(This is a shot that I took of Butch Walker using the same kind of pyro that was used by Great White on February 20, 2003.)
(This is a shot that I took of Butch Walker using the same kind of pyro
that was used by Great White on February 20, 2003.)
What
happened in Rhode Island is truly horrific. As most are aware by now, at least 97 people
went to a rock club to relive their high school years and wound up victims of a tragic
fire that, by most accounts, could easily have been avoided. It is an unbelievable
nightmare, especially to those who take a personal interest in the culture surrounding
music.
Billboard
Magazine senior writer Ray Waddell echoed the sentiments of most when he went on the
record saying, "This is far and away the biggest tragedy in rock history. It
transcends rock and roll to become just an American tragedy, a human tragedy." The
public has been left many questions with answers that aren't easy to come by. Namely,
where do we place the blame? For its part, media coverage of the event has become a
circus of finger pointing and fear-mongering. The club's management swears they were never
asked for permission to use pyro. Great White swears they had their plans cleared in
advance. So what gives? The news would apparently have us believe Great White was a
reckless band with no regard for the safety of its audience. However, in truth, the facts
raise more questions about the club than the band.
For
example, Fox News reports that just last August the Kiss tribute band Kisstory played The
Station and used pyrotechnics with the full consent of the club, according to the band's
bassist Joe Duffy, who even breathed fire during their set. "Now that I think about,
I regret it," Duffy said of the pyrotechnics use. "Never once did they ask for a
permit."
Meanwhile,
of the sixteen dates on Great White's tour, only four featured pyro, begging the question
'Why?'
According
to the band, these dates were the four that allowed use of the effect that would become
fatal in Rhode Island. Paul Woolnough, Great White's manager, said tour manager Dan
Biechele "always checks" with club officials before pyrotechnics are used. The
Chicago Tribune reports that for the opening show of the tour at Illinois’ Shark
City, permission was asked for and denied. Dawn Smith, the manager of the club offered,
"When they performed, we didn't allow pyro. Jack (Russell) and the band were fine
with it. They were just super nice guys. Very low maintenance." JJ Parson, the owner
of the Oxygen nightclub in Evansville told Fox News a similar story, "We said we'd
prefer they not (use pyro), and they went along. Everything we'd asked them to do, they'd
do. They're really easy to get along with."
The
Station club owners’ credibility, however, has been far more questionable than Great
White’s. They went on record Friday saying that the club was under the maximum
capacity at the time that the accident occurred. Since then, sheer numbers of bodies
removed from the ashes, the numbers hospitalized and survivors who've told their chilling
tale of that night, have added up that the "undersold" defense is patently
untrue. What's more, the show was, in fact, oversold.
Could
the club have possibly fudged the truth according to survival instinct? Sure! Could they
also have been less than honest regarding the granting of permission for the band to use
pyrotechnics? That’s for the courts to decide.
It
is interesting that the club owners have now stopped talking to area law enforcement
officials since the capacity violations were discovered. After announcing that Great White
and their representatives have been completely forthcoming in the investigation thus far,
Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch stated in a press conference, "I remain
hopeful that (club owners Michael and Jeffrey Derderian) will cooperate with law
enforcement as much as they've cooperated with the press.” A criminal investigation
is now ongoing to determine if any charges should be filed. Clearly, charges will and
should be filed against both the club and the band. "There could be a whole menu of
charges," Lynch said. "It could be manslaughter, it could be murder, it could be
simple assault." With or without
permission, I firmly believe the band and the club were equally responsible for the
scores of deaths because of one single fact. “There were no fire extinguishers on
stage,” said Great White singer Jack Russell. That alone makes the band to blame as
well as the venue. If the band knew they were using pyro, they should’ve had
extinguishers within reach. The club also should have had fire extinguishers within reach
of the stage whether or not permission was granted to use pyro. If you own a venue
that’s going to be packed with people holding a cigarette in one hand and alcohol in
the other, you need to have fire extinguishers accessible. That’s a no-brainer. Jack
Russell should have been able to reach to the side and grab an extinguisher the second he
felt the unusual heat. That would’ve made all the difference.
“It’s
just a sad, sad story. Hopefully, whoever gave the green light to that gets busted for
it,” Audioslave/Rage Against The Machine bassist Tim Commerford told me in an
interview. I agree. People should go to jail for this. People deserve to be
punished for this. Justice for those people needs to be served, but not because pyro was
used. Instead, this needs to happen because it was used incorrectly. What caused
the deaths of those people was not pyro; it was carelessness and simple negligence.
I
have been around pyro for as long as I’ve been attending concerts. I have been
backstage at every major venue in the region and have seen first hand all the security
measures that go into effect when fire is used. I have even used pyro myself when I played
in a band, but I never would’ve used it without a fire extinguisher by my side.
The
members of the over-the-top rock group KISS are perhaps the most extreme users of such
effects in the history of rock and roll. Frontman Paul Stanley told the Associated Press,
“KISS frequently has to do a test run of its pyro displays for local fire marshals in
the afternoon before that night's show is permitted to go on.” Bassist Gene Simmons
adds, “Crew members stand beside the stage with fire extinguishers in case anything
goes wrong.” Due to one night in Rhode Island, people are now talking about banning
pyro altogether. "I would no more ban pyrotechnics at rock concerts than I would on
the Fourth of July,” Simmons points out.
That's
a valid point. How many years have gone by where you turn on the news after Independence
Day and don't hear of someone being hurt or killed by fireworks? In all honesty, in
the 30 years that pyro has been a standard at concerts, the chances of being killed by it
are isolated to the odds of having been unlucky enough to be a patron of Rhode Island's
The Station on February 20, 2003.
Those
are pretty staggering odds that, if nothing else, prove the general safety of pyrotechnic
effects. You have a much greater chance of being crushed by an overzealous crowd at a show
than you do from being burned alive by a flash pot. Ask The Who. Ask Pearl Jam. Ask AC/DC
or any other number of bands that have had fans killed by trampling. So, should we ban
large crowds at concerts? That would make as much sense as making pyro illegal. What we
need to do is just make sure it’s done safely. Randy Daniels, the Secretary Of State
of New York: “I think local officials are stepping up inspections, as they should
...This was a wake-up call for the whole nation.'' Sure. That makes sense. When 9/11
happened, we didn’t ban planes because of their horrible misuse. We simply have tried
to make flying safer. I don’t hear anyone talking about banning pepper spray after
more than twenty people died in a Chicago nightclub a few days before the Great White
tragedy. In that case, a bouncer sprayed the chemical on unruly clubbers and inadvertently
caused a panic that killed a couple of dozen people. Should we ban bouncers? I don’t
even hear people talking about banning mosh pits and/or stage diving, in which I myself
have witnessed several people being seriously injured. This is a big deal not because of
pyro. This is a big deal because moms, dads, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters never
came home to their families that night. It was an unimaginable tragedy because
it’s such a freak accident. Don’t let the fear-mongers get to you. Most clubs
and bands have the integrity to make things as safe as possible.
Pure
speculation or not, I firmly believe if you had taken a poll of that audience five minutes
before the tragedy happened and asked if they wanted Great White to use pyro, almost every
one of them would have roared in approval of its use. "People want a thrill, people
love spectacle and people love to be entertained," Paul Stanley, KISS' lead singer,
told The Associated Press. "That's why people go to horror movies, why they go on
roller coasters.” Billboard editor Bill Waddell adds, "We're talking about
hundreds of club concerts every night, coast to coast, or worldwide," Waddell said.
"It's an extreme rarity to have something like this, and nothing to this degree. In
terms of activities one can engage in, rock concerts are one of the safest things you can
do.”