It's been 10 years today
 

The Station Nightclub Fire (2003)
Moments after the band Great White took the stage at the Station nightclub in Rhode Island, sparks from one of the group's pyrotechnic devices—of which the nightclub was unaware—ignited the highly flammable sound insulation around the stage. The nightclub, which had no sprinklers, was engulfed in minutes, trapping many inside. One hundred people were killed, making it one of the deadliest nightclub fires in US history

Yeah... some crazy survival stories came out of that night. Real tragedy. The only band member to die was the new guitarist, I don't think he was very old either. Can't believe that was 10 years ago... I feel old.

To me it seems longer ago than that.

In any event it pretty much put an end to the whole pyro thing... at least in clubs. I listen to the tales here on TB and from some of my older musician friends about stuff they used to do with pyro (often homemade) on their gigs and I'm surprised stuff like this didn't happen a lot more often.

Wow it seems a lot longer than that. I remember the tragic Who concert in Cinci in '79. I was a freshman in High School. Some friends of mine went and they had asked me to go but my parents said no way. I was 14 and Cinci is an hour and a half away and I think it might even have been a school night.

I always regretted not getting to go. Afterall, my friends survived and came back with a great story to tell. I know I could have been crushed but I've also always wanted to run with the bulls in Pamplona so I guess I'm not quite right anyway.

Yeah our guitarist used to use a striker and magic flash paper to get a burst of flame from the headstock we traded that in for LED lights and lasers