How did a guy with a 9mm stroll into a club, walk on stage and shoot the band? As a guy with a son in a metal band this is more than a rhetorical question. And what are clubs going to do about it, if anything?
- concert bookers and bar managers [are] wondering whether fans will grumble less the next time they're patted down or directed through a metal detector.
Scott Stienecker, for one, thinks it will. "It'll be a whole different feeling, I bet."
Stienecker's PromoWest Productions owns two Columbus concert halls larger than the Alrosa Villa, where 25-year-old Nathan Gale gunned down "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott and three others before a police officer shot him to death.
Caroline O'Toole, though, and many of her fellow managers doubt Wednesday's violence will mean any significant changes.
"I don't think you can let the actions of one lunatic affect the industry as a whole," said O'Toole, who manages The Stone Pony, famed as Bruce Springsteen's stomping ground in Asbury Park, N.J. "You can't let the nuts win."
...."This is a very tragic situation, but isolated," said Mark Leddy, co-owner of Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland. "Anything like this causes everyone to take a little look at what their procedures are. A bigger mistake would be an overreaction to it."
But a San Diego police officer and security consultant argued for more training for the largely unregulated job of nightclub security worker.
"They need the same type of training that police officers get," Robert Smith said. "The bouncer has no weapon and no police powers, but they still have to do the same exact job. They don't get the same training on how to read body language and how to stop someone verbally and how to calm someone down."
Concert deaths have spurred change before. Inspectors nationwide rooted out flammable soundproofing material in bars after on-stage pyrotechnics killed more than 100 people nearly two years ago at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island.
It was only in August that the city of Cincinnati lifted a nearly 25-year ban on concert general admission seating imposed after 11 fans were crushed to death trying to get in a show by The Who.
Article comments
1 - Paul Roy
There is such a fine line between freedom and security. It is bad enough that we have to be virtually strip searched just to fly on an airplane these days, but more and more venues are conducting security searches of their patrons before allowing entrance. In my neck of the woods, all of the major concert venues now search all purses and handbags, pat everyone down, AND run a metal detecting wand over you. Its kind of rediculous, but I can't say I blame them. The sad, thing is, if someone is determined to sneak a weapon in and hurt someone, they will still be able to.
2 - Eric Olsen
I agree you can only go so far that and the really determined are going to get around security anyway, but at least this kind of security will stop some spur of the moment violence and at least give some peace of mind that security is being taken seriously