Dead Clubs Part 1
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Flipside #37 had a great article about clubs that had already come and gone for punk shows in Southern California by 1983. If you’ve spent any time looking at old flyers, you’re probably familiar with a lot of the names: Devonshire Downs, Florentine Gardens, Cathay De Grande, Lazarro’s, The Hong Kong Cafe, etc.
It got me thinking of a bunch of clubs that have come and gone in my time, so here’s part one of my personal version, 41 years after the Flipside one. All this is to the best of my recollection so don’t get at me.
Lazerstar (Oxnard, CA)
Shows went down in the back party room of this laser tag spot from 1997-1999. The first show that I remember here was In My Eyes and maybe No Motiv. The bands played on the floor but at some point Lazerstar added a stage that was two steps high. That short little stage and the ill-placed beam a couple steps from it made for a challenging circle pit. It would have to compress near the stage before it could expand as you circled out, only to repeat the human wedge upon completion of the 360. The Ten Yard Fight and Floorpunch shows from here are legendary. I even booked Funeral Oration from Holland here in the summer of ‘98.
The Oxnard Hardcore scene in the late 90s was great because kids would circle pit for the fast parts and dance for the mosh parts. It changed a bit after Throwdown played Lazerstar and some kids started to emulate the OC style of ninja mosh/interpretive dance virtually overnight. The final show at Lazerstar was the first In Control show on 10-15-99 with The Third Degree, if memory serves.
PCH (Wilmington, CA)
The PCH club was a small warehouse in an industrial area just northwest of Long Beach. It was one of the best DIY clubs ever and was around from 1998-2000, I believe. Pretty much every band worth their salt who came through So Cal played here. The PCH was so important to my band In Control cuz there was nowhere for us to play at locally in the year 2000 (our first full year of existence), but Alex and crew put us on a ton of shows. We’d always mob down a few cars deep at least. This is probably my favorite non-805 club of all time.
Club Bollocks (Los Angeles, CA)
This was a cool little club at the corner of 41st and Long Beach Ave. in LA that I believe was only around in 1998. I came here once when my band Stand Your Ground played with Lack of Interest and VD, and another time with some friends to see Fury 66 (I think). This area was kinda sketch but luckily neither show was well attended so we got to park close (ha ha).
I got kicked outta this one for stage diving. The Living Room (Goleta, CA)
This was an all ages, volunteer run, non-profit club that was kind of like the Gilman Street of the 805. It existed in three different locations between 1995-2002. All three were rad for different reasons. The original one on Hollister has some real sentimental memories for me. My first punk band recorded there, and I also booked my first punk show there in October of 1996. Shoutout to John Lyons.
The second location out by the airport on Los Carneros was short lived but had a sick setup. The room was super narrow and long which is kind of perfect for packing kids in for shows. I saw E.Town Concrete play here to probably 30 people and they played liked there were 1000 people there. Respect.
The final location (Fairview Ave.) was the longest running and basically every band in the late 90s on tour passed through there. Some of my favorite shows of all time happened here including Agnostic Front on their 1997 comeback tour with the Victim in Pain lineup.
Thinking about it now, it might have gone Hollister > Fairview > Los Carneros > Fairview again. Who can f’n remember? There was also a spot next door to the Fairview location called Sniffy’s that did shows for a while when the Living Room was on hiatus. The Madball/Earth Crisis/Skarhead/Blood For Blood that went down at Sniffy’s is one of my fav shows ever.
Skate Palace (Oxnard, CA)
For over 20 years, this spot would pop up and have epic shows in South Oxnard. In 1986 and 1987 it hosted Dag Nasty, Uniform Choice, and Exodus shows as well as locals like Agression, Ill Repute, and Stalag 13. It went dormant for a decade and then popped up in again 1996 for a few shows with notable local acts like Burning Dog, FAY, and Missing 23rd. In 2004, now called the Valle Verde Community Center, it poked its head up again for the Nardcore 20th Anniversary show featuring Ill Repute, Dr. Know, RKL, Rat Pack, No Motiv, and a ton more. I believe its last show was 2009, now under the name El Rodeo Community Center, when Sound & Fury hosted their hardcore festival there.
Headline Records (Hollywood, CA)
Headline is still open and I’m sure Jean Luc is still a cool ass dude. At a previous location they did a bunch of shows from the late 1990s through 2001. Playing on the floor with the lights on is a proving ground of sorts for bands and Headline definitely provided that arena.
(Ben “Ah shit, I forgot my hacky sack” Edge aka Bedge up front representin’)
The Underground/Emerald City (Santa Barbara, CA)
I saw a bunch of Epifat type bands here in the late 90s. It was all ages so I could attend, but there was also a giant bar area that took up half the room. From the bar area, there were like three steps that lead down directly into the pit. Lots of No Fear wearing jocks and drunk college bros took those three steps down then got blindsided by the pit, leading to a ton of fights. One night there was a giant brawl at a Guttermouth show that got it shut down. The chaos spilled outside and I witnessed some dude getting elbow dropped “Macho Man” Randy Savage style on top of my Carolla. Ohhh yea.
Livery Theater (Ventura, CA)
This club was right off Main Street in Ventura and was a pretty perfect ~200 cap room. It was around from late 2002 to early 2004 I believe. One time In Control played a sold out gig with Dr. Know headlining. We wrapped our set and they went to set up but their drummer hadn’t showed up yet. They waited and waited and the crowd slowly started leaving. About an hour later, they just decided fuck it and ripped into a set with no drummer to the 30 kids or so that were still there. For the first song, pretty much everyone in the room entered thy pit - mostly due to the sheer absurdity of it. They then went on to play an additional 45 minutes with no drummer, and to this day it’s one of the most perplexing things I’ve seen in punk.
Nardcore Manor (Oxnard, CA)
Forrest Lorenzana lived here for a minute in 2003 and did some shows. It was a loft type building over by Five Points in Oxnard. The IC/Modern Life Is War show there was epic. It felt like the floor was going to cave in. This would’ve been the best thing that happened to Nardcore at the time if it would’ve lasted.
Pickle Patch (Isla Vista, CA)
This spot had two locations - the main one everyone remembers and the last one when it was in its death throes. Isla Vista is where all the college kids who go to UCSB live so it was pretty out of place for a DIY punk space, but a ton of bands passed through there and it was kind of the de facto space for the Ebullition/HeartattaCk scene due to its close proximity. The Pickle Patch was literally a living room but they’d pack the kids in and you’d get staircase dives sometimes. It started doing shows in the mid-90s and the final location wrapped in 2000 I believe. Dead Nation and Kill Your Idols both played the 2nd location that year.
Floorpunch @ The Pickle Patch (photo: Fred Hammer) 
Skate Street/Alpine/The Loft (Ventura, CA).
This spot had a few different iterations. In 1999, it was on Knoll Drive and in 2000 it moved to the Goodyear Avenue location. In 2002, Retaliate played our first show upstairs at a spot they were now calling The Loft. I think in 2005 they built out the big room downstairs and started doing shows there. A bunch of epic shows took place here including Sound & Fury in 2006 and 2007. The last show was 12-8-07 with Internal Affairs, Retaliate, Vendetta, and Skaretactic.
If you all dug this, I’ll bust a part 2 at some point with some heavy hitters: Showcase Theater (Corona & San Diego), Rock City, Cobalt Cafe, Pat’s Warehouse, etc.
- ZN
Man... I remember a couple of those places, for sure the Pickle Patch, when we were touring in the mid 90's. Thanks for the memories.
Rad idea. Lots of memories at those spots