Jan 13, 2015 Save Music in Chinatown 5 Recap with Mike Watt & The Secondmen, The Gears, and Adolescents (Secret Show!)
On Sunday, we had our latest Save Music in Chinatown benefit matinee. I love how with each show there are more familiar faces in the crowd–not just friends and family but contributors of all kinds from previous installments. It’s becoming a real community which is something that never occurred to me last year when my wife Wendy and I dared to start this series of fundraisers to support the music program at Castelar Elementary. How many neighborhoods have such a storied punk past as Chinatown? How many galleries are as cool as Human Resources to make it possible? We were set in those respects but who would participate?
Of course, Mike Watt & The Secondmen were incredible. Watt’s thunderous bass is famously part of the Minutemen, fIREHOSE, and L.A.’s underground music scene in general, spreading through all genres from punk to jazz and beyond. And with Pete and Jerry, he not only drove people to come early to the venue and instantly made our lineup one to be reckoned with, he also blew the minds of unsuspecting kids and parents. It’s one thing to help pay for instruction and instruments for schoolkids; it’s another to show them the DIY power that they can generate with them. And not only did Watt agree to join in after receiving a cold email from Nate (my friend and prime supporter of Save Music in Chinatown) but he sent a thank-you note afterward. Pure class from Pedro!
Next up was The Gears, who used to headline punk clubs in Chinatown all the time back in the first wave. Depending on who you ask, the Minutemen actually played their first or second show opening for them. Kidd Spike was previously in the Masque scene favorites The Controllers before teaming up with killer frontman Axxel G. Reese to play a more rootsy style of punk. Axxel said at the show that he’s a child of rock ‘n’ roll, and that the band drank some beer beforehand but left it outside before unleashing a PG-13 version of their set in the faces of kids, parents, and fans in the crowd.
After that, I had the unfortunate task of announcing that Steve Soto would not be playing his excellent solo set as advertised. Instead it would be his full band, the Adolescents! I love Soto’s solo sets but how cool is it that the legendary group would support our cause and perform an unannounced set for about 150 people including little kids to support music education at a public school in Chinatown. Singer Tony Reflex is a friend and longtime supporter of our cause, and as the band plugged in he explained that he met his wife in Chinatown by the Hong Kong Cafe and Madame Wong’s during the early punk days, adding that his in-laws attended the Italian-speaking church up the street. He loves Chinatown and his bandmates were awesome enough to drive up from Long Beach, Orange County, and San Diego to be there.
So many difference makers were in the crowd: Chris from What? Records, Lisa from Frontier Records, Mike from CH3; Adam Bomb, Cyrano, and Lotus from KXLU; Krk and Royce from Flipside, and who know the ones I didn’t recognize. It’s so cool that they, the bands, and everyone in attendance would support the idea of bringing the cultures of Chinatown together: the punk heritage, the art gallery scene, the locals who live and go to school there. All of it was on as strictly volunteer basis, including the Kings of Punk DJs from KCHUNG (as well as Gabie who always lets me promote our cause on her show), the bake sale from parents and friends (and coffee sponsored by Imprint/interTrend), and the raffle (thanks to Tum Yeto/Toy Machine, Keep, Scoops, Donut Friend, Purgatory Pizza, Attract Mode, photography by Krk, DVD from filmmaker Dave Travis, Berndt Offerings, Sticky Acres…). What a cool scene this has become, and I can’t wait for May 31 to come. That’s our next show.
Epilogue: I never want our Save Music in Chinatown shows to end and this time it didn’t, really. That night it was The Gears’ turn to play a surprise set at Cafe NELA. They churned out a lot of the songs that couldn’t be played at the matinee–“I Smoke Dope,” for example–and it was a sweatier, darker, and heavier vibe. But it was just as much fun and there was just as much of a sense of community among the bands and crowd at Dave Travis’s venue. It would be great if that sense of ownership gets communicated to the kids through Save Music in Chinatown and I actually think it might happen…
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