Smokin'

Palladium expected to reopen next weekend

by Carly Carioli

Blame it on the Deadheads. The Palladium nightclub in Worcester was forced to close last weekend after a small blaze was started in a utility closet just before a performance by the Grateful Dead spinoff band Ratdog around 9:15 p.m. Saturday. The closet was adjacent to the club's balcony; about 1200 patrons were evacuated. No one was hurt and damage was minimal. The fire was contained in the closet, and was labeled "suspicious" by the Worcester Fire Department, which ruled out electrical or chemical causes.

"Someone was smoking something in there, out of the way," says John Peters of MassConcerts, which books the club. "That's what the fire department seems to think."

Peters says the club's sprinklers and fire alarms are calibrated to respond to temperature, not smoke, and that management decided not to pull manual fire alarms because the evacuation was proceeding smoothly, and the logic of shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater seemed dubious. "It was a rock show, after all," says Peters. "There are 12 fire exits, and people were leaving in an extremely orderly fashion. The fire wasn't near the concertgoers, so there wasn't any point in exciting them."

By law, the club must get a green light from the city's Department of Public Health and Code Enforcement before reopening. "The Board of Health closes the place until you fix the fire damage," Peters acknowledges, but says he hopes repairs can be completed by the end of the week. The Palladium was cited for numerous infractions of the city's fire and building codes in December 1999, but was declared up to code in January of this year.

It's expected to reopen in time for next Friday night's concerts by Dio in the Palladium's main room and the punk band Anti-Flag in the smaller upstairs room, but several gigs scheduled for this weekend had to be canceled following the small blaze. The club will be closed at least through this Sunday. At press time, canceled gigs included tonight's previously scheduled performance by the metal band Pro-Pain, Saturday night's performance by Slaves on Dope, and a JAM'N 94.5-sponsored after-party for Saturday night's "Jingle Ballers Jam" tour. Refunds for those shows, as well as for the Ratdog concert, are available to ticket holders at point of purchase. Friday night's performance by DJ Skribble has been moved to Il Palazzo, 100 Wall Street, Worcester; call (508) 756-7117.