Throwing Rock threw the window: Flint crashes N.Y.C.
Sunday Wallace, Jr. (with additional wire services)
St. Titosburg Times-Dispatch
10 MAR 1999
New York City= Last night at a star-studded industry gathering to announce their arrival in the city that never sleeps, Flint’s opening one could say was a smash. A smash through a window, that is. Doug Cherokee, who has a well-deserved reputation for fighting with photographers, raised the stakes in his ongoing feud with as he puts it “the scum of the earth” by sending a man through a club window in the early hours of this morning.
Photographers were stationed outside The Palladium on New York’s Lower East side as a slew of models and celebrities came to witness Flint, the latest in a long line of southern bands to cause a stir in alternative music. They played songs from their debut album, White Trash Folklore, to a packed house and the show went off without a hitch, which is miraculous by Flint’s standards. As band members mingled with the receptive crowd after the performance, Flint’s Doug Cherokee became suddenly agressive and hurled Gino Vialli out the front window of The Palladium.
Cherokee, who also brandished a sword against a photographer in an incident at bandmate Cody Jackson’s ranch earlier this year, was upset that Vialli was prodding at his new fiancee, model Felicity Shagbark. Vialli, who works in New York as a correspondent for a London music magazine, Blueshirt Foreign Content, was rebuffed several times by Shagbark and allegedly told Doug, “She’s one nasty lesbian”. A shouting match ensued and Cherokee threw Vialli head first into the street.
So far, there is no comment from either side although Cody Jackson has gone on the record saying “Doug has a history of breaking things. It started with the X-Wing Fighter I got for Christmas one year. Now, it’s windows, God bless him. Defenestration is my new favorite word.”
There is still some doubt whether Flint will be allowed to perform their remaining scheduled New York City appearances, which are slated to finish later on next week. Police on the scene doubted if any charges will be laid and The Palladium thinks Cherokee will only be asked to reimburse the club the cost of a new window. When one Palladium official was asked if Flint will be performing there in the future, she said “I think Monica Lewinsky will join a convent before Flint plays here again.” At the very least, Flint’s consistent baffling behavior makes for easy reporting.