Massive Club Fire at Great White concert

Oh, and get this.. the headliners were the Charalambides.

I had nothing to do with the addition, but the guy who was the main booker wanted to do their label/booker a favor I guess. Noble, but it turned out to be rather awkward and bad. (Thankfully, that was the only bad moment of all the shows, and have amazing respect for the folks who kept that all-ages venue alive)

Anyway, the World Inferno Friendship Society did a variety of pyrotechnics inside a venue that was an ALL WOOD ART SHACK!

Smart, guys. Really smart. Thanks for stinking up the place, too. Hope you guys are now banned from playing shows ever again.

"Remember this next time someone tells you 'there is no such thing as bad publicity'."

Ouch. No kidding. The owner of the Stone Pony apparently wants Great White impaled in the sun. I think a lot of people are feeling that way about this.

In all cases.. :(

There's a lot of finger pointing going on right now between the surviving band members and the owners of the club. What strikes me about this is that EVEN IF the management of the club didn't know about the pyro effects, they are still guilty of GROSS NEGLIGENCE. If you own a business, it is your duty to know what is taking place in your establishment - either by a stage manager, a soundman, or some other person who is involved with the set-up of the equipment. It is also your duty to have procedures in place in the event of an emergency, such as fire extinguishers, plans to show people the exits in the event of a fire, etc. What strikes me about this tragedy is that there appeared to be little to no response from the club staff during the fire. Yes, there are those heroic people who saved others, but I'm referring to the more basic needs of having staff open exits and use fire extinguishers during the initial moments of the fire.

I also listened to Mr. Santana, of the Stone Pony, as he professed his disgust at Great White and how he was taken completely by surprise by their pyro effects. Again, while this may be true, his lack of knowledge of events in his venue reeks of negligence. Of course, he's going to claim his ignorance - he's trying to cover his ass. Do you think he'd say that he knew they were going to use pyros without the permits? No way. Same thing with the owners of The Station.

I'm not taking sides here, only making an observation. I think the owners are at the least guilty of negligence and as far as the band, I don't know. They might be telling the truth because according to accounts from other clubs on this tour, they were denied permission to use pyros and didn't use them. Also, Great White played The Station 18 months ago, without pyro. Why would they suddenly decide to use them, especially after NOT doing so at other venues on this tour?

Beyond the legal ramifications, my heart goes out to all the victims and their families. This is a terrible tragedy, absolutely horrific.

I hope that from this disaster come measures that will prevent such a thing from happening again.

Meanwhile, in the 'uh, yeah, duh,' category, CNN's legal talking head had this to say, and while most of it is sound, the concluding comment is a bit 'the hell?':

And I'm not so cynical to think that liability is the only reason. I think that club owners genuinely don't want scores of people dying in their clubs.

Gee, ya think?

Meanwhile, over at the missing guitarist from Great White's guestbook, you've got people posting good wishes and remembrances...and then you've got a whole bunch of incredibly tasteless jokes from a slew of people at fuckedcompany.com as well. Smooth.

ie fans and punters and rock reviewers and posters to forums like these (who are obviously all smart and eloquent and care abt other ppl and whatever)

too much of rock/punk/rap subculture at ordinary times: "the govt sucks, it's like square guys in suits who don't get it!! FUCK THE SUITS, MAN!!"
too much of rock/punk/rap subculture at times like these: "where are the laws which we assumed kept us and our loved ones safe?"

this and chicago and anything like it are horrible and sad obv, even from far across the sea, not least bcz foax like great white were basically totally goofy and harmless and who the hell deserves this, least of all them?

when did you last see a review of some show at some dingy shack (or rave or whatever) saying "the band totally rocked, but btw this club is a horrific fire risk — go there at yr own peril, or let's get the bands that we like to boycott it till the owners take action"?

kerry — quite correctly — said that consumer groups shd regularly check these places out actually WHEN THEY'RE IN USE: all i'm pointing out is that consumers groups = orgs including fans themselves, and if everything is just left to a vague "measures must be taken", w/o pitching in yrself (obv i don't mean YOU ALEX MUST ORGANISE THIS, i mean the "you" most directly in the line of fire in these situations, ie the punters who go to such venues regularly anyway), then you WILL find that the measures taken will probbly leave yr area devoid of ANY funky little outlaw spaces etc etc (ie cf the v.good point you made up-thread, re city authorities simply shutting all clubs to save themselves the headache)

Dave, you live far (by RI standards) from The Station; I rent movies at the Blockbuster down the street from it ALL THE TIME.

Scary shit. Death toll is at 96, making it worse than Waco in terms of deaths.

I don't think I knew anyone, but given how small a state this is, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that I know friends of friends aunt's cousins sisters and shit.

From News of the Weird

In the midst of the national debate over fire codes in the wake of the February Warwick, R.I., nightclub disaster, fire safety consultant Philip R. Sherman told a Providence Journal reporter that toughening the codes was not an automatic cure because the codes will still be ignored due to variations in people's intelligence: "Clearly we have to account for dumb things (when we write the codes). Is wrapping the room in foam plastic the level of dumbness we want to account for? Or will somebody do something (even) dumber?" [Providence Journal, 3-14-03]

The band was popular during the 1980s, with hits including Rock Me and Once Bitten, Twice Shy.

Under Biechele's deal, he would plead guilty to the counts related to misdemeanor offenses.

Is that long enough?

xpost

Jack White / manager / club owners - 10 years
Other band members - 5 years

PROVIDENCE, R.I., May 10 — Daniel M. Biechele, the man who ignited the pyrotechnics that led to the deaths of 100 people in a catastrophic Rhode Island nightclub fire in 2003, was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison and three years of probation.
Eileen DiBonaventura, who lost a son in the Station nightclub fire, was in tears as she left the courtroom.

The sentence was less than half the 10 years prosecutors had requested, but more than the community service Mr. Biechele's lawyers had sought.

Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr. said he considered Mr. Biechele's background and obvious remorse, and the fact that his actions were "totally devoid of any criminal intent," in addition to the horrific result of the fire at the Station nightclub in February 2003.

"Mr. Biechele, the greatest sentence that can be imposed upon you has been imposed upon you by yourself, that is, having to live a lifetime knowing that your actions were a proximate cause of the death of 100 innocent people," Judge Darigan said. "Any attempt by me or anyone else to correlate any sentence imposed with the value of these lives, or any other yardstick that may be applied, I believe would be a dishonor to the memory of the victims of this tragedy."

Shortly before the sentence was pronounced, Mr. Biechele, 29, who was the tour manager for the heavy metal band Great White, which used the pyrotechnics in its performance at the nightclub, stood, sobbing, and spoke to the judge.

"I don't know that I'll ever forgive myself for what happened that night, so I can't expect anybody else to," said Mr. Biechele, who pleaded guilty in February to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter caused by a misdemeanor, the act of setting off pyrotechnics without a permit. "I can only pray that they understand that I would do anything to undo what happened that night and give them back their loved ones. I'm so sorry for what I've done."

Families of some of the victims gasped and some broke into tears when the sentence was announced. One woman, Patricia Belanger, who lost her daughter, Dina Ann DeMaio, a waitress at the nightclub, shouted at Mr. Biechele's mother: "How do you like your son now? Now you're going to feel the pain that I feel!"

Outside the courtroom, Ms. Belanger said the sentence was "a joke" and said of Mr. Biechele's mother, "she'll get her son in four years, and they'll go back to being a happy family. What do we have?"

Gerard Fontaine, whose son Mark was killed and whose daughter Melanie was injured in the fire, said: "One year for every 25 people that died — it's crazy. You can do what you want in Rhode Island and get away with it."

But relatives of some other victims said the sentence was appropriate.

"I think it's a fair and just reaction," said Sarah Mancini, whose son Keith was killed. "He didn't set out to kill anybody. It was a horrendous accident."

Some victims' relatives and others in Rhode Island have said that more of the blame should be placed with the club owners, Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, who had installed sound-proofing foam that proved to be highly flammable.

Many also blamed the fire and building inspectors who failed to cite the presence of the foam during inspections. The Derderian brothers, the only others charged in the case, are under indictment on involuntary manslaughter charges.

The sentencing of Mr. Biechele followed two days of testimony from relatives of more than 30 victims, who offered accounts so anguished and raw that at one point Judge Darigan's clerk was too overcome to announce the next speaker.

Mr. Biechele broke down in tears Tuesday as the father of the youngest victim, 18-year-old Nicholas O'Neill, testified that his son would have wanted the family to accept Mr. Biechele's apology.

Mr. Biechele, of Winter Park, Fla., who recently married and works for a flooring company and takes night accounting classes, wrote letters of apology to each of the victims' families.

Despite Mr. Biechele's contrition, the prosecutor, Randall White, told Judge Darigan on Wednesday that Mr. Biechele should receive the 10-year maximum sentence under the plea agreement because his failure to get a permit for the pyrotechnics was "not simply an unwitting and innocuous oversight, but a deliberate and intentional decision not to abide by Rhode Island law."

"A child could have seen and foreseen the harm" of lighting pyrotechnics in the overcrowded club, Mr. White said.

"If this isn't the case that deserves a serious sentence," he said, "what one is?"

Mr. Biechele's lawyer, Thomas G. Briody, cited several factors that Mr. Biechele could not have been aware of, including the flammability of the foam and the lack of sufficient exits and fire extinguishers. "Daniel Biechele is the only man in this tragedy to stand up and say, 'I did something wrong,' " Mr. Briody said.

The club owners will probably seek a deal since the court was lenient w/ the band manager, but it's hard to say which way it will go. If the owners choose a trial and it shows they knew the soundproofing was flammable and they knew Biechele was going to light off pyrotechnics they could get who knows how long in the can.

To get some perspective, RI doesn't have a full-time state congress, they all have other day jobs. Not sure how common that is but I was kind of surprised when I heard it.

Hmmm let me guess the other 8 states; North Dakota, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maine, etc.