Beyond dark days (continued)

Q: Do you feel like all this legislation since the fire is stripping away the essence of the club scene? Is it still fun?

Kevin Cummings: Does wearing your seat belt take away from driving a car?

Kevin Finnegan: To some degree, you have to homogenize. Put the seat belt on, you know? But beyond that, if you make me ski down a slope with a rubber suit on and a helmet, I don’t wanna ski anymore. There’s a point where you just want to ski. In a club, you want that energy, you want a crowd. I went from a 550 capacity to 132 for two months after the fire. It’s 187 now. I think the Ocean Mist is very comfortable and safe with the proper doors and proper sprinklers at 500 people. That’s the best. There is a happy medium. I mean, I love slam dancing, but I gotta tell people to stop doin’ that, ’cause if that kid hurts himself and doesn’t sue me, his mother’s definitely gonna sue me. If someone slips on an ice cube, I’m liable. I’m getting sued right now because a woman brought a drink on the dance floor and slipped on an ice cube.

Paul Hullabaloo: And it also affects the attitude of the bands and how far they are willing to take their act. I mean, the bands that are coming at music from a rock and roll perspective and bringing that type of a charge and a little danger to a place feel a little nervous about bringing that into the clubs. They don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable or nervous, and it’s like, "Well, then what the hell are we doing here then?" I understand you’re trying to be gentle on people’s sensibilities, but what are you providing?

Rich Lupo: You were talking about what kind of music a band feels like they can play at a club. Just for the record, I went back and forth probably five times whether or not to stop allowing hardcore music at the Met, ’cause property kept getting destroyed. I know things were kind of trashed to begin with, but the bathroom kept getting destroyed and you can’t afford to get a security guard in every bathroom, and we finally decided for the sake of rock and roll, we were gonna just keep doin’ it, and finally what happened was we had to stop. Economic development started causing neighbors to be concerned about what was going on, which I guess is the overriding factor in all of this. Business is getting harder and harder and harder, and the Station fire had something to do with it from a business standpoint.

Kevin Cummings: It seems that we’re pushing to make the clubs safer, and the media is covering this. But the message [that] potential audience members are getting is that our clubs aren’t safe. And the amazing thing is that most of these clubs, as far as I see, seem totally safe.

Kevin Finnegan: Three days before the fire, I owned the best club, it was a great place. I was an asset to the community, the people liked it, everybody liked it. After the fire, I was driving in my Harley-Davidson and I felt like Jesse James. I felt like I raped and murdered people. But I think the more meetings we have like this, the more people will look at us like serious musicians and serious businessmen, not just as bums in bands and guys with long hair that own nightclubs.

Rich Lupo: It pisses me off that because we serve liquor that somehow relates to a greater chance of having a fire, as opposed to a restaurant. It seems to me like they are more likely to have a fire.

Kevin Finnegan: There is more of an obesity problem in this country than a drinking problem — and how many people would hammer me for saying that? But I feel insulted. I mean, the Constitution was written with a bunch of beers around it. Two hundred years ago, taverns were the pillars of the community.

Q: To what extent has the reaction been out of balance in comparison to the safety issues?

Kevin Finnegan: Initially, it spiked. To me it’s on the fence — is it becoming over-reactionary? How long will it stay this way? I don’t know. Right now, if they settle this and get these laws in effect, I’ll have a better idea. I don’t wanna put the 60-inch door in because they might tell me it’s a 62-inch door. It’s still in flux.

Paul Hullabaloo: The presence of the fire marshals curbed off, which I’m glad about. It breeded more tension. What are they gonna do if the place bursts into fire? It’s just two more people in the building.

Kevin Cummings: Initially the fire marshals coming through made sense. We have a big responsibility. Fortunately, I think as far as our venue is concerned, I haven’t seen any overreactions.

Rich Lupo: I support the government in this case. Fire marshals came to me and said, "There are public schools without sprinklers, why are we doing this to you?" Parents are still overreacting, though, because they’re so far away from the scene. There are still kids who aren’t coming to rock shows.

Q: Wouldn’t it be easier to legislate things like smoking?

Kevin Cummings: Easy to legislate? Isn’t that a bad play on words? Our fire marshal did the best thing, I think. He went to all the public schools and took all the papers off the wall. The parents were outraged, but he was told that he had to, in order to keep it safe from fire. We had to take paper down off the walls in our clubs, so the schools and other public buildings had to do the same.

Heather Rose: Why in the world are people smoking in the clubs? That would be the one thing you could do to make sure that these clubs are up to code. Boston’s doing it. New York City is doing it.

Kevin Finnegan: But if you take that away, where does it end? When will they stop dictating what we can and can’t do?

Kevin Cummings: If the building is up to code, then smoking shouldn’t be an issue. If the products are commercial grade, fire won’t be an issue.

Heather Rose: Some of the things I saw people getting paranoid about surprised me. Smoking just struck me as something obvious to get rid of. But it’s the parents that I talk to that are still really paranoid about letting their kids go out. They think it’s still too dangerous.

Rich Lupo: The parents should know that our curtains are not flammable, that we have fire marshals, and sprinklers, and everything else.

Q: Looking into the crystal ball, what do you see in the not-so-distant future for the club scene?

Kevin Finnegan: What we talked about last year seemed to come true. There was a spike in anxiety, and we were forced to make money in other areas of our clubs than the nightlife. My prediction now would be, is this overreaction going to continue through the year? I don’t think so. I think common sense will prevail. Hopefully, in three to six months, we can do our jobs and the bands can do theirs. I’m confident it will come back to normal. Unless there’s something I’m not seeing. I think it’s human nature, and there have been worse disasters. And, fortunately or unfortunately, life goes on.

Heather Rose: With the one year anniversary there will be a spike. Maybe they’ll be a little more paranoia for a while. But unfortunately or fortunately, like Kevin said, as time goes on and we get further from the situation, people won’t stop what they’re doing. By now the clubs, the ones still up and running with music, are that much safer an environment for everybody.

Rich Lupo: I’m reminded of all the homes on the West Coast built around earthquake faults and the airports having tougher regulations. It’s pretty much been done. It’s just a much stricter environment, even though I think most of the clubs were pretty safe two years ago. I think permanently, people working for the government will be concerned with liability and they’ll be strict and that’s a good thing. Business will be getting worse and worse for smaller bands and smaller clubs.

Kevin Cummings: Our approach will be the same. In dealing with the inspectors and that part of it, there was a quick spike, and since then we’ve been slow and steady. People have to realize that this is real, this is life. I think we have to realize now that we’re all better off. It’s now easier to work with bands, and we’re better in helping to accommodate bands because everyone knows the rules of the game. Everybody gained an understanding of what could happen. I see it as progress. Unfortunately, it took a tragedy. There’s been more communication with officials and more communication with bands. In light of the tragedy, I think the scene has truly gained. If this is the state of the scene, then to me that’s what it’s supposed to be.

Paul Hullabaloo: From the bars and clubs, the thing I’ve noticed is the spike settled down, because complacency is the greatest medicator of the masses. You can live with the hair standing up on your neck your whole life. I think it normalized a while ago. Granted the club owners are still dealing with red tape, but with bands in bars, it’s the same pros and cons and it will always be that way. Just like 9/11, something else will probably happen, but until then, you can’t live with fear on your mind. I was in a bar two weeks ago, and I won’t say which one. But there were about 35 people in the whole place and we’re sitting there having a drink and the fire alarm went off. Funny thing was nobody moved. The only frenzy about it was how they were going to get the thing shut off. People were throwing their coats over it. Right away, it occurred to me that, "Yeah, I guess we’re over it."