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After The Flood
Hey, it's the 30th anniversary of Steve Dahl's Disco Demolition -- wherein the hatred of disco fed into rabid (kinda) rioting at ye olde Comiskey Pary -- so obviously it's time to interview the man behind the madness! Thankfully, Dahl claims he's keeping it down to one print interview and and two TV interviews this time around. The Trib got the exclusive print interview, and who better to delve deep into the mind of Steve Dahl than probing questioner ... Steve Dahl?
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I love Steve Dahl and his radio show, but I wish we could just collectively bury this memory. It's so tired. It was boring when he made the media rounds 5 years ago for the 25th anniversary.
I bet you'd be singing a different tune if you could see the alternate world where there was no Disco Demolition and the oppressive march of disco continued it's march into the 80s
right, cuz 80s pop music and hair metal was so much better than disco.
give me a break.
Yeesh Tankboy, grouse much? I know you're a DJ disco dancing type, but this is CHICAGO history. Don't worry about your glittery shirt and too-tight pants. What, are you one of these types who think it was racist? Or homophobic? Yeah, and people hating Billy Ray Cyrus was mullet-aphobia.
Disco Demolition is one of those great Chicago events where everyone of that generation, especially on the South side, claimed to be there that night. Apparently, Old Comisky doubled in size that night.
The Reader has a great preview of an art gallery opening featuring portraits of Disco Demolition kids. These folks were the adults in my life later on, seeing them as goofy, drunk kids out for some trouble, that's a fine thing.
http://www.chicagoreader.com/disco_demolition_night/
Was I grousing?
Was I grousing?
You were grousing twice.
Certainly came off that way. So the guy gets interviewed every 5 years about a big Chicago event? And as for "interviewing himself" that's just the way you shoot documentary interviews. Should they have gotten some reporter to asking him a bunch of penetrating questions about what happened to the helmet?
It's a really weird and funny bit of Chicago history. Grousing snark just looks silly.
do you really care about the disco demolition? really?
I'm from a family of Sox fans. Hearing about it growing up it was one of those cool "If you'd been around back then" moments.
The video from that night is just fantastic. Harry Carey trying to calm the mob, the kids scaling the walls, Dahl freaking out and doing some weird junta thing in the outfield. It's good and goofy fun.
Well, Dahl said he gets inundated for interviews yearly, I was merely pointing out this was a big anniversary one.
And Dahl was obviously playing the self-interview for laughs. I assume you read it, right?
Yeah, I think the fact that he takes it all with this roll of the eyes is part of the charm.
If it weren't for documented events like Disco Demolition, where would the hipsters of today get their "ironic" fashion sense?
Steve Dahl is a complete and total snoozfest. The fact that this is the primary detail of his legacy is even more pathetic.
"Disco Demolition is one of those great Chicago events"
Yeah, a radio promotion stunt where drunken fools ran amok and started fires is a great event. I'll give you it is funny to watch, but hardly a great Chicago event.
No, it is a "Chicago event". It was unique to this city. Every generation has its "events" and for the kids of the 70s in this city, this was one of them. Just like the Sly Stone riot in Grant Park was a memorable event for some in the 60s, the Loop Flood in the 90s, etc.
I think the use of the word "great" maybe either misused or misinterpreted. "Great" doesn't necessarily mean good. If it did, we'd all have read about the "Good Chicago Fire" in history class.
o.k., I know yall gone think Spook's crazy, but I have always belived that Disco Demolition represented the subconscious terror of a large population of white men threatened by disco being a unifying force of equality and understanding between Black people, Hispanics and open minded white people. I mean think about it, with disco alot of the time you couldn't tell who was white and who was Black. Groups like Hall and Oats and the BeeGees often times got mistaken for being Black in many a Black Ghetto in America.
I think it was because the white guys were mad they couldn't dance, and therefore the music was mocking them. I mean, did you WATCH American Bandstand? Sheesh!
Oh, SNAP!
(kidding...)
Once again, Spook is on and on! Ditto to everything he said. I'll take Studio 54 over CBGBs any night of the week.
People get nostalgic for some ruckus they got into back in '79. That's cool. The hangover of it is that Dahl has been reminiscing about that night for years! It was the highlight of his career and he's been a bore ever since.
Eh, I could go either way depending on how I feel. If I stayed at "Studio 54" I never would have heard of Fishbone.
If I stayed at CBGBs I would have had to dealt with punk-rock snobbery.
I would have gone to CBGB to see Television and then headed out to Studio 54 to see Chic! Win win!
And you would have missed early Talking Heads.
and there was no snobbery at discos????? Only reason they didn't stick they're noses in the air is that they were too busy bending over to do coke.
HEYOOOOO!!!
But seriously, there was good stuff in both.
Great article reaffirming just how much of a pathetic schmuck Dahl is for hanging his hat on this event:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31832616/ns/entertainment-music/
That's a really great article, thanks for sharing it!