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Apparently, even Portland's architecture is screwing with hip-hop shows now.
Last night, a sold-out concert by Schoolboy Q at the Crystal Ballroom ended about 20 minutes into the L.A. rapper's headlining set after venue staff noticed a crack in a structural beam. The building was evacuated around 11:20 pm, sending 1,200 to 1,500 concertgoers spilling into the street.
For his part, Q, who performed an early, much less eventful show at the Crystal that afternoon, seemed pleased to know his fans could get wild enough to damn near break the floor—which is basically the rapper equivalent of shattering a backboard—retweeting local news stories about the incident as he sat on his tour bus.
Mike Walker, a marketing coordinator for McMenamins, says this is the first time he can recall a show at the 100-year-old venue getting shut down due to structural concerns—though there was that one time they nearly halted a Ween performance because the chandeliers in the main room were shaking.
The damaged beam, which runs across the ceiling at Lola's Room below the main floor, has been temporarily reinforced, and no upcoming shows are expected to be canceled. (So breathe easy, Dark Star Orchestra fans.) It'll be permanently fixed next week, on a day when the venue is dark, he adds.
As for any conspiracy theories, Walker says itâs âjust a coincidenceâ that this occurred at a rap show.
"It's too bad that it adds that layer of complexity," he says, referencing recent discussions regarding Portland's fraught relationship with hip-hop culture. "It's not the music that made this happen."
WWeek 2015