Report: Heavy Metal Fans Pitch In To Help Owner After Club Fire

December 15, 2006

Jim Walsh of CourierPostOnline.com reports:

Heavy-metal fans, who typically gather in body-slamming mosh pits, came together in a cooperative cause Thursday [Dec. 14] — helping the owner of a burned-out club they describe as a second home.

"It's been amazing," said Erik Mosher of Evesham, describing the response by musicians and fans to a blaze that gutted The Pirate's Den [in Gloucester City, New Jersey] early Wednesday. The fire also destroyed the upstairs residence of the club's owner, Brian Cohan.

Within hours of the fire at Broadway and Essex Street, supporters were organizing a two-day fundraising concert to take place next month at a Philadelphia club.

"We're up to 25 bands already," said Mosher, a patron who's also performed as a drummer at the Gloucester City club. "Our phones have not stopped ringing."

Other fans are collecting gift cards, home supplies and other items for Cohan.

"Usually, if your house burns down, you still have a job," Mosher said. "But he's lost everything."

Many said Cohan played a special role among area club owners because he welcomed original acts considered too extreme by others.

"He's helped the music scene as a whole, keeping it alive in South Jersey," said Ellie Timms, a patron and concert photographer from Berlin Borough.

"And he constantly has fundraisers for the community," she said, noting a Toys for Tots benefit had been scheduled for tonight. "He's opened his club and his heart to all of these people."

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