The South Shore of Massachusetts is apparently too close to Rhode Island for a concert by the band Great White.
Great White had been scheduled to play Sept. 26 at Club Odyssey in Weymouth, just seven months after the band's pyrotechnic display started a fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick. The blaze killed 100 people and injured about 200 more from around southern New England.
But the concert was canceled Thursday after complaints from people who thought the Massachusetts venue was too close to the scene of the Feb. 20 tragedy, according to the Weymouth mayor's office.
"We did get official word that it was actually canceled," Shelby Tillett, assistant to Weymouth Mayor David Madden, said yesterday morning.
She said the band's manager called the office Thursday to say that the concert had been called off.
Tillett said the mayor's office had received "tons" of calls from people complaining about the scheduled concert.
Great White's publicist, V.Q. Promotions of Burbank, Calif., also issued a statement Thursday night, saying the concert had been canceled "due to negative reaction by the local radio stations."
"Although hundreds of people have requested the band perform in New England, the band feels that this is about healing," the statement says. "The people in Rhode Island and Massachusetts have already had enough pressure to deal with. The band does not wish to add further stress in any way."
The band, which lost one of its members in the fire, did not play for five months after the fire, but has been touring outside of New England to raise money for fire victims.
In an interview last month, band leader Jack Russell said the band was taking out enough money from the concerts to cover expenses and giving the rest to The Station Family Fund, a nonprofit group organized to provide relief to those affected by the blaze.
The Sept. 26 performance would have marked Great White's first performance in New England since the fire. The band had previously scheduled a Sept. 26 performance at Club Liquid in Leominster, Mass., but that, too, was canceled.
Club Odyssey owner Bill King had confirmed earlier Thursday that the band was scheduled to play Sept. 26. He said he understood that some people were upset by the concert, but he thought it would raise money for a good cause.
He could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Some people believe any good from the concert would have come at too high a price.
"It's too close to Rhode Island. There are too many families from Massachusetts involved," said Dawn Moquin, of New Bedford, Mass., whose former boyfriend, the father of her son, was injured in the fire.
Moquin and her current boyfriend, Leo Wells, also of New Bedford, are part of a group, including survivors, friends and family, pushing an online petition to keep the band from playing in Rhode Island, Massachusetts or Connecticut.
The group started the petition last month when the band was scheduled to play in Leominster.
The group redoubled its efforts when word spread of the Weymouth concert, and it's keeping the petition going in case the band tries to schedule another date in the area, Moquin said. It can be viewed at: http://www.appearingnearyou.com/petition.html
