GREAT WHITE To Play Club Where "Dimebag" Darrell Died
August 17, 2007, 16 years ago
According to The Associated Press, the rock band whose pyrotechnics ignited a deadly nightclub fire is scheduled to play an Ohio venue tonight that has its own troubled past.
GREAT WHITE is booked to perform at Alrosa Villa, the Columbus nightclub where guitarist "Dimebag'' Darrell Abbott (ex-PANTERA, DAMAGEPLAN) and four others died in a 2004 shooting.
The fire on February 20, 2003, at The Station nightclub killed 100 people. It began when the band's pyrotechnics ignited flammable soundproofing foam inside the club.
Concert industry watchdog Paul Wertheimer of Los Angeles-based Crowd Management Strategies calls it "a match made in hell.''
The club's manager says he realized the booking would raise eyebrows but was thinking of the fans.
Great White lead singer Jack Russell says his band will always be under a cloud but wants to keep moving on.
