Citing Liability Fears, UCI Opts Out of Punk Concert

IRVINE — UC Irvine has opted out of a Jan. 18 concert on campus with veteran O.C. punk band Social Distortion because university officials are increasingly worried about liability for injuries among moshing punk-rock fans.

No contract had been signed or tickets sold, according to UCI, but concert promoter Goldenvoice had already publicized the show at the 2,000-capacity Crawford Hall.

“We’re disappointed,” said Jim Guerinot, Social Distortion’s manager, on Monday. “We’ve played there five or six times in the past 10 years without incident.”

But Lance MacLean, director of programs and services for the school’s student government, said that venues recently presenting the band reported “quite a few injuries of a . . . significant nature.” Minor injuries were reported at the most recent punk show at UCI, a Dec. 15 concert by the Vandals.

David Shuman, manager of the Hollywood Palladium, said there were no problems during Social Distortion’s concert there in November. “We’d have no problem booking Social D again,” Shuman said.

Moshing, in which swirling clumps of fans bash their bodies together, and stage diving, wherein fans leap off the stage into the crowd, have been blamed in recent years for serious injuries. In June, Cincinnati officials banned the Smashing Pumpkins from their city after a teenager died of injuries suffered in a front-row crush at one of the band’s concerts in Ireland.

In 1991, UCI paid a $40,000 settlement to the parents of a teenager who needed stitches after a speaker was toppled by a fan at a Public Image Ltd. concert, MacLean said.

Since then, the university has scrutinized the bands it books, MacLean said. He added that reports of such injuries have increased in the past two years and that officials have “looked a little closer” at each group’s tendency to attract moshers.

Passing on the concert by Social Distortion, which last played Crawford Hall in a sold-out 1992 show, was “gut-wrenching,” he said, adding that the decision also reflects negative publicity the university has received over its fertility clinic.

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“It’s knee-deep in litigation over eggs in a hospital and just very fearful of anything that would expose them to excessive liability,” MacLean said.

In the past year, the school has opted against booking three alternative-rock bands, said MacLean, who would not name those groups.

“At any alternative show we do, we’ll have what I call standard injuries,” he said. “People are out moshing, and someone gets knocked down, bumped, bruised or scraped, or sprains a wrist. We’ll treat at least one bloody nose.”

Guerinot, who booked bands for UCI as a student there in 1984, said Social Distortion has never been sued for a concert-related injury. He added that it was “in fact booked” at UCI and that while Goldenvoice had “not gotten around” to putting tickets on sale, promoters rarely sign contracts before doing so.

Rock bands are being unfairly singled out, said Guerinot, who also manages multimillion-selling punk band the Offspring and heads the Laguna Beach-based Time Bomb Records.

“If [schools] are going to say no concerts because you don’t want students to get injured,” he said, “don’t let them play field hockey. Take away the athletic program. I imagine there have been more lawsuits at basketball games.”

MacLean said he hopes to book the band in the future and that punk and alternative-rock bands will take an active role in calming boisterous fans.

Social Distortion interrupts its shows when audience members begin fighting, Guerinot said. “I’ve seen [lead singer Mike Ness] get down off the stage, go into the audience and stop fights and get the guys who are fighting thrown out. We’ve never had a problem.”