2009-08-08 Underworld @ HardFest Los Angeles Aug 8th

[TheBang]

Don't blame the people attending. As much as I wanted to punch everyone with a pacifier (so basically, everyone) in the face, this clusterfuck rests squarely on the shoulders of the promoter.

Karl tweeting now:

What happened there!? arrived into a vibe that just didn't feel right reminded me of Athens like it could escalate badly but we waited...

[khouri]

Clusterfuck is really the only appropriate word. Everything about this event went wrong, from the minute you arrived at the venue. I won't be surprised if this puts HARD out of business, what with refunding all the tickets (i assume), paying the artists and paying the venue. Not to mention the serious damage to HARD's reputation. This is a class A disaster.

[BeautifulBurnout]

On the face of it, it sounds like the organisers just didn't provide the necessary staff to ensure this event passed off safely. Trying to do it on the cheap and max out their profits, no doubt.

What idiots.

I often think we are over the top with our Health and Safety legislation in the UK - x number of marshalls for events, x number of security guards, x arrangements for car-parking etc. or the event doesn't happen - but it's at times like this when I realise that actually it serves a good purpose.

I hope you guys sue, frankly.

[Troy McClure]

http://twitpic.com/d9b5o

Pic from inside the forum, for what it's worth. Looks like way oversold.

Jason

[jumbotron]

Who knows the band well enough to get them to do a show tomorrow

All the organizers had to do was to tell the crowd what they needed to do in order to restart the music. Instead, they just berated the ppl who were f*cking it up for everyone else - key info left out though was what were they doing that was wrong? Good communication could have easily solved the problem, as people were there to have a good time & would've done whatever they had to to get the show going.

Speaking of good communication, who knows the band well enough to get them to do a show tomorrow Even a stripped down one without all the gear!

[viddy]

Posted pictures on my facebook. These are available for anyone to view:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...5&l=aaeb29f676

I'm really sad my Underworld show turned into a freaking warzone, especially considering how much I paid for my tickets and parking!

I'm home, but I'm still buzzed a bit from the beers. Maybe I'll pop in the Everything Everything DVD......

[khouri]

I will happily go see Underworld wherever in the city they want to perform. Barring a performance, what about some kind of meet and greet with the boys? It should be pretty easy to organize with the dirty forum. Many of us have identified ourselves as being at the LA show.

I dunno, just thinking out loud, trying to process my disappointment. Not to sound like an idiot but this violence and dickery is really everything a rave is meant to reject, not embrace.

Anyone at the Adventurer hotel? Thinking about congregating by the pool when the cops leave.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who PMed me about meeting up on this trek. I'm afraid I'm too much of a n00b to think of checking my messages. I hope everyone had as rad a time in Vegas and Oakland as me and my friends did (including Stepho, my gf who Underworld said happy birthday to in the last broadcast!) I can more easily be reached on Twitter at username @killkillkill. Would change the sig but internet is rubbish.

[khouri]

Oh right. I'm the white dude in the black Daft Punk t-shirt.

[TheBang]

Should've realized that something was up when this was the very first thing I saw upon arriving at the venue:



There was a big crowd rush on one of the entrances (or it might've been the TicketMaster will-call), and a whole bunch of police converged. The "oooooh" you hear on the video was people reacting to the police taking a guy down to the ground (I didn't capture it well on the video).

It just got worse from there. The Groove Tickets will-call had a line that stretched for hundreds of feet. I probably would have been waiting an hour if I hadn't cut the line. And amazingly, they only had 75% of the will call windows open.

Then the ticket entrances to the venues had huge lines also. Fortunately, I found a place where there was no crowd and got it fairly easily. Once I got in at 10 PM, the music had already been stopped for about half an hour. They made a few announcements about people sitting down or clearing certain rows and stuff, but nothing detailed enough for people to understand. After about 10:30 they stopped making announcements.

At just after 11 PM, I had just stepped outside the foyer for a second. Bad timing. Right at that moment, the staff forcibly shut the venue doors, and a line of riot police and staff were immediately on us, escorting us into the parking lot. I walked around the venue a little bit, and found my way back in through another entrance.

I think they already knew at that point that the show was cancelled though. I don't know why they let everyone wait around with no information until the announcement was made at just after midnight.

I made my way to the floor, and spoke to Toby Vogel as he was breaking down his equipment. He didn't even have a copy of the setlist yet, cause the boys hadn't made it yet (although Karl tweeted that the wrote it up away from the venue in the hopes that they would be able to return to play it). He also said that the boys felt gutted because they had put a lot of preparation into it and were looking forward to playing.

Then the riot police formed up and pushed everyone out of the floor:



And they even brought in a police helicopter. According to the policewoman I spoke to, she said it was shut down by the fire marshall because there were too many people and the venue wasn't big enough. Therefore, IMO, the blame falls squarely on the promoter, HARD, for overselling. I hope all the artists get paid in full, and that everyone gets their refund (which has been promised). HARD deserves to pay through the nose. Or, as the refrain went tonight, "Fuck HARD!"

[lloyd]

sure you weren't teleported back to Paris 1968?