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Pollstar Live! ‘Vegas Strong’: Undersheriff Talks Rt. 91 Shooting, Industry Discusses The Resilience of Live Music
A major focus of Pollstar Live! this year was security, especially after the horrific Route 91 Harvest mass shooting in Las Vegas, but a few things are clear: concert security measures and technology continue to improve, and the American public — everyone from concertgoers to ushers to artists — are resilient.
“I think it’s important to get it out there that bands still want to play Vegas,” APA’s Bruce Solar said during a panel discussion titled “Vegas Strong,” adding ”It’s still a one-of-a-kind experience anytime your band goes, and they always come back with a story.”
Waterproof Pictures – Vegas Strong
Peter Shapiro and Bruce Solar
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The panel, which also included Caesars Entertainment’s Jason Gastwirth, Witkoff’s Lisa Marchese, LIve Nation’s Kurt Melien, Brooklyn Bowl’s Peter Shapiro and moderator Oak View Group Media & Conferences President Ray Waddell, admitted that business was definitely affected after Route 91, but has come back in a big way demonstrating the resilience of the business as well as the city of Las Vegas.
“Artists immediately wanted to add 20 pages of security to their riders,” Solar said. “There was a lot of trepidation” immediately after the shooting, he said. But eventually that went away.
“I want to continue to tell the story that Vegas business is strong,” Live Nation’s Kurt Melien added. “It’ll be back to full power by the early part of May, which is really exciting.”
Promoter Peter Shapiro of Brooklyn Bowl Vegas says he didn’t lose a show after the shooting, although the club may have seen a dip at the doors initially.
It’s important to remember just how horrific the Route 91 shooting was, however, and how those on the scene did an exceptional job. That means not just police but bystanders and other first responders who suddenly found themselves in the hottest of hot zones imaginable.
During the “From Manchester to Route 91: What Have We Learned?” discussion, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department undersheriff Kevin McMahill demonstrated the chaos and horror of the moments after the shooting began.
Waterproof Pictures – Pollstar Live! From Route 91 To Manchester
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Undersheriff Kevin McMahill, alongside former LAPD and NYPD Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Prevent Advisors’ Mike Downing, discusses his department’s swift response to the horrific Route 91 Harvest shooting.
He played video from an Uber driver’s dash cam showing hundreds of gunshots fired in seconds — so quickly that everything still seems normal. From there, McMahill displayed a heat map of the Las Vegas Strip while playing police dispatch audio of reports of multiple active shooters apparently from all directions and clear across the Strip. In the end, there was just one shooter from one hotel room.
Despite the confusion, “We got up to that room within 12 minutes, which I will tell you I don’t care what anybody says, those two officers that arrived on the 32nd floor and ran across the street through the gunfire was an exceptional response, and an exceptional mitigation.
“But we don’t spend enough time in the prevent realm. As law enforcement, we have been struggling for a very long time on how we can be effective on this prevent mission. I think the key really relies on folks like yourself,” McMahill told the audience.
And while it’s crucial to prevent these sort of things from happening at all, the damage can’t be erased or forgotten.
Moo TV founder Scott Scovill told Pollstar how his company had seven staff members at Route 91, as the video company does work for Jason Aldean, Jake Owen and others.
– Scott Scovill
Moo TV
After winning the Pollstar Award for Video Company of the Year, Scovill announced: “We had seven kids that were in Vegas and they went through hell. If you have anyone that was out there, they’re more affected than you know, probably. But to talk to them now and to hear them say, ‘I just want to get back out there and make people happy,’ that’s pretty incredible. So this is to all of those kids. Thank you.”
Scovill further elaborated to Pollstar the importance of supporting those who worked at or attended Route 91, adding that his company offered to cover counseling services as needed, indefinitely.
“I’m really proud of how our company handled the situation. I think we understood the gravity of it,” he said.
He had some advice for those who know victims of the shooting: “If you know somebody that was there, whether they were an attendee or someone working the show, look after them,” Scovill said. “And that doesn’t mean ask them about it. That means love them and talk about everything else in their life, and listen if they want to talk about it, but don’t start the conversation.”