SPORT REPORT : The Noise of Summer

Summertime, and the livin’ is easy. A little too easy for Dan Stein, the guy who plays the organ at the Forum. For Stein, summers just seem to lack some oomph, not to mention aackkkk!, arghhh! and KAPOW!!!.

Stein took the Forum job not for the money--he’s a TV and film composer--but for the thrill of the Kings’ games. But it’s a year-round job, so now, “I’m playing at Los Angeles United soccer team games, for the new roller hockey league and for TeamTennis,” he says. “That one’s the hardest--tennis fans aren’t quite as rowdy as hockey fans.”

A transplanted New Yorker, Stein landed this plum last March after he happened onto an audition at the Forum. He tried out, delivering a rousing rendition of the “Calgary Sucks” cheer, a Forum favorite, and soon got the job.

During his short time sitting in what he calls the best seat in the house, Stein has learned most of the do’s and don’ts of organ-grinding, Kings-style. Playing a Blues Brothers song during a game with the Chicago Blackhawks is one no-no. Delivering a “charge” after the opposing team has made a good play is another.

Being the organist at the Forum saves Stein not only the cost of a season ticket, but more importantly, he says, the cost of psychoanalysis. He works off the frustrations of toiling in the entertainment business, banging out an assortment of musical cheers, jeers and hand-clappers.

“I used to go to games as primal scream therapy,” says Stein, who recently supplied ABC’s “Day One” with its theme music. “You go to a hockey game, you forget about schmoozing, and you start screaming.”

And even at roller hockey games, Stein is still the noisiest fan in the house.