Tuesday, April 3, 2018

More on Hollywood Lounge

Caught an interview with Mayor Mike Henry and  City Manager Gary Williams regarding the Hollywood Lounge license suspension. From what they said, and an article in today's Southern, someone at SIUC had booked the rapper FBG Duck to perform at the Student Center on March 30. However, it appears that FBG Duck is a bit enamored of guns, at least from his Facebook page, and a member of the Gangster Disciples to boot, so someone at SIUC canceled the space. The promoter also booked FBG Duck for an afterparty show at Club 262 in Carterville, which caused the Williamson County Liquor Commission to pull the club's liquor license until today, causing cancellation of the performance.

Carbondale Police meanwhile, contacted venues in Carbondale that had the space to host the performance to find out if the promoter had tried to rebook there. Hollywood Lounge had  been contacted and had booked the performance but after talking with the police decided to cancel the show. Due to worries that the performers and entourage might show up at Hollywood anyhow and the amount of attention the show received on social media, and with the implied consent of owner Bobby McBride, Mayor Henry, with the agreement of a majority of the Liquor Control Commission, suspended the establishment's liquor license until Monday.

The weekend passed peacefully so closing the establishments may have worked. Of course, there may not have been any problems anyhow. Carbondale Police and the Mayor may have overreacted. We will never know. However, if a shooting or other criminal activity tied into the the performance had occurred and the police had not taken preemptive action, they would probably have gotten castigated for not doing anything to prevent it.

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