Stratos

NOOOOOO!!!! Terrible. The best live song.

I wrote this email to the Union Tribune and the San Diego Fire Department today. (Sorry if it's too long mods.) Then I ended up in this article.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060808-1240-bn08street.html

And to the person directly above me. You know not what you speak of.

Hello,

I was in the "pit" at Tool/Street Scene and I would like to clarify some serious misconceptions. What happened during the 2nd song of the set was not a result of a "mosh pit." Not at all. It was the opposite in fact.

A mosh pit is what happens when a number of people start pushing the people around them and the crowd disperses creating an open space or a "pit" in the crowd. The people who began pushing then run around in this newly opened area in the crowd and "mosh." (I'll say "dance" loosely.) Open space is required for a mosh pit to exist. This point is key.

The situation at Tool was very very different. As I said, it was the opposite. What happened was not a result of a few people attempting to "mosh" in the front, it was a result of massive pushing and, in my opinion, the slope of the Qualcomm parking lot. The key here is moshing is avoidable and people who get hurt do so because they chose to enter the mosh pit. (usually.)

Remember the layout of the stage. The stage itself was facing west while the crowd faced east. The left side of the stage was on higher ground than the right side due to the slope of the parking lot. Also remember the left side of the stage had part of the stage sticking out that previously had the camera mounted there for the other acts. This camera was taken down for Tool. But consider how the front railing was not flat, it had that part sticking out with the angle pushing down the hill, almost like a funnel.

I was standing about 10 feet from the stage on the left side, the higher ground, near the part of the railing that "stuck out." During the opening song there was the typical pushing, nothing out of the ordinary. When the 2nd song came on, though, the pushing became very bad. When pushing happens in a crowd like this one has to just go with the flow. They need to walk with the crowd. Right after the pushing got real bad I found myself on the right side of the stage further down the hill. During this time people were getting very scared and upset. There was no where for anyone to go and people were getting squished standing up. Anyone who was short or smaller was in a very bad situation. I am 6'5" and 220 pounds myself, and have been in many front row concert situations, and this was by far the worst pushing ever. I was having a difficult time; people who were 5'5" were in very bad shape. (at one point I had to stand on the tips of my toes and look up to breath fresh air, at 6'5".)

This pushing happened for a few minutes and people were very scared. Some people were "crowd surfing" to the front barrier so security would pull them out. There were many girls and smaller people at this point who were not having a good time. There was a lot of crying and screaming. And the worst was yet to come. At this point a group of people fell down. Think about the physics of this for a moment. Imagine the people as upside down bowling pins. When everyone is standing up the pressure of the crowd is on our torsos. Our legs are just there to hold us up and move around. Once this group of people fell down there was no longer any pressure on people's torsos on the edges of where they fell. And since there was still plenty of pressure from the pushing, people on the edges fell on top of the people who fell down. Then more pressure was released and more people fell "into" this mess. It caused a sort of chain reaction. And the effect was almost like a flower blooming backwards. This is when things got very serious and when people got hurt. People were attempting to help people up but they were being pushed. People were extremely scared at this point. People were being crushed under the people who were falling on top of them.

I fell in this "hole" as well. When I did I was kinda sitting on a guy who was lying flat on his back on the ground. Then someone fell on my legs so I was unable to get up. It took two people behind me to pull me up from my arms before we could get the other people up. During the time I was on the ground I was very close to the people who had fallen. There were many people on the ground curled in a fetal position trying to survive.

It was around this time that Tool stopped and told everyone to take a step back and Maynard asked for some light in the front. (which he never got.) At this point there was a lot of security and police/fire officials on the other side of the barrier pulling people out. Maynard continued to ask people to step back and they waited the 10 minutes or so for people to step back. After I stepped back I was now about 40-50 feet from the stage.

Remember I had brought up the slope of the parking lot. The spot that everyone fell was the lowest point of the parking lot in front of the stage. Everyone in the front area was already in front so they weren't pushing except backwards. The 10,000 people behind us, though, wanted to be closer, and they were pushing forward. And they had the advantage of higher ground. It was like tug of war but backwards. The people in the front never had a chance between the number of people and the slope of the parking lot. Even the left side of the stage that was sticking out put us at a disadvantage as it created the funnel effect and there were "that many" less people able to help absorb the pushing. (meaning if the barrier was flat there would have been more people standing there and people in the back would have been pushing against a flat surface.)

Please, stop referring to this as a mosh pit. This was not a most pit. This also does not "come with the territory" as one person being interviewed said. This situation, in my opinion, was created by a few key things. First, the alcohol. Many of the people who did end up moshing when the show continued was the drunkards who had been at Street Scene all day and only wanted to beat people up regardless of who the "rock" band was at the end. The other aspect was the angle of the parking lot and the design of the stage. And of course the people pushing. But, the thing about the pushing. I have been to much "rougher" concerts and been in the front and I have never experienced something like this. There was a moment when I was scared for my life and there were minutes when I was scared for the lives of the people around me. And as I said, I'm a big guy. I can handle myself in situations like this but this was even too much for me. I now understand how people die in these situations.

I lost both of my shoes, my cell phone, and my sunglasses in this mess. This situation ruined the show for me afterwards as I stood there in my socks. I know Tool was unhappy with the situation as well. This is not the type of scene that happens at a Tool concert. (this was my 5th Tool concert.) Tool's music may be loud but it is anything from violent or "condoning" of this type of activity. I believe Maynard's comments during this whole time showed this. At the Tool show at Cox Arena in 2002 people didn't even mosh; they just stood there in awe listening to the music. (I was on the floor of that show as well.)

I read in the article today that city officials will be meeting about this situation. I would love for them to have this information and know about the slope situation and how uneven footing played a role in this.

If anyone would like to contact me for additional details or questions, my phone number is ...

Thank you, and again, please stop calling this a mosh pit. =] Unfortunately I don't know what the name for this is. The crowd was imploding from the pressure.

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