When I see people do some stage diving at shows, I am always a bit scared,… do these people even know what they are doing? They could break their neck or kill other people with their fall. And this is almost what happened at a Fishbone concert in Philadelphia: a woman got her skull and collarbone broken when the singer decided to stage dive. It’s already an old story (it happened in 2010) but the federal judge’s decision was only made a few days ago, condemning Angelo ‘Dr. Madd Vibe’ Moore and his band to pay quite a large amount of money: $1.1 million in compensatory damages against Moore, his band, and his business partner, bassist John Norwood, and $250,000 in punitive damages against Moore himself.
Ouch! But, according to what I read on the ABC News website, the attitude of the band at the time probably weighed in the balance, as they ‘continued to perform as if nothing had happened’, while the victim had lost consciousness and was knocked to the floor. She now suffers from memory loss, shoulder pain and lupus.
The irony is that the band is used to stage diving and had already been sued at least once before for a similar reason….‘Moore testified that every couple of months an ambulance is called to the concert venue’. And this doesn’t stop them? ‘People want to be on the edge when they go to a Fishbone show’, he added, which probably didn’t help his case. What edge is he talking about, the edge of death?
I saw Fishbone once at Amoeba (a different environment than a club), and there was energy but I was far from imagining they were so wild and dangerous. I have been at shows where bands were honestly… freaky risky (Trash Talk, The Dillinger Escape Plan come to mind), I always hope they are in total control, but I am well aware anything could happen. I understand the adrenaline rush, the excitement and I would take any Fidlar/Fucked Up show anytime against some soporific other act, but for god’s sake everyone has to be careful, no rock show is worth to die for!