Dangerous Venues

Adding to the many negatives involved would be the distinct possibility that the majority of the audience were under the influence of either drugs and/or alcohol which would slow a person's quick reaction to immediate danger. It's true that when people are packed together like sardines it's difficult to move but a person with a clear head would stand a better chance of surviving.

Mr. Fusilli expresses a hope that we can learn from these tragedies and take actions to prevent them in the future. I fear he will be disappointed. It has been more than 25 years since the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire which occurred in Northern Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. In that fire more than 160 people lost their lives. Reports of locked exit doors surfaced, along with hallways which led to nothing but a death trap, where the bodies of many people were found who fled down the hallways seeking exit doors. A comedian was performing on stage, and when an employee grabbed the microphone to warn the crowd to leave, the audience thought it was part of the act and lost precious time. I remember hearing the same hope being expressed that we could learn from this tragedy and ensure it would never happen again.

It has. Mr. Fusilli does take me back to my youth, however, when I considered slipping on puddles of vomit, (we called it puke in those days) stumbling over drunks and being hit by flying bottles to be great fun. What great times they were.

A small point: In New York City a few years back there was the HappyLand fire, which killed 87 people, after some deranged man with a grievance thought mass murder of innocents was his expressive rights, and New York City then shut down all these illegal private clubs.

In New York City again, we are having another round of club shutdowns, this time for drug sales, recently for noise and crowds and congestion.

All of this is possible, and under Mayor Bloomberg's no-fun no-smoking administration, we may see an absence of these club related deaths.

In Chicago, the club was politically connected, and the Rhode Island club was a no name joint.

While the police have many things to do, there can only be a handful of these venues in any jurisdiction, and for the police to not know of them, and their overcrowding, is simply unacceptable police work.

Again, in New York City, there was a rap rally in Times Square a few days ago, which was shut down by the police after attendance exceeded expectations, and, the police alleged, the promoters reneged on a promise to hand out bracelets to early arrivers, to minimize crowd size and long lines, and restlessness.

This is not rocket science, this is minimal common sense and crowd control.

Whether this is a buildings' department problem (what a surprise), or fire department, or transportation, or police, the solution is within the locality's power.

Dangerous indeed. Have you ever asked yourself why you subject yourself to a situation where you're surrounded by unruly drunks and stoned people and stepping in puddles of vomit? These venues are dangerous because the patrons generally abuse alcohol and drugs and the proprietors of such places probably do the same.

I recall in the '50s attending concerts in small clubs in Chicago featuring Stan Kenton, George Shearing, Mel Torme and others. There was alcohol, but everyone was seated and enjoying the experience.

I think hard rock music is debasing; it tends to bring out the worst in its audiences. Of course, the culture of drug abuse that infuses the music does most of that. Drug use also incapacitates users so that they can't react rationally to danger.

It's hard to protect people from their own base instincts and stupidity.

I am outraged, and aghast at the inadequacy of this particular response to the magnitude of the danger to individuals, as evidenced in recent incidents at such clubs. No amount of post-mortem recriminations would ever compensate for the ignorance, inattention, and negligence evidenced on the part of both performers and club owners/managers. Furthermore, state regulations have never been adequately enforced, i.e., sprinkler systems in the case of fire, adequate evacuation plans with enough exits clearly evident, etc., and this leaves the municipalities and states liable on criminal negligence charges. All this, in addition to the seeming ignorance of patrons of these establishments, presents a pattern of blindness and inattention to severe danger that is unconscionable! And all for what? A moment of some kind of "fun" or "entertainment." Again, totally unconscionable, with after-the-fact "punishment" totally inadequate, in the absence of any sort of responsible preventive measures on the part of local government and establishment management, as well as performers.

Rock clubs are hardly the only venue. If you've ever been to the Jersey Shore in the summer, the clubs pack themselves past the point of inconvenience and into the realm of dangerous. I've often thought, "If this place burst into flame, or if some nut job started shooting, nobody could get out of here." You've got a crowd packed in there so thick that even sober, which no one is, it would be impossible to get people out in an orderly fashion. The weak would be trampled by the strong on the way out the door.

I don't see any excuse for this. The venue obviously loves the extra money, and it seems to me the town, often with off duty cops providing security, looks the other way.

We have come to a time in our history when noise replaces music. Where the only reason one goes there is to hear horrible musicians play horrible sounds, and to be able to drink ones self into a stupor. Do you think there would be five people at the concert in Rhode Island if alcohol were not served. When the Beatles appeared audiences listened and no alcohol was served. Your writer sounds like it is a fine thing to idolize rock and roll, sex and drugs. We truly are becoming ancient Rome which disintegrated caused by alcohol and a permissive society which allows our children to see and hear garbage. Great symphony orchestras are going bankrupt and young people are to blame. And their parents are to blame too, because from the time they were small that is what they heard at home. Let's try to get Mozart, Beethoven, Domingo and Pavarotti into their lives at an early age.

From what I have heard that night club had been investigated by the fire marshal and was almost shut down. The fire marshal was overruled by the elected politicians because they received some pressure from the owners and the owners' friends.

The politicians, the owners and the owners' friends who kept the club open against the fire marshal's wishes should face criminal charges. And if this is true then they need to be found guilty and sent to jail.

In you article on audience abuse, you neglected to mention what I feel is the most common form of audience abuse: Overpowering loud music!

My ears still ring today from the loud concerts I used to attend when younger. I never gave it a thought. These were also outdoor concerts. I only went to one indoors (my last concert).

The only reason pyrotechnics are needed at these concerts is that the performers are talentless and have to do something to entertain.

Does anyone else sense an impending demand for additional federal regulations from the national claque that ineluctably believes rigorous centralized control is always the solution to every problem?

Fingers are pointed at the club owners, at the band members, at city authorities. Nobody seems to be including the visitors to the club. The solution to the problem is to not go to such venues. Stay home more, read more, get more involved in your community. Anyone who exposes him or herself to overwhelming noise and simulated violence in order to anesthetize the mind is a fool.

I can't help thinking there must be some connection between this and the article I read recently about the disastrous sales of classical music recordings. Are our young people losing the ability to sit through a program by a fine symphony orchestra without all the special effects demanded at a rock concert? Pyrotechnics in an old wooden building is just plain unbelievable.

After reading Mr. Fusilli's thoughtful piece it dawned on me that once the current furor dies down, clubs like "The Station" will probably be able to get back to the business of endangering people looking for the cheap thrills they provide. But even though I am well past the age when such places have any allure--after all I can get my late night cheap thrills taking on the writers whose pieces appear on the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal--I can't help but worry about the dangers my kids will face when going to such joints. I guess I better start luring them to these pages and teaching them how much fun one can have jousting with the rightwing heroes who strut their stuff here. But I guess there is a great risk in that as well for they could wind up becoming conservatives!