Pitchfork

It looks like Sweden isn't all clean streets, amazing healthcare, and golden hovercrafts (okay, we're not really sure about that last one). At a performance at the Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, October 22, Ola Salo-- lead singer of Swedish glam rockers the Ark-- made a poorly chosen comment involving an airplane and the White House that almost forced the band to cancel their current tour.

As previously reported, the band's free set was part of an inauguration celebration of the Embassy's new location on the Potomac River "along a popular approach to Reagan National Airport," according to a press release. During the performance, Salo saw a low-flying airplane and joked, "In this country, you don't know where those planes are headed. Well, this one seems to be heading in the right direction anyway... the White House," before launching into "One of Us Is Gonna Die Young," though the band claim "the song [was not] in any way mocking President Bush, as [Brit] Hume reported on Fox News." Instead, they say the song "is an anthem... about the need to celebrate every moment of one's life to the fullest." Because you never know when you might have to explain yourself to a foreign government.

Salo later explained, "I meant [the plane] was heading in the right direction-- to the airport. But sometimes when I'm onstage, it's my mouth moving and not connected to my brain. I couldn't resist making a joke, and adding 'the White House.'"

While some members of the audience found the "joke" funny, The Washington Post reported that a media producer named Steve Skemp, "who describes himself as a moderate Republican, sought out Ambassador Gunnar Lund and asked him to take the stage to publicly apologize for the insult to Americans... Ambassador Lund said he arrived at the tail end of the festival and did not hear Salo's remark or fully understand what had offended Skemp and another man who complained."

The comment could not have made the White House lunch Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia had the next day with the President and First Lady very comfortable, but Salo is apologetic, saying, "I'm used to the situation in Sweden where we have a tradition of mocking authority. It was a totally unserious way of being cheeky toward the White House." Ah, the backhand.

After canceling their October 24 show in Boston and postponing their October 25 show in New York at the Bowery Ballroom until November due to the "diplomatic entanglements" that ensued from Salo's comment, the band will resume their tour on October 28 in Chicago.

Dates:

10-28 Chicago, IL - Schubas
10-29 Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
10-31 Seattle, WA - Crocodile
11-01 Portland, OR - Dante's
11-03 San Francisco, CA - Slim's
11-04 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
11-20 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom