Don’t blame Jim Dolan for the delay in Neil Young’s concert Wednesday.
Three thousand ticketholders — including Donald Trump and Jimmy Fallon —
had to wait in the cold for an hour outside the United Palace Theater as
Fire Department officials inspected the place.
The opening act — Young’s wife, Pegi — had to be canceled, and The Times
reported that tanked audience members “beerily” shouted song requests
during the set by the legendary rocker.
Backstage sources, perhaps paranoid, speculated that Dolan had his
minions call in the Fire Department because he fears competition from
the United Palace.
Dolan’s Cablevision bought the Beacon Theater last year, and, while the
United Palace is way uptown at 175th and Broadway, it’s an intimate,
ornate gem like the Beacon. The United Palace, a church led by the Rev.
Ike by day, started renting out to concert promoters in March, with Iggy
Pop, Bjork and Van Morrison being recent headliners.
“That’s utterly ridiculous,” Cablevision spokesman Charles Schuler told
us. “[Jim] has never even been to the United Palace Theater. In fact, he
doesn’t even know where it is.”
Fire Department spokesman Francis X. Gribbon affirms Dolan’s innocence.
“The complaint was generated by Engine 67 and other units in that
neighborhood, who questioned the new activity. Its usage changed from
being just a church to also being a concert venue, and they saw the
large crowds.” Inspectors asked that emergency lighting be obtained and
that 40 fire guards be on hand; Palace staffers complied just in time.
Concluded one concertgoer: “It was a great show and made everybody
forget about the wait.”
