Dimebag Darrell shot, killed onstage in Columbus

[TheGoodRev]

THIS IS SOME fu©ked UP sh!t!

I was not the biggest Pantera fan, but I sure as hell knew who the guy was from the guitar mags...this is fu©ked up.

From NBC.com:

At Least 5 Dead, 2 Wounded In Nightclub Shooting

Witnesses: Alleged Gunman Went Onto Stage, Fired Shots

POSTED: 10:32 pm EST December 8, 2004

UPDATED: 1:13 am EST December 9, 2004

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- At least five people died and two others were wounded after a shooting at a Columbus nightclub on Wednesday night, television station WCMH reported.

The shooting took place shortly after 10 p.m. at Alrosa Villa, located at 5055 Sinclair Rd.

Two members of the heavy metal band Damageplan were reportedly shot and killed, including Dimebag Darrell, formerly with the band Pantera, the station reported. The other band member's name was not released. The alleged gunman also died at the scene, according to police.

Full article

[paisley]

definately messed

cheers to Canada and our relative lack of daily shootings

[Jay Funk Dawg]

i like pantera back in the day... "CEMENTARY GATES" was out when I was in High School.. I saw em once at the Maple Leaf Gardens... great show... to bad about DD... any details about the motivation for these murders?

[Esau]

I just threw on "Vulgar Display of Power" after I read this.

Man,this fricken sucks,Darrell had one intense voice,awesome vocalist live,I would put money down, claiming Pantera to being one of the most aggressive,heaviest bands I have ever had the enjoyment of listening to.

Very sad news.

[dave-O]

Wow. Unbeleivable news on the anniversary of Lennon's death.

BTW Darrell was the guitarist, not the vocalist.

[Freak By Night]

I just threw on "Vulgar Display of Power" after I read this.

Man,this fricken sucks,Darrell had one intense voice,awesome vocalist live,I would put money down, claiming Pantera to being one of the most aggressive,heaviest bands I have ever had the enjoyment of listening to.

Very sad news.

Darrel was the guitarist for Pantera. The singer was Philip Anselmo.

I saw them in Montréal in '95. Phil went into some racist rage between songs. All in the audience couldn't believe it. That was the last I ever listened to Pantera. Racist jerks.

That being said, this shooting is terrible.

[colinw]

I was always able to enjoy Pantera back in the day and they were great to listen to. I recently saw DamagePlan open for Slayer which was also a great time. My tastes have slowly moved away from metal over the years, but it was great to see such a talented buy like Dimebag play live. He really was amazingly talented. Even if you don't like metal you should be able to appreciate his talent and ambition.

Crazy that the venue would allow someone all the way in with a gun and even up on stage.

Colin

[Pablo Sanchez]

I got this from another board. What a tragedy...

_________________________________________________________

I didn't go to the concert. Ministry was in town so I went to that show instead. I found out about what happened when I got a call from a publicist in Los Angeles asking me if I was okay.

I went out to Alrosa Villa. Spoke to a few witnesses. One who works for the club and did lights this evening, one fan who was right at the front of the stage when it happened and his wife, who was on the Patio where the guy crashed the fence. before he made his way onto the stage.

From what everyone has said, this was essentially an assassination. Yes, others were killed, but the guy made a bee-line right for Dimebag, held the gun right to his head and squeezed off three rounds. The witnesses I spoke to said that nothing was said, that the time between him getting onstage and pulling the trigger was too short, or that the music was so loud you couldn't hear anything anyway.

The assassin had one thing in mind. Nobody knows for what reasons as of yet, and maybe we will never know. (This won't stop suspicious minds from speculating, naturally.)

The police spokesperson said that an officer happened to be right around the club so he got to the club only about two minutes after the shooting started. From what I heard, the guy had emptied one clip, had loaded another and just started to shoot into the crowd. He also supposedly took a male hostage. The standoff didn't last long: The cop took out the suspect with a shotgun blast to the head.

Dimebag is dead and probably never knew what hit him. I don't know what other member is dead but rumor had it it was the bassist. Vinnie Paul is alive and shaken.

Among the rest of the dead are a club employee named Aaron, supposedly, a local loader. And the shooter.

I spoke to the owner of the club. He was incredibly shaken and didn't know what was going to happen. I felt really bad - I wanted to get a quote for the story I have to write but Rick is a good guy and a friend and I didn't want to ambush him mere hours after this tragedy. I hope I can speak with him on the record this afternoon.

I will repeat that he said that the actions taken by his bouncers was heroic and saved lives. Given how many shots this guy took (no less than 15 according to one person I spoke with) and how many people were within spitting distance of him (the venue was not sold out but was filled nicely - probably 500 or so people according to estimates I heard) this one could have easily been a lot worse.

I also made some calls to Phil Anselmo's people to get a reaction. Thus far, no official release, but a spokesperson said he was "devastated."

For the record (for those who don't know about Columbus) Alrosa has been here for a few decades. It still has the feel of the old New Jersey metal emporiums - and it booked a lot of the bands, then and now. However, bands such as Guided By Voices have graced the stage there. Shows in limbo include Satyricon and Hatebreed.

The owner Rick "The Rock And Roll Reverend" Cautella is an character. He always did his own commercials on the local radio station complete with loud sound effects. He seemed to enjoy the attention that came from this. He always made sure I got into the room and when I previewed a show for him, he's sport me a beer or two.

I'm rambling a bit with this stream-of-consciousness. All I know is that had I had an assignment to review this show - or even if Ministry wasn't in town this evening - I would have been at that show. It's hard to separate me as a writer trying to get as much information as possible for my story (stories, actually, since another of my outlets will probably ask me to supply something) and me as the guy who went to that place fairly often and knew a lot of the people there.

I don't know what will happen. I kind of feel like those folks in Rhode Island felt except even though so many more people died there, that was an accident caused by unfortunate negligence. This was completely intentional, an assassination as sure as I'm typing this, and that's just surreal to contemplate.

[Velvet]

Wow. I may be a bit sick, but I think about this possibility almost every time I'm at a big concert.

[Esau]

Thanks for the corrections folks,not sure what I was thinking last night,I did know that at one time...d'oh (beers + lack of sleep),never seen em live myself.

[purple foot]

he got the name dimebag cause he won a dimebag in a guitar playing contest. buddy had some killer tone on his guitar. heavy, heavy sh!t. he will me missed.

RIP DIMEBAG

[TimmyB]

May you rest in peace "Dimebag" Darrel Abbott, as well as the three other people that were killed.

What a terrible tragedy. Every couple of years now an event happens that should change the way concerts are run. A few years ago with Pearl Jam and those poor people trampled to death (happened before with the Who among others), the biggest tragedy in the history of rock concerts when there was the fire at the Great White concert in Rhode Island killing more people than I can remember including band member Ty Longley, and now this shoting of Dimebag Darrel onstage.

Since Pearl Jam doesn't have GA shows (as neither do a lot of other groups), regulations for pyrotechniques have become more stringent and now after this shoting I believe security checks at concerts will also become more stringent, as they should be. We will all just have to go to a concert a little earlier, but for the safety of us and the artists on the stage it is worth it.