When the House of Blues first hit Landsdowne Street last year, Boston residents who were invested in the city’s beloved Axis and Avalon clubs were disappointed that their space was given to a corporate chain. But they probably expected the company &-&- which has been operating for nearly 20 years &-&- would be able tell the difference between blocking fire escapes with beer kegs and leaving those spaces cleared in the event of an emergency.
Fire officials closed down the Fenway venue Friday night for the second time this month and prevented thousands of fans from catching Philadelphia’s Disco Biscuits’ show. Stupid and careless oversights wasted the time of paying patrons, forced a band to scrap its set and The House of Blues marketed itself to a city full of hypercritical citizens as less of a trustworthy &-&- or even functional &-&-entertainment company.
While allowing crowds to gather near doors or forgetting to take out trash barrels that block the full extent of their swing seem like inconsequential practices, the tragic fire at Rhode Island’s Station nightclub in 2003 &-&- which left 100 people dead and hundreds more injured &-&- is proof that simple lapses in judgment can result in overwhelming disaster. There, basic pyrotechnic devices sparked an uncontrollable fire that ravaged the small building and devoured its patrons.
The House of Blues is nationally recognizable, but that does not absolve it of its basic responsibilities, and a cavalier approach toward business does not make it invincible. Receiving a citation and making no conscious effort to rectify practices thereafter indicates the company is too busy to be bothered and is eventually bound for problems of much greater magnitude than show cancellations or slaps on the wrist.
Saturday’s Kid Cudi concert was packed to the brim and went off without a hitch. But the room full of Boston University students at the House of Blues was at the mercy of a management team that has implicitly told its crowd it just doesn’t give a damn. Maybe it’s a stretch to say the students in attendance were in danger, but disasters are unplanned, and the dozens of concertgoers who died in Rhode Island nearly a decade ago probably didn’t expect the concert that night to be their last.
For a business that is hosting Lupe Fiasco, Snoop Dogg and Corinne Bailey Rae in coming months, it is certainly caught up in amateurism. It would be a mistake for The House of Blues to assume business as usual will yield continued success.
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