Insomniac Sues City of Los Angeles

If you’ve checked the LA Times website lately you may have stumbled upon an article regarding the fact that the Tiesto show in Los Angeles has been canceled and there is a seven figure lawsuit regarding this cancellation. Oh boy.

Tiesto @ The Shrine, Los Angeles 2009

Some people, of course, couldn’t be happier. Many electronic music fans think Tiesto is the epitome of a horrible trance DJ who just spins various CDs and doesn’t do anything. I of course respectfully disagree. I have seen Tiesto in LA every time he’s played since 2007 and was planning on going to this show. I thought a Halloween Tiesto show would be awesome, especially since it was on the EDC flyers and was scheduled to be at the LA Convention Center which, to my knowledge, has never hosted a dance music event. A few weeks ago, however, there began circulating rumors of cancellation and the event disappeared from the Insomniac calendar. And now we know why.

But look, whether you love Tiesto or not, this could easily happen to your next favorite DJ or event. So therefore, let’s think about what this means (and it’s not a double rainbow). There are a few important issues that this cancellation brings up:

The Future of Dance Music Events in LA

Although the reason for cancellation has not been explicitly given, it seems to be centered around the EDC death of a 15 year old girl from a couple of months ago (now confirmed to be an ecstacy overdose by the coroner). An analogy can be made between this and revoking the liquor license of a bar that had a 19 year old die of alcohol poisoning at the bar. I don’t really find this analogy to be 100% true because this is a concert, not a bar, and you can’t expect the promoters to control every single person and every single event at the concert. However I do think steps could have been taken to prevent the death and I welcome the city of LA pushing Insomniac to find new ways to prevent such things from happening in the future.So yeah, a slap on the wrist of Insomniac couldn’t hurt. But I think that the bad publicity and investigation that has been launched are both pretty legitimate slaps on the ol’ wrist.

Also, here’s the thing – it seems to me, personally, that steps by Insomniac have already been taken. Insomniac has made all events 18+ and I have heard numerous accounts from various events that they have been checking and scanning IDs at the door (which they did not do before). Furthermore, I’m sure Insomniac has learned lessons from EDC and the next time they have 100,000 concertgoers come to the Coliseum, they will do things differently. But that doesn’t even matter in this case – the LA Convention Center event would have had 17,000 attendees and that’s a bit easier to control. Also, the Convention Center reps were apparently the ones who wanted the event there in the first place and would surely have taken precautions in terms of the safety and enjoyment of the fans.

So why is the city canceling a completely DIFFERENT event 4 months after something bad happened at EDC? We’re talking about a completely different type of event – just one DJ and one main room, less people, different venue, etc. Surely if Insomniac was allowed to have Audiotistic and if Monster Massive is still scheduled to go on, this could go on too? The only similarity, which the LA Times has certainly pointed out numerous times, as that Tiesto also plays electronic music which is now beginning to be invariably associated with overdosing and drugs… With the cancellation of this as well as the SF LovEvolution Parade I am beginning to be seriously worried about the state of EDM events.

The State of EDM Events

So right now we’ve got a few big events coming up but we’ve also got big cancellations and the Rave Task Force investigating matters at raves. What will their results be? No one can say for sure but one easily reachable conclusion is to stop all these events alltogether due to drug use. This would be a bad idea since the events would simply go back underground and become even less safe – Europe and the other continents are continuing the growth of EDM so it would be silly to think we can just stop it here in the LA area, especially considering the fact that Orange County and San Diego are blooming with all sorts of events right now.

I certainly hope that LA isn’t going to take the mindset of electronic music = drugs and we should cancel any and all events at any cost. That would be quite a scary thought.

Other suggestions from the Task Force could be to make events safer in some aspects, perhaps increase police presence, etc. which is all fine. But then there is a new problem that arises: the fans. That’s right, you heard me. I’m going to put partial blame on the fans. Having gone to numerous events in the past few years, I’m talking approximately one per month, ranging from clubs to massives, I can safely say that the fans have a large part to play in what’s going on. All sorts of safety measures can be put in place but if the fans continue to act irresponsibly, ultimately nothing can be done to stop bad things from happening. If it wasn’t for irresponsible drug and alcohol users, this probably wouldn’t be happening right now.

So to those people, and all EDM fans, I issue a call:

I am calling to everyone right now to TONE IT DOWN. I feel like Lil’ Jon at EDC. Chill the fuck out people! Enjoy the music. Enjoy the world class DJs that come to our city, play to huge crowds, then list the event as their favorite of the year. Enjoy the people that fly from all over the world to come to events in LA. Enjoy the massive productions and lights that are staged just for you. Don’t ruin it by going out of control, being selfish, and doing what YOU want to do at a particular moment rather than thinking of the greater good. That’s what dance music is all about – huge crowds of people coming together to enjoy music, feel the energy and the vibes, and take these songs and experiences to another level. It can be the best feeling in the world standing among thousands of people with your hands in the air enjoying a track by one of your favorite DJs. However, just a few people can blow it by getting out of control, trampling or pushing someone else, taking too many drugs, or endangering the safety of others. STOP RUINING IT FOR THE REST OF US.

As childish as this may sound… let’s be on our best behavior so we can have events like this and EDC again.

Tiesto’s Loaded

On a lighter note… Tiesto, according to the article, was supposed to make $250,000 from this event. In one night, 3 hours, you make 250 grand. That’s pretty baller if you don’t mind me saying. I’m sure there are artists that make more, but that’s still a TON of money. The guy has his own private jet and plays around the world to huge audiences everywhere and if he makes this much from just one gig a month, he’s pretty much good to go. (that’s 3 mil, if anyone’s doing the math). Dabble a bit on the side with some productions, albums, mix CDs, and smaller events and you’ve got yourself a nice little paycheck.

Some hate, some love. I say kudos Tiesto. Whether you’re the best EDM dj or not, you are good at making money.

© 2010, M Silin. All rights reserved.