will soon be back in the loving arms of Canada, when they cross the border into their native country this week to play a string of Canadian shows. They’ll be at Toronto’s Palais Royale on March 27 and 28 and at Hamilton’s Tivoli Theatre on March 29. After that, it’s back to the States, before they cross back into Canada for shows in Halifax, Moncton, Fredericton, Quebec City and Montreal. Check local listings for more information on those shows.

I’ll be seeing BY!BE next month with my roommate. We have a free ticket if anyone is interested.

In other news, I’m still working on homework. 🙁