Audioslave will be the first American rock band to perform in concert in communist Cuba. The group will play tonight in Havana. The venue for the concert, which will be free, is La Tribuna, an open-air space where up to a million people have gathered in the past.
Audioslave, who a few weeks after the release of his second album 'Out of Exile', is on the eve of a world tour that will also bring him to Italy (one-off date at the Flippaut Festival on 2 June in Bologna), strongly wanted this preview performance in Cuba, authorised by the US Treasury and the Cuban Music Institute.
'The kids are the same all over the world and we are really happy and proud to bring rock music to the youth of Cuba,' the band said yesterday at a press conference in Havana. 'Music can transcend politics, it is simply music and the free expression of music overcomes any barrier. This is a rare opportunity and we are grateful and honoured that both the US and Cuba have given us their support in this initiative'.
Audioslave, who will stay in Havana until tomorrow for other activities to interact with local youth, will be on stage with some Cuban rock bands. The band composed of Chris Cornell, Tim Commerford, Brad Wilk and Tom Morello, is on tour to present the highly anticipated second album 'Out of Exile', in shops from 24 May, after the debut album in 2002 sold over 5 million copies worldwide.
A success that confirmed the validity of the project that in 2001 had brought together in a single supergroup Audioslave (Cornell, charismatic leader of Soundgarden, the spearhead of the grunge movement born in Seattle) and the three Rage Against The Machine, Morello, Wilk, Commerford, for years leading exponents of transversal and committed rock.
Audioslave will be the headliners of the second day of Flippaut, at the Arena Parco Nord in BOLOGNA. Before them, Prodigy and Slipknot, among others, will take the stage on 2 June, while on 1 June the headliners will be Chemical Brother, preceded by Moby, Abe Duque, Tiromancino, Soulwax, Meg, Metric and M83. Audioslave's performance at Flippaut will be the only occasion to see them in concert in Italy in 2005.
