Yo and hello, y'all,

Plez here. Hmm. . . what can anybody say about that nightclub fire thing? Awful stuff. Here's what I say about it. What I fear most is not nightclub fires but an overreaction to them. Y'know, I'm sure you're likelier to die falling down your own stairs than in a nightclub fire. Overall. Of course, if someone is using indoor fireworks in your house, I guess your odds of falling down your own stairs go WAY up as you try to find the exit. I heard that Nashville started doing surprise inspections of local spots. Of course, they will find violations. Naturally, they will. But does that mean we need some sort of super crackdown on nightclub safety? Sprinklers everywhere, no matter how large the club? Would this be a good idea? I don't know. Safety is good. Overreactions are not. But lemme ask this one, too: just what in the heck was Great White's pyro guy thinking? I guess that band still didn't realize they weren't stadium rock ready anymore. In Rupp Arena, I'm sure those showers of sparks would've been no problem. In that place, wow, it's not too surprising that they set something on fire, is it? I mean, I'm not the first guy to notice that from the video, either.

Ok, I have an apology to make, and it does relate to this fire safety issue. Drew, forgive me for telling one of our secrets without your permission. Here goes. The Nightmares were playing one night at the old Quarterbacks, which should've held around 40 people, if you remember. Well, this night, there were about 300 in there or whatever. You all remember how unbelievably crowded that place could get. Well, the Pleztones were playing next door at the Pub Outback, and would you believe our crowd was somewhat SMALLER than theirs, like maybe smaller by about 290 or so. So Drew and I got the idea of walking down to the pay phone at Poor Richard's and making a little call to the fire dept. to report this dangerous situation at Quarterbacks. Heck, if we could get the cops to make 100 or so of 'em leave, they'd probably make their way over to the Pub, huh? Well, after a call to emergency services, we couldn't tell that anything ever happened, which I'm glad of, 'cause (even though I'm laughing remembering this) that was NOT a nice thing to do, so forgive us, Nightmares, and remember, it was probably fourteen or fifteen years ago, and they make Subway sandwiches in that place now.

Ok, most dangerous place I ever remember playing? A frat house we used to play at put us in a basement that had no exit whatsoever except up the stairs. If that place had gotten thick with smoke, whoa that would've been difficult. I'm glad it never happened. And even beyond the fire escape danger, this place was bad. Another story. Pleztones were playing there, with Stinky Finger. (We actually did two or three frat house shows together back then, and the money was better, by far, than the 4 bucks apiece you could expect at Quarterbacks or wherever.) Anyway, at the end of our set, we're rocking out, big closing chord style. Crash, smash, bang-a, bang-a, bang kinda thing. And and the last band, Plez decided to do his stadium rock jump in the air and land on the last chord, y'know. Very Angus indeed. Only, the ceiling here is about 8 feet high, and just below that are various pipes and wires and such. All up to modern codes, I'm sure. So, instead of ending with me doing a little Pete Townshend power chord deal, I crack my head right on a big black sewer pipe. I had a headache for a long time after that, but when I came back down, my hand went triumphantly in the air with RnR salute to the frat guys and their sorority girlfriends. Never let 'em see you sweat. But even more so, never let 'em know you just gave yourself a slight concussion.

Plez out. And by the way, very nice work from all of you on peace and war and such. I've been reading for a while without commentary. Brook, I haven't had a chance to look at the Pleztones stuff you put up, but thanks. Is it still there? I actually couldn't find the link you were talking about at first.

Ok, Plez definitely out.