Posted on 12/22/2006 10:18:44 PM PST by iowamark
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA - At least 13 people were injured during a "Music as a Weapon" concert Thursday night, according to officials at two Cedar Rapids hospitals.
The concert drew a crowd of 7,186 people, almost maxing out the U.S. Cellular Center, which can fit up to 7,500 people.
Of the 10 people who were treated at St. Luke's Hospital for injuries suffered at the concert, one was taken into surgery, said Laura Rainey, director of marketing communications at St. Luke's. That patient was among two people who were admitted to the hospital. The others were treated and released.
Rainey said it's "fairly rare" that the hospital gets patients injured at a concert but that "at times it does happen."
Jason Barnd, 20, of Mount Vernon, was one of three men treated at Mercy Medical Center after the concert. His father, Dan Barnd, said his son's lower right leg snapped just above the ankle when he was pushed on top of the person next to him in the tight crowd.
The tightly packed crowd is what is known as a mosh pit, where people pack themselves as close as possible to the stage. They don't even have standing room -- it's more like tip-toe room.
Often, people in the mosh pit express themselves by jumping up and down on the same spot, known as pogo-ing, and also by body-slamming -- launching themselves into the air onto other people in the pit.
"Lots of people were getting hurt. They're not gladiators," said Dan Barnd, 50, of Mount Vernon. His son declined to be interviewed for this story.
Barnd was hoping to get some sort of compensation from the U.S. Cellular Center for his son's medical bills, but his lawyer told him that the center had a disclaimer written in fine print across the back of the concert ticket that absolves it of responsibility for his son's injuries.
"That's how they can put these things on. If not, however many people can sue them," he said.
During the concert, one of the four featured bands -- Disturbed, Stone Sour, Flyleaf and Nonpoint -- stopped its set to ensure a fan suffering from heat exhaustion could be removed.
Christy Frost, U.S. Cellular Center's director of marketing and programming, said there weren't an unusual number of injuries Thursday night.
"It was nothing that you wouldn't see from a typical rock crowd of 7,000 people," she said. Frost said the center doesn't allow mosh pits at concerts.
The center informs the public of this policy by posting signs and playing a recording.
It also has put in place measures to control the crowd, Frost said. People who have been helped over the barricade in front of the stage the first time have their hands marked. The second time they get helped over, they're told to leave.
These measures, however, didn't stop people from getting hurt Thursday.
"Unless they do something totally different, things are not going to improve if they have mosh pits," Barnd said.
Often, people in the mosh pit express themselves by jumping up and down on the same spot, known as pogo-ing, and also by body-slamming -- launching themselves into the air onto other people in the pit.
I love the names of the bands there: Disturbed, Stone Sour, Flyleaf and Nonpoint.
I think "Nonpoint" just about sums it up for me.
These sound like a disaster waiting to happen, like in stampede.
Believe me, you don't want to get caught in the mosh pit of the LBS charity concert.
human "moshed" potatoes ..
Wow. Far cry from holding a Bic lighter up at a Led Zeppelin concert.
Actually, I must admit to loving The Walkmen.
sounds like an Inaugural Ball to me ... without the black tie.
What is LBS charity concert? Sorry for my ignorance.
I'm just surprised people paid $ to watch and listen to that garbage.
Small joke. Loose Bowel Syndrome.
Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen.
Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself.
Robert Anson Heinlein
OK, that will work lol. Thanks!
That's about 7,000 more than go to a Dixie Chicks concert.
I've got to remember which forum I'm on here, opened a real can of worms on one tonight lol. Not this one. Well, not recently anyway.
He lets his kid go to this thing and expects others to take responsibility for it?
Down with the sickness-- pogoing? Hey, Cedar Rapids- it's 2006!
I was at a Black Crowes show years ago when some punks started that "mosh pit"crap.The singer ,Chris Robinson,stop the song and politely asked the idiots to stop it and give everyone else some consideration that wanted to enjoy the show.When they wouldn't stop he stopped the song again and cussed them out down one side and up the other and threatened to have them all thrown out.I always thought that moshing was ignorant anyway and anyone that does it gets what they deserve if they get all busted up.
Ive been to a couple of small Punk Rock shows (few dozen people at most) as an observer (a friend of mine was playing in one of the bands) and the activity has great potential for injury. The people running those kept it under control by hustling out anyone who got too violent, but I could see how hard that could be in much larger settings/crowds.
Funny, I have only a faint idea of the music because I was wearing earplugs the whole time (my ears physically hurt the first time I got just inside the doorway without them in).
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