The NY Post reports one thing, RockNYC another. Who is right? You decide.. Actually no, I AM right. I was there, I am not an old fart, and for once I was NOT part of the “chaos.” An unbiased onlooker.
First, lets get you there with me. We are in an official Big Apple Circus Tent, big circus ring in the middle for the entertainment, a large, colorful light up, BIg Apple sign hanging in the back, hooked right next to a large 20″ orange slide that the musicians used as an entrance before sets. On all sides are tall support towers that are holding all the lights, ( and would normally hold trapeze artists and such). In the ring the bands set up n the back half of the ring, leaving almost half of the dance floor,(which has been placed over the sawdust ground) vacant and empty.. One of the earlier bands called the ‘dancers’ to the dance floor and filled it up that space, and (like i mentioned in previous post) had it packed within minutes. They single handed shot the room energy level through the roof of the tent, and made their set bearable to watch.
Now fast forward to the end of the night. It’s about 10:30pm, everyone has been anxiously awaiting Japanther, well for the ENTIRE night. The last three sets were mediocre, Voxhaul Broadcast rocked! Even so, people haven’t really been on their feet since the beginning. You can feeling the tension building in the tent as Japanther is setting up their unique yellow telephone style microphones, which actually make them sound as if they were on the phone. Everyone is ready for madness..
Japanther starts their set, within a minute and a half the drummer stops.. “we need more energy!” he screams, “we play off of what you give us. Give it to us!” People scream. Now i have mixed feelings about what has just happened, on one side you are a musician your JOB is to play music and make people feel it, to force energy down their throats so hard that they regurgitated back at you ten fold, which wasnt happening. On the other side, its 10:31pm, everyone, (or at east everyone i had talked to) was here to see Japanther and Japanther only, lets act like it.
Japanther instructs everyone to come to the front dance floor, ( where 50+ people were dancing/moshing/acting foolish only 2 hours ago w So So Glos. They made it ok to rush that part of the stage.), not too crazy of a request. This is when the entire show turns sour.. Let me once again point out, we are at a Punk Rock concert in a circus tent hosted by a Tranni named Acid Alex. I was expecting a decent amount of weirdness, craziness and then some, I was at the f*cking circus! In rushed all the Japanther fans..
Notice the obese 50+ year old square on his walkie talkie(left side) feeling extra important by attempting to take control out of some out of control punks at a rock show. Also notice long haired, security guard in black to the right; lets call him Frank for now. We’ll hear about him later.
At this point Japanther is rocking, security is just starting to fr
eaking out like none other, they are pushing the press-passed photographers from their stoops outside the ring, they are grabbing women with un-necessary force, manhandling them, the Big Apple Security is fully responsible for creating more negative energy and this so-called ‘Riot’. The lights slowly but surely come on, the speakers fade out, I watch as a different old fart with a gray mustache, waves his hand to his neck.. indicating they are going to shut them down. He approached Matt or Ian from Japanther and tries to tell him they are about to cut everything, obviously he is jamming out and not giving him two sh!ts of his attention. 20 seconds later, full lights, no sound, the booing begins, as does the packing up of Japanthers music equipment.
After some extensive cheering from the crowd Japanther re-sets up their drums, and to the disapproval of all staff in area, they move everything right to the edge of the circus ring to be inches from their screaming fans. “Leave the circus ring or Japanther will not perform,” is bellowed from the PA on repeat for a few minutes until the area is finally clear. Finally, they start their set again, so far we have had 7 minutes and two songs of music paired with 7 minutes of screams and boos, and 10 minutes of security screaming and more booing.
Japanther is going all out now, fans all in their face, it looks like the drums are going to get crushed by someone. Security is literally barricading the band from the fans. And then I see it all go down..
A photographer, ( with press pass and all. He is allowed to be where ever he wants) gets violently pushed by a meek security guard; trying to protect his camera, his livelihood, he puts his hands in the air and tries to move away from the guard, and behind the stage fro safety from the mob. The guard forcefully throws him into the mosh pit, where he gets moshed back to the guard, more guards intervene, they are now in the epicenter of all the moshing. This is out of control!!! A dude in a camo jacket sees what i just saw and jumps across the stage to go help his buddy. Frank, (long haired security guy from picture), body slams camo dude onto the ground, knocking over some ladies on his side. Frank gets hit in the face by someones hand. Beers is being poured everywhere. This is a disaster. This is crazy. This is completely and utterly awesome!!
This is why I go to the circus, to see things I would NEVER see anywhere else, ever. This (somewhat) unfortunate series of events would never have happened at any other venue, but at the Big Apple? Lets play some ball. The Big Apple Security have to be semi brain-dead to proceed in the fashion they did. Again, we are at a FREE circus where five punk bands are rocking out for over 1,000 people. A small crowd in the front of the stage is ( normally) expected at shows, and they were doing no harm to anyone but the small high schooler stuck in the middle. If security had NOT intervened, the show would have gone on fine, (minus the small high schooler in the pit) and everyone would have been happy, and had a great night of punk rocking. Wasnt the case.
“If you throw anything, you WILL be arrested!” over the PA.. that is my cue. Time to leave. The rest of the Japanther fans did not feel the same way..