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Show Saf Palace rockers go awry Twisted terrorism at home For just one moment, forget the destruction in the Mideast Death struck closer to home last week in a modem form of twisted terrorism. As I write this column, two 14-year-olds are dead and an 18-year-old BYU coed is being kept alive by a life support system after the three were crushed at an ACDC rock ft ; 9; BRIAN GRAY Columnist The ACDC concert was nothing out of the ordinary. As a Salt Palace security guard told a reporter, "People were just fighting to get to the frQnt But every concert is like this. You know what you're getting into when you go to a concert But many parents didn't know. They didn't know that concert-goers concert-goers often get jammed to the floor in a sub-human tidal wave. Nineteen-year-old Brandi Burton didn't expect that she would be smothered by "the 10 to 20 people laying on top of me" as her friend called out ' 'Brandi, I can't breathe." And they didn't expect the response from the band. Despite the obvious potential for injuries, the ACDC bunch apparently refused a request from the security officers to stop playing and none of the Salt Palace employees had the guts to pull the plug. Kids were getting suffocated suf-focated while a 31-year-old Australian guitarist stomped around r the stage in school-boy pants and the lead singer shrieked lyrics in a voice high enough to annoy dogs. Again, the band's response is nothing new. A local music reporter wrote that "the constant stream of fans being passed over the barricades bar-ricades to avoid injury is becoming an accepted part of most concert-going concert-going experiences." Ten years ago ACDC had the sixth best-selling album in the country; today, their latest album ranks at Number Seven proving that, for teen-agers, a fool and his money is soon parted. While teen-agers are being trampled, ACDC were glowingly singing about "Sin City" and "Dir ty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap." And life was cheap at the Salt Palace, too. Don't blame what happened on alcohol and drugs. That deadly duo was present at the Paul Simon concert several days earlier, but the more mature fans merely swayed in their seats, waved peace signs and lit matches. The ACDC crowd is not into matches; in a sweaty rumble to the front stage, hard rock fans will use a blowtorch. The families of the victims will most probably consult an attorney, and Salt Palace authorities will usher out statistics ("We met all fire codes and the event was not a sell-out"). In the meantime, ACDC, the band that wouldn't stop to minimize the carnage, will be strutting their sex-oriented lyrics in another site for a $70,000 evening fee. But at some point, I hope an attorney at-torney asks Salt Palace officials a simple question: "When you knew there was trouble and the band refused to stop playing, why didn't someone unplug the amplifiers and turn on the lights?" If the answer is something like, "We were afraid of what the fans would do," then we'll know everything every-thing we need to know about the future of heavy metal rock concerts. That answer would also dovetail neatly with Brandi Burton's agonizing agoniz-ing words as she passed out: "I could hear the music thumping and was just saying 'Please, God, let me live.' " 1 ' concert in the Salt Palace. The teenagers teen-agers were not victims of terrorists or unyielding fundamentalists. Rather, they were the latest casualties of a common rock music tradition which overlooks safety and unruliness in a mad scramble for easy money. Most Davis County parents were unaware of this tradition. 'I always assumed a ticket bought you a seat," said one man. "And if you had a seat, you'd stay in it." But at "festival seating" events, there are no seats. Teen-agers cram into the arena and then further bully their way close to the stage with all the crazed decorum of a Brazilian soccer crowd. A heavy metal concert con-cert is no place for a gentleman or a blonde and it's no place for a 14-year-old who lacks die muscle of a pro wrestler or the brass knuckles of a common thug. |