Sea Speed said:
Yea I'm not stating absolute fact, just what i was reading online. Wouldn't the band face the same contractual issues for canceling? I'm sure it has everything to do with the way the contracts are written.
They would, but, yes, it all ultimately depends on the contracts. Every venue and tour will be different since every venue and performer have different levels of pull, but there's going to be provisions for each side backing out and what they may owe the other party. Venues are probably going to want to be compensated for any costs incurred and at least a substantial portion of lost revenue. Performers will want to be compensated for the same. Venues cancelling is a lot less common than performers cancelling because venues very rarely have a reason.
Both sides likely have insurance for cancellations to cover contractual damages, but that insurance is likely going to be limited in scope to circumstances spelled out in the contract. Some kind of incident that renders the venue unusable or incapable of delivering on their obligations would probably be covered, but, "We just don't want to host you anymore," is probably not going to be a reason for an insurer to pay out to venues to cover the cancellations. If they did, it would likely come with a very steep premium increase.
Insurers also aren't going to start immediately calling and jacking up rates or threatening to drop policies over something like this either. Every performer has detractors and haters and comes with some level of risk, and any additional risk from this would be incredibly hard to quantify, though it would probably be inconsequential. For one, this is in Australia where people care a lot less about American politics. For two, these concerts are right around the corner. You don't plan some kind of attack on this kind of event in a matter of days. They know the likelihood of anything happening is infinitesimal and not worth cancelling a policy over. The only reason they might raise an eyebrow is if there are credible threats being made or some other hard evidence of substantial risk.
I would seriously doubt all of the venues cancelled over insurance concerns a week or two out, and it's infinitely more likely that Tenacious D had a serious falling out and cancelled everything themselves.
