Los Angeles based alternative metal band OTEP have announced the “Art of Dissent,” US headlining tour, which will begin on November 23, in Bakersfield, California. This tour is in support of their latest album release Kult 45, that was called OTEP’s “most uncompromising, candid, all-inclusive and controversial assessment of the current residing political regime,” in a press release.
“In a time when apathy has been weaponized to suffocate the voice of the people, in a time when Americans are told not to believe what we see with our own eyes but to believe what one bloviating sack of sewage and a gutless Republican Party who care only about preying on the working class and the working poor just to feed his KULT from the same gruesome trough of racist, homophobic and sexist slop,” the band’s lead vocalist Otep Shamaya said in a press statement. “We are proud to bring The Art of Dissent tour to the people to hopefully remind them just how powerful we are and how important we are, as a nation, as a democracy, and that it’s damn well worth fighting for.”
Politics have been a recurring subject for the band, with Shamaya being compared with artists such as Rage Against The Machine’s Zach De La Rocha due to the politcally charged content of her lyrics. This latest album criticizes everything from hate groups on the track “Molotov,” to school shootings with the song “Shelter In Place.
“The number of mass murders of children in schools by gun violence is our national shame yet the Republican owned Congress (and shills for the NRA) have done nothing, not a single thing, to protect our kids,” Shamaya explained regarding the music video for “Shelter In Place.”In contrast, when one man attempted to detonate a shoe bomb on board a plane in flight, legislation was enacted to protect people from this single attempt of failed terrorism.”
This latest tour will begin in an area which is less inclusive to the band’s politics. While California has been known as a deeply blue state, Bakersfield and the surrounding Kern County area are heavily republican, having voted in support of US President Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. As the LA Times States, “Across the nation, these types of communities have embraced the Trump message of stronger borders and tougher trade policy.”
The city has also faced much more direct civil rights controversies and issues in recent years as well. In 2017 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) revealed that the city showed disturbing pattern of police brutality.
OTEP “The Art of Dissent,” Tour Dates:
11/23 – Bakersfield, CA @ Club 1933
11/24 – Tucson, AZ @ House of Bards
11/27 – Milwaukee, WI @ Shank Hall
11/28 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
11/29 – Arlington Heights, IL @ HOME Bar
11/30 – Geneva on the Lake, OH @ The Cove
12/1 – Chesterfield, MI @ Diesel
12/2 – Dayton, OH @ Oddbody’s
12/4 – Clifton, NJ @ Dingbatz
12/5 – Richmond, VA @ Canal Club
12/6 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
12/7 – Auburn, ME @ Sapphire Club
12/8 – Easton, PA @ One Centre Square
12/9 – Amityville, NY @ Revolution
12/12 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade (Hell)
12/13 – Spartanburg, SC @ Ground Zero
12/14 – Huntsville, AL @ Sidetracks
12/15 – Clarksville, TN @ Warehouse
12/16 – Memphis, TN @ Rockhouse Live
12/18 – Waterloo, IA @ Spicoli’s
12/19 – Lincoln, NE @ Royal Grove
12/20 – Greeley, CO @ Moxie
12/21 – Denver, CO @ Herman’s Hideaway
12/22 – Colorado Springs, CO @ Sunshine Studios
12/23 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Liquid Joe’s
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