It might not match the thrill of turning up the volume, but for many performers, lighting a fireworks fuse has become a powerful temptation.
Since the 1970s, when the cartoonish rock band KISS pioneered the use of indoor fireworks, many pop music performers have been counting on pyrotechnics to punch up their acts. Fireworks industry veterans say their clients range from rockers to rappers, from wrestlers to magicians to convention planners, all looking to enliven presentations.
It was just such a pyrotechnic show, staged by the rock band Great White in a small Rhode Island club Thursday night, that erupted in flames, leaving scores of dead and wounded.
Industry veterans also point out that pyrotechnics have become standard on televised music awards shows, which would-be stars watch closely for inspiration.
"The more they see it on television, the more they want to do what everybody else does," said Lisa Zigmont, who with her husband, Steve, has run Zigmont Magic F/X, a Brandon, Fla.-based pyrotechnics business, for 16 years.
"The fans love the fire and we are here to give them what they want," said bassist Corey Parks, who has been breathing fire regularly over the past seven years as part of her duties with the hard-rock band Nashville Pussy and more recently as a member of Duane Peters & the Hunns.
Parks said she's never had a problem with fire, and has run into little resistance from club operators. But she also acknowledged that she only realized she needed permits in 1999, on a tour with Marilyn Manson.
"We couldn't afford the insurance, so we didn't do flame on that tour," Parks said. "Ironically, those would have been the safest places to do it because they were giant venues with large stages and high ceilings."
Robert P. Benoit, the fire chief of Lafayette, La., found how difficult it can be to restrict fiery displays last summer when he refused to allow the rapper Lil Bow Wow to use 20 pounds of propane to make flames for a concert at the Cajundome. Benoit said 5 pounds was the limit.
"It came to the point where I said, 'If you don't come in with a 5-pound container, you can't have a show. I won't allow it,' " Benoit recalled.
In the end, no propane was used. But Benoit, who had earlier put his foot down over pyrotechnics use at a Kid Rock concert at the same arena, said his hard-line stance put him on the hot seat with some local officials and drew derisive chatter on the local radio stations. "I was not a popular person," he said.
To be sure, it's still a minority of musicians nationwide setting off sparks, and indoor shows are rarer still. In Southern California, several club owners said they scorn indoor fireworks not only for safety reasons, but also because the idea seems tired.
But among bands and other performers nationwide, pyrotechnics industry insiders say, the lure of a heightened light show can be powerful. And it's not difficult, some of those insiders say, for an amateur to sidestep federal licensing requirements and buy serious pyrotechnical material.
In many cases, a band bringing a fireworks-punctuated show to a small club poses a particular risk. Apart from the challenges of managing fire in a confined indoor space, industry veterans say, proprietors of small clubs are less likely to be alert to all the local, state and federal regulations that apply to pyrotechnics. And, sometimes, bands don't tell club owners what they're going to set off.
"All club owners got a wake-up call today," Julie L. Heckman, spokeswoman for the Bethesda, Md.-based American Pyrotechnics Assn., said Friday. The association represents 260 companies that make, import, distribute or use fireworks, indoors and outdoors.
The problem, said Steve Zigmont, is that "there are magicians, there are bands, there are many different types of entertainers that just don't have a sense of the law. They think it's a God-given right to do fireworks. The mentality is: 'Do it and ask questions later.' "
Although most fireworks sales are made by half a dozen major companies that do business only with licensed pyrotechnicians, Zigmont said it's not hard to find "underground" companies, sometimes on the Internet, that will sell fireworks without asking too many questions.
Industry standards, set by the National Fire Protection Assn., call for two fire extinguishers to be next to the pyrotechnics display, in addition to the building's usual firefighting materials; for a distance of at least 15 feet between pyrotechnics and audience; and often for a firefighter to be on the scene.
Compared with those safety measures, Zigmont said, the cost of the fireworks themselves is a pittance. As an example, he cited gerbs (pronounced jerbs), one of the most common devices in the trade. A gerb is a fireproof plastic or cardboard cylinder up to 6 inches long anchored in a metal base and capped with clay. The fireworks erupt when the operator touches off powder inside (usually with titanium or aluminum flakes), which bursts into "a bush of sparks" at one end.
