I'm with you John.
A few years back I used to work as a nightclub disc jockey (a/k/a the "weewee mix show"
) in a number of East Coast cities.
Some of the older establishments were truly scary to work in - decrepit wood structures, huge intoxicated crowds with impaired judgement and no inhibitions, lots of smoking (=flames) going on - and the owners would often chain the fire doors to keep people out. Add to this the cover charge - $$$ - there was no incentive to keep occupancy at a safe and manageable level.
Looking back, and reading about recent events in Chicago and Warwick, I'm glad that all I ever suffered was partial deafness from repeated exposure to loud music.
-WW