Otep Shamaya is a confrontational and outspoken figure that has no problem asserting herself. In the past few years, she’s gotten into it with the Butcher Babies, was caught hitting a guy with a mic, managed to get Terror Universal’s vocalist fired, and backed out from a festival due to homophobic allegations. She is currently on The Resistance World Tour which is scheduled to conclude on July 5th, and they have a handful more shows left on this North American journey including tonight’s (21) Indiana gig. However last night (20), Otep kicked one of the supporting acts, The Convalescence off of the tour, due to selling merch during their set.
The Ohio deathcore act shared a lengthy and yet, honest message on their Facebook:
“We will no longer be a part of the remaining dates of “The Resistance Tour” with Otep. After years spent on the road touring worldwide and never having a problem, this is a first. Otep kicked us off the tour after already loading in for tonight’s event in Pittsburgh.
This stemming from an alleged incident that occurred in Michigan two nights previously where claims were made that we sold merchandise during the intro of their set.
This was not the first time being threatened to remove us from the tour. First happening in Jacksonville, FL after their driver accused us of buying weed from venue staff the night before and went as far as to say we forced a venue runner to drive with him and a kid in the car to pick it up. This was in an attempt to take the heat off the driver himself because he called the police on the bands guitarist after an argument between them that morning.
In both instances, we were unable to explain or make any attempt to approach the situation since even after 50+ dates as direct support- unless she felt the need to threaten to kick us off the tour and belittle us, we weren’t even allowed in the same room.
After being told we were not needed on the tour, that we were not helping the attendance, we were simply a time filler and countless other negative comments about us being part of this tour we came to a mutual decision that we could no longer share a stage together.
We are all about being team players on the road. After going out of our way with things like covering her merch table every night during their set, helping the band with security at understaffed venues, and helping her band and crew load in and out daily. We were met with only disrespect from Otep herself.
We have no hard feelings towards her hired band and crew but Otep is an absolute nightmare to work with.
Again, we apologize to any of our fans that had planned to see us on this tour. Thanks for your continued support and we’ll see you on the road this Fall!”
For those who would like to see the Convalescence, they will be supporting Venom Inc. this Fall on their Blood Stained Earth Tour.
Otep shared a hidden message stating, “but if the band begins to act entitled or jeopardizes our message then they gotta go.”
A few hours later, she revealed her new ink:
