In all the hype about surviving phantom terrorist attacks, we Americans seemed to forget we do a pretty good job of screwing up our own lives.

A week or so ago, overzealous security guards (bouncers) at a Chicago club sprayed pepper spray at fighting patrons. Why the bouncers couldn't just pull the guys apart, I'm not really sure. I've never seen bouncers use mace around here. Fighters get pulled apart, someone gets thrown out, everything goes on like nothing much happened.

When you use mace or pepper spray in a small, confined space (say, in a club), you hurt more than just the person you spray. The air around the person is suddenly impossible to breathe in. A few years back, I was in a 24-hour diner. Someone a few booths down from us was smart enough to spray mace in the air. The entire room at the restaurant had to be cleared. Suddenly the ability to breathe goes from easy to impossible. Imagine if you sprayed mace in a place with tons of people per square foot and only one way to get out. You get what they had in Chicago last week.

Fast-forward to Thursday night in Rhode Island. Great White, one of the bigger (but not biggest) bands of the glam rock wave in the late 80s/early 90s, took to the stage in a small club. Flash pots exploded, shooting sparks into the low ceiling and instantly igniting the club on fire. Almost 100 people have died, including one of the guitarists of the band (although not the original guitarist...so he probably doesn't count as much).

I think this all comes down to common sense. If you're going to be wielding mace or pepper spray, understand what this weapon will do. Yes, the person you spray directly will become rather incapacitated, but so will a lot of other people. If you are playing in a small club, you probably can't have the same type of pyrotechnics you used when you were hot shit and playing basketball stadiums.

The Great White Fire has been big news around here, maybe because the papers were tired of updating the terrorist alert on a minute by minute basis. Great White played one of Albuquerque's clubs (Midnight Rodeo, which is a half n' half club--a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll.) in December of last year. Amazingly, because the club owners told the band they couldn't use their flash pots, Midnight Rodeo didn't burn to the ground.

I saw Great White back in the late 80s, when they were younger and actually somewhat relevant in the rock scene. First in Lubbock, Texas, opening for Whitesnake, during the White Tour (it wasn't really called this, but there were so many bands with "white" in their names, they could have had a touring festival). A couple of years later, I saw them on a co-headlining tour with Tesla (that night, Great White was the opener, Tesla was the headliner) in Salina, Kan. I have, somewhere, a drum stick from the Great White drummer. I doubt it's worth much; it's not signed. I just know he threw it, and one of the guitarists of the band I was in at the time caught it. I later traded him a pick I caught from one of the Tesla guitarists for it. We had fifth row seats, so our chances of getting souvenirs was much higher than usual.

I doubt if the guys in Great White actually know whether or not their tour manager talked to the club about using the pyrotechnics. The manager of a New Jersey club said the band used the flash pots without asking a week before at his club. But the manager of Albuquerque's Midnight Rodeo says they asked, were denied and nice about it.

The problem with all of these club shenanigans is the death toll. No one thinks a night out at a club will be lethal. Maybe you spend too much on drinks, or something is spilled on you or the girl you wanted to hook up with ends up in the arms of your friend. But no one thinks they'll get into a life or death situation. Even inside the mosh pit, there is no real thought of mortality.

But, to be slightly topical in terms of world events, there is a common factor between these two tragedies--other than they happened at a club. This is the heavy, but somewhat disregarded, stress level of living in a state of fear. Bouncers are in charge of keeping the peace inside of clubs. If they are jittery, or just plain scared, because of the happenings in the club and the world around them, they get overzealous in defending the peace. We are at high alert for terrorist activity--and anyone could be a terrorist.

Great White just wants to rock. They want to take their fans away from the thoughts and fears of the real world and get a little nostalgic kick for a simpler time. Those flash pots, which have been used for decades to add an extra boost to any rock show, just help to push the night into overdrive. Kick start their rock and roll hearts.

All I can say is take it easy guys. It's not the end of the world. Not just yet.

Matt Worley has seen hundreds of shows in clubs and arenas of all sizes. The worst thing he's encountered is trying to find an empty and working stall to piss in.