Fishbone Ordered To Pay $1.4M To Woman Injured In Stagedive
AP reports that a U.S. District Judge has ordered the L.A. punk-ska-funk band to pay $1.4 million to a woman who was injured after a stagedive at one of their shows. Frontman Angelo Moore jumped offstage during a show at Philadelphia’s World Cafe Live in 2010, and he landed on the New Jersey pharmaceutical company manager and mother of three Kimberly Myers, breaking her skull and collarbone.
Moore has to pay $250,000 in punitive damages, and Fishbone (specifically Moore and his business partner, bassist John Norwood Fisher) are ordered to pay $1.1 million in compensatory damages. Moore apparently did himself no favors in testimony, claiming that ambulances are called to Fishbone shows every few months and that he doesn’t warn crowds before stagedives because “people want to be on the edge when they go to a Fishbone show.” (Myers claims that she didn’t know Fishbone was on the bill when she went to a show.) Moore’s also been sued once before after a stagediving injury.
This raises a couple of questions. Like: How bad is Moore at stagediving? He’s not a big guy! Unless you’re launching yourself like a missile, you shouldn’t be taking people out when you do that. Just do the hands-out gesture a second before and you should be good. Also: Where in the fuck are Fishbone going to find $1.4 million? I hope they’ve been wisely investing that early-’90s T-shirt-ubiquity money.
Watch some video from the show in question below.