Springfield Rock Mayhem

At the Springfield Civic Center.

Before it got eclipsed into irrelevance by larger halls, The Springfield Civic Center was the premiere rock venue in Springfield. This is what it looked like before it was renovated into what is now called The MassMutual Center.

Rock concerts in the Valley did not originate at the Springfield Civic Center, with famous concerts by the likes of The Doors, Led Zeppelin and Janis Joplin performed at such venues as the Springfield Auditorium (now called Symphony Hall) the Paramount and the long since vanished Capital Theater years before the Center was even built. But in its prime, the Civic Center brought the biggest acts on the touring circuit to the Pioneer Valley.

The most notorious concerts ever held at the Civic Center were performed by the Grateful Dead, until one concert produced a fatality that got the Dead thrown out of Springfield for good. As I've written about it before:

The Dead have a storied history in Springfield. They were the first rock band to play the Civic Center when it opened (alas I did not attend) and caused a riot when they refused to come on stage until the seats on the floor were removed (can't cramp the noodle dancers ya know). This took some time and the crowd waiting outside got restless until the next thing you know some windows got broken and a few people got hurt. 

Despite this bad omen the Dead continued to play the Springfield Civic Center yearly until 1985, when a person alleged to be freaking out on acid hurled himself off the old Forbes & Wallace parking garage and landed with a bloody splat on Boland Way. The Dead were then permanently banned from Springfield, the only band I believe to have earned that distinction.

Although it was less serious than the Dead fatality, a violent incident involving Sebastian Bach of the group Skid Row also put the Springfield Civic Center in the national spotlight. An internet account describes the incident as follows. 

Bach was arrested and tried on charges of mayhem, two counts of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon and two counts of assault and battery following this incident at a concert in Springfield, Massachusetts, where Skid Row was opening for Aerosmith on December 27, 1989. In this case, Bach also faced $10,000 bail, which he posted at the time of his arrest. He later received three years probation.

Bach was accused of attacking concertgoers by tossing a bottle from the stage and then leaping into the crowd. One person was kicked in the head, and another, a 17-year-old female, was hit in the face, breaking her nose and skull. Bach returned to the stage to finish the gig after the scuffle, in which he said was antagonized by some of the concertgoers in attendance, one of whom had hit him with a bottle, which is why Bach said he threw it back into the crowd.

A person with a video camera captured all of the violence for posterity - and a jury! Bach ultimately got off with probation.