Fight Breaks out at Boston Pops Concert

Regular readers know that Boston, Massachusetts, is not the favorite burg of this journal. Yet another reason for loathing the town came on Wednesday night. During a concert by the Boston Pops (perhaps the only decent operation in the whole city), a fist fight broke out. This brings American culture to a new low with Symphony Hooligans.

It was the 122nd opening night at Symphony Hall in Boston, and the music fans had assembled, many in black tie, to listen to some of America’s finer musicians. Conductor Keith Lockhart was leading them through a medley of tunes from the film “Gigi,” a not altogether unpleasant score. One will never know whether the ensuing fight had to do with the arrangement or some detail in the playing, but given that it was Boston, the violence undoubted stemmed from something much more mundane.

In any event, TV footage clearly showed two men trying to beat the stuffing out of one another. One of the combatants had his shirt off, and numerous people were trying to either separate them or push them together (that part was hard to decipher). Witnesses reported a scream, then the falling of some chairs and then another scream as the punch-up grew in disruptiveness.

The Associated Press reported, “‘The first time there was a scream, Keith [Lockhart] looked up that way but he kept going,’ audience member June MacIndoe told Boston’s WHDH-TV. ‘Then about a minute and a half later ... there was a big scream and you could hear chairs falling over and you could see them up there, fists going.’ At that point, Lockhart stopped the performance for a couple of minutes, she said. ‘He just stood there, you know, quiet’.”

Security managed to get both pugilists out of the concert hall, but police arrested no one, and no one reported any injuries. The concert resumed, and guest Ben Folds performed with the Pops to rather positive reviews. Calls by the media to the Boston Pops for comment went unanswered. That should be no surprise. After all, what could they possibly say that doesn’t make the whole thing worse? Which, come to think of it, can be said of the entire city.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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