Here is an official press release sent through by the promoter regarding The Melvins and High on Fire Tour as at 4pm Tuesday 22nd February:

As everyone is now acutely aware, the city of Christchurch was struck by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake today which has claimed several lives already and completely incapacitated the city's infrastructure.

The Melvins and High On Fire tour party were one minute into checking in for our flight to Wellington when the earthquake struck. The airport was immediately evacuated. We have become subsequently stranded at the Air New Zealand office complex, completely unable to get out of the airport or secure accommodation. We have tried desperately to secure transport to the Wellington show, but regrettably all our options have been exhausted and we are now confronting the reality that we will be spending the night at the airport in Christchurch.

We are currently making plans to move the scheduled Wellington show at Bodega to tomorrow night, Wednesday February 23rd. Additionally, we are looking at having Kylesa play a headliner show at Whammy Bar in Auckland on the same night, and for the scheduled Melvins/High On Fire/Kylesa Whammy Bar show to be moved to Thursday February 24th. Unfortunately, until we know more about our travel plans, we are unable to confirm that these scenarios will become a reality. However, the attitude in the tour camp is very much one of "the show must go on" and we are doing our damndest to make a revised tour schedule work.

We ask that all ticket holders bare with us at this time while we can solidify our plans and work towards the aforementioned backup option. Regrettably we have no further information at this time regarding this and we would like to dearly thank all ticket-holders in advance for their patience and understanding.

We are very shaken, but are all healthy and not injured. Needless to say this has been a very stressful time but we are trying to keep our spirits up. The three shows on the tour so far have been amazing and the Melvins and High On Fire guys are fortunately an amazingly understanding and friendly bunch of guys who have been an absolute joy to work with.

Our thoughts go out to all the people of Christchurch who have already been through such agony recently and are now going through much worse. To those who have lost loved ones in particular, our deepest sympathies.

We hope to update the situation soon and again thank you for your patience.

Please feel free to distribute this press release to any and all interested parties. Please also be aware that our communication options right now are limited and to be patient in light of this.

: Click HERE to read the final update about these shows.