Disturbed drummer Mike Wengren has pushed back against recent assertions that his band’s pyro damaged six Chicago Bulls championship banners during the band’s March 08th hometown set at the United Center in Chicago, IL. Reporting from the Chicago Tribune indicated Disturbed‘s show as the event that caused damage to the banners, which will see them removed for several months to receive necessary repairs.
In a new interview with MetalUniverse.net, Wrengren denied the band’s pyro being responsible for the damage, stating [transcribed by Blabbermouth.net]:
“That’s actually false. So one of the stagehands ran with the story and now it’s turned into something… We didn’t burn anything. If you think about the size of it, even if you watch the show tonight, you’ll see how high it is. We have extensive pyro and the flames are very high, but it gets tested every day. The fire marshals look at it… Everybody looks [at it] before [the concert] during the day. There’s no way we could come even close to the banners. So it’s bullshit.’
It’s frustrating for us. Because on one hand, the fan perspective is, ‘Wow, their pyro is that incredible, so I’ve gotta see the show,’ so maybe that’s kind of cool but then the other hand is as we’re continuing on this tour with the same show, every building we go into is now nervous about us causing damage to their building.
We’re big sports fans, especially myself. We were at the game last night. We would never be disrespectful to anyone’s building. We are hometown Chicago boys. Why would we desecrate our own team? It’s ridiculous. Today, for example, the marshals tested everything. But this building is actually very smart; they have a system where you just have to press a button and the banners roll up. So there’s a safe [way to deal with it], but some of the buildings don’t have that.”
Wrengren later went on to label the claims of damaging the banners as “fake news.” The inclusion of the song “Inside The Fire” in Disturbed‘s live shows is known for being a pyro-heavy live spectacle, having tripped two separate venues’ water sprinkler systems back in 2023. Disturbed are gearing up to hit the road for the next two legs of their 25th anniversary celebrations for their debut album “The Sickness” with the following dates booked:
With Daughtry & Nothing More:
03/29 Cincinnati, OH – Heritage Bank Center
03/31 Cleveland, OH – Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
04/02 Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
04/04 Buffalo, NY – KeyBank Center
04/05 Pittsburgh, PA – PPG Paints Arena
04/07 Toronto, ON – Scotiabank Arena
04/09 Indianapolis, IN – Gainbridge Fieldhouse
04/12 Charlotte, NC – Spectrum Center
04/14 Raleigh, NC – Lenovo Center
04/16 Birmingham, AL – Legacy Arena at The BJCC
04/18 Sunrise, FL – Amerant Bank Arena
04/23 Duluth, GA – Gas South Arena
04/25 San Antonio, TX – Frost Bank Center
04/26 Fort Worth, TX – Dickies Arena
04/28 Oklahoma City, OK – Paycom Center
05/05 Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena
05/07 Portland, OR – Moda Center
05/09 Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center
05/10 San Francisco, CA – Chase Center
05/13 Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum
05/15 Phoenix, AZ – Footprint Center
05/17 Las Vegas, NV – MGM Grand Garden Arena
With Megadeth:
09/28 Copenhagen, DEN – Royal ARena
10/01 Dusseldorf, GER – PSD Bank Dome
10/03 Stuttgart, GER – Schleyerhalle
10/04 Zurich, SWI – Hallenstadion
10/06 Budapest, HUN – Laszlo Papp Budapest Sports Arena
10/07 Prague, CZE – O2 Arena
10/10 Krakow, POL – Tauron Arena Krakow
10/12 Paris, FRA – Zenith
10/14 Amsterdam, NET – Ziggo Dome
10/15 Brussels, BEL – Forest National
10/17 Munich, GER – Olympiahalle
10/18 Berlin, GER – Velodrom
10/20 Birmingham, UK – Utilita Arena Birmingham
10/22 Dublin, IRE – 3Arena
10/24 Manchester, UK – AO Arena
10/26 London, UK – The O2
10/28 Glasgow, UK – OVO Hydro
