Hammerjacks Mid-90s Riot Feat: House of Pain
Every so often, I Google to see if anyone has written about this, and I'm always disappointed - until today, when I came across this archived thread in this subreddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/baltimore/comments/qzs41o/anyone_at_the_house_of_pain_riot_at_the_old/
Pretty much everything in this (far too short) thread vibes with my recollection of the night, including the rumor that Everlast was jumped by some of the Hammerjacks bouncers. The version we heard, though, came from Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, who we randomly hung out with under the overpass while the cops swooped in through the front doors and rounded people up. According to him, IIRC, Everlast got into a fight with a bouncer after one of Hammerjacks' people jacked up Danny Boy's arm, or something like that.
As for the inciting incident on stage, yeah - Everlast came out after an EXTENDED set-up time, told the crowd to fuck the place up, and left. People went apeshit - and this was about the time Hammerjacks thought it was a good idea to open the side doors to the club next door. So in addition to people losing their shit and getting their asses kicked by other concertgoers, all of a sudden you had a bunch of drunk college guys and girls stumbling in to see what was happening, only to be accosted for simply existing.
Pretty sure Hammerjacks never stopped serving alcohol during the entire riot.
I was upstairs with some friends, and by the time we made it to the stairs, the railing was half-torn down, and cops had begun making their way into the venue, kicking ass as they went. Some guy was arguing with the ticket booth about getting a refund, punched the wired-glass window, and made a bloody mess of his hand before the cops arrested him. By the time we got outside, helicopters were in the air above the highway and pepper spray had begun to be employed by the cops, so we his around back on the loading docks with Morello until shit calmed down and we could leave without getting into trouble.
Hands down, the best concert of my life.