As I sit here and type this, I am listening to a live feed of the scanner by the Marion County MECA Fire & Rescue in Indiana. Apparently, the stage collapsed just before the Sugarland concert at the Indiana State Fair.  They had delayed the show, but were hoping to ride it out. Yet strong winds and storm conditions were enough to make the stage collapse, injuring at least a dozen and right now the Indy Star has confirmed 4 dead. For the past hour on the scanner, I’ve been listening to reports that there is a certain 10 year-old girl nowhere to be found, yet a second ago the paramedics just said that they transported a 10-13 y/o “unconscious female, possibly named Maggie” to the local emergency.

Last night and tonight, Kid Rock is having sold out shows at Comerica Park and holding a huge block party in downtown Detroit. I almost went to both, but passed.
When I followed a link to this story at MSNBC, it delivered me to my local MSNBC page, where I saw a story headlined, “Kid Rock Show Will Go On, Rain or Shine” … I don’t know if it’s even fair to make a comparison, or draw any parallels here, but one thing rings true, regardless:

It doesn’t matter what the show is, “the show must go on” isn’t always true. Safety comes first. Period.

. . . and just as I typed that, someone on Twitter tweeted at me, “So REO Speedwagon is coming on stage to play youtu.be/DPk4EX2GDc0” … wherein the story behind this song/link is:

In 1991, there was a huge event in Orlando called Festival in the Park. Several big name acts were scheduled to play but a hurricane came through the day before. Most acts canceled & instead of 10s of 1000s of people, only a handful of people turned out. REO probably still would’ve gotten paid if they’d canceled, but they came out anyway & played to us, less than 100 people in the pouring rain, full-throttle for 3+ hours non-stop. they closed the show with this song and it was truly incredible.

While that’s nice, and could seem a gallant effort, the timing of that person’s tweet to me was before he was aware of the confirmed causalities, and I was. Which means at that specific moment in time, I found it very tasteless. He didn’t know at the time, so I can’t blame him for just wanting to be funny, but still …… the point is, people, SAFETY trumps everything else.

Earlier today I was elated to find out that the National Show Ski Championships (Division I) were being streamed online, and watched it fervently as I was cleaning my apartment today. See, show water skiing WAS MY LIFE growing up. My home team, Silver Lake Ski Club, just placed 4th in Division II a week or so ago, and lately I’ve had nothing on my mind but show skiing and “back in the day.”

Then the storms rolled in today. And I was also reminded of some shows where we did some pretty stupid shit in the name of “the show must go on.”

The one incident that stands out the most in my mind was the year we did a show at the Michigan State Show Ski tournament (a.k.a. “states”) with an impending storm very close on the horizon. The judges decided that the weather was OK enough for us to go on with the show, and so we did … but toward the end of the show (you’re allotted exactly one hour) the clouds were so ominous, and it started raining, and we were worried we wouldn’t be able to finish.

Traditionally in show skiing, the pyramid is the last act. And we were lucky enough that the weather had let us make it to the pyramid act. But though we had taken first in states numerous years in a row previous to that year, our competition that year was
TOUGH.

There were about 5 minutes deliberation among our team of whether or not we should go on with the show. I was in the pyramid act, and really, I was very young, and I didn’t have much of a say one way or the other. If I was to climb to the top of the pyramid, honestly, I didn’t have much of a choice. I trusted their judgment.

Let me just tell you one thing: Deciding to do ANY kind of sporting event in an impending thunder/lightning storm is NOT A SMART IDEA. And it’s REALLY not a smart idea if you’re ON THE WATER.

We decided to go with it anyway.

Luckily, we made it off the dock OK, but I was a part of that pyramid act, and let me tell you, when you’re standing on someone’s shoulders on water skis, being pulled by a boat at aroud 25-30 mph, and you see a lightning bolt come down from the sky NOT-TOO-FAR-IN-THE-DISTANCE, even at 13 years old, you start to wonder one simple thing: Is this REALLY worth almost getting killed?!

Obviously, since I’m writing this, we didn’t get killed, and yes, we did walk away with another state trophy that year, but I can’t help but think, “what if we didn’t? what if somebody were seriously hurt?”

Even though we were extremely lucky on all fronts, the fact is, given the weather conditions, we really should not have been on the water at that point. I was 3-tiers high, being pulled by a boat, on a lake, and I saw LIGHTNING, people! 

Which brings me to the Sugarland concert tonight in Indiana.

I’ve been working in and around music for over a dozen years. It’s not nearly as physically dangerous as show skiing (usually), but there’s a lot that can go wrong. Unfortunately, tonight, it was the concert goers vs. G-d, because there’s nothing anybody could have done. I mean, they were waiting it out … the opener had already performed, Sugarland had decided to wait it out, the fans were waiting, enthusiastically, in the rain and the storm … and then Mother Nature decided to take down the stage, and some dozen or more people with her. You can’t blame the roadies for this.

This isn’t even a question of whether or not that was “fair,” because those arguments are futile. This is more or less a reexamination of our common sense here, people.

Obviously, by my example above, I’ve done some really stupid shit in the name of glory.

And obviously, by my twitter friend’s example above with the REO Speedwagon story, people will do some similarly stupid shit in the name of glory/music/whatever. I could add plenty more of my own examples to that, but I won’t.

The fact is, however — it doesn’t matter how “die-hard” you are in your passion, whether it’s music, or sports, or whatever … if your safety is in danger, your dedication is trivial.

(Note that I am NOT talking about those brave men and women who put it all on the line every day for our country … that’s a totally different story. NOTHING they do for our freedom is trivial, and EVERYTHING they do is appreciated.)

But the things we civilians take pride in — whether it’s a water ski state championship, or saying “I saw Suglarland in the pouring rain” … is, indeed, trivial compared to the big picture here, and we need to just use some common sense. I know that once those folks were there in the crowd, they couldn’t quite easily say “never mind, I’m going home.” But still, I chose not to go see Kid Rock tonight for a reason. I had plenty of opportunities. The degree of which you’re a fan doesn’t matter. The fact is, there will always be another concert, there will always be another tournament, and there will always be another chance to do or see something cool. But there will never be another YOU.

So please, be careful out there.

Photo 1 via IndyStar, photo 2 via the Silver Lake Ski Club.