Usually, I make a conscious effort to not read newspapers or watch the news on TV because it brings my spirits down to read and see the reporters' only report bad news. I am aware of how messed up the world is and I don't feel I need to be reminded twice a day in print and three times a day via television. However, one day, while channel surfing, I flipped past CNN and noticed some commotion in what looked like a performance venue/bar. Considering I feel like I spend half of my alert hours in smoke filled, low lit places like this, this caught my attention. The CNN report was concerning a tragedy that occurred the night before in a nightclub in Rhode Island. After watching for a few minutes it became apparent that the venue's capacity wasn't very big and the band that was performing decided it would be a good idea to use pyrotechnics.

This, apparently, was NOT a good or logical idea. The band members, who integrated this into their performance on a regular basis weren't prepared for what can go wrong on a bad night. Before they knew it, the whole building was up in flames and people from the band and audience were trying their best to get out before they perished. Within the same week, I was e-mailed a link to a web page that contained pictures and information about stampede that occurred in a nightclub in the Chicago area. Apparently, someone used pepper spray in a crowded room with no ventilation and partygoers started choking. In both cases, the circumstances were a bit different but the outcomes were similar. People lost their lives due to the bad decisions of a select few.

With these unfortunate mishaps in mind, Licensing & Inspection groups, nationwide began cracking down on nightlife venues to make sure places are up to the standard code. One of the places that has been shut down is the Aqualounge in Philadelphia, a 150 person capacity lounge. This is the space where The BODYROCK event* is held. Although the owner of the Aqualounge was ready to make the necessary adjustments to his club the next day, he was told by L&I that it will be three weeks at least before they can schedule another visit. How interesting it is that it takes only two minutes to shut a place down but take weeks to come back to re-inspect for a possible reopen. The owner of Aqua and his staff can't help but take a great loss while it's closed.

The truth is, big room spaces such as Shampoo, Transit & Chrome, which don't have many issues with L&I, rarely ever hold events that cater to our market. That is, the market of people looking for music that isn't spoon fed to them by powerhouse corporations. Hence, to hear underground & classic Hip Hop, bossanova, broken beats, funk, rare grooves, dub reggae, afrobeat & deep house, people like myself have to look for small, out of the way dives that usually hold somewhere between 50 - 200 persons comfortably. Not only has L&I shut down & hassled several owners of these small lounges. They've added permits for things as simple as dancing & being elevated on a platform as well as lowered the capacity limits. One example of this is Fluid Nightclub, which recently had their capacity limit decreased from 175 to 80 persons. If Fluid can only hold 80 people then Soma must hold 5. In the future, there will be officials checking in at these venues to count heads and make sure events don't get too crowded. With the decrease in the legal capacity limit and increase of permits and taxes, small business owners have little chance to survive for very long.

With all this, there has been an increased sensitivity level with the police as I've been seeing more of them in clubs I've played recently. During the album release party for King Britt's Adventures In Lo-Fi the house lights were turned on almost a half hour before it was scheduled to be over, due to an unexpected cameo by the police. Similarly, police made an appearance at the Detroit Experiment album release party to tell us to turn the music down. Both times, I felt like I was DJing at a frat party again. True, I want to be safe when I'm out enjoying myself or working for that matter. However, are we simply going overboard as a result of a couple bad decisions? I think so…

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Article by Statik- Ill Vibe Collective DJ
Contributing Writer- PhillyHipHop.com
April, 2003

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