[bomp] Re: Cathay, etc.

[Brent Walker <bcwalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2006 10:56:08 EDT
> From: ItsBoss9@aol.com
> Subject: [bomp] Q: have we come anywhere since this?
> 
> The Cathay de Grande and Raji's were NEVER pay to play at any time,
> 
> GREAT clubs... though I was a recluse during the Cathay de Grande/On Klub
> times... I did hear tons of great stuff about those places.  Raji's was pretty
> great.  Man, I just gotta say, though...  like, even there...  I just felt
> that 
> there was a lot of hard rock poision in the L.A. air.  You know, the kind of
> people who showed up, are now the weathered-looking, dyed-black hair down to
> their shoulderblades guys who still look metal-ish, who have zero hearing left
> and are doing the sound board?
> 
> The Wondermints, during their early days, would bring this guy Pete with them
> as the fifth member of the band... his instrument was the sound board.  He
> was literally hired by the group in order to ask each club they played to tell
> the sound man to go have a cigarette... outside... while he arranged the
> group's music on stage...  he was specifically hired by the group because L.A.
> clubs 
> did not have sound people with brains or ears for anything but the worst kind
> of metal shit.
> 
> All the Wondermints earliest gigs were at an obscure bar way north in the
> Valley called the Irish Mist, where no one played.  They, in town, avoided all
> the usual clubs 100%, to get their music down unhindered by "rock" idiots.
> When 
> it came time to play actual L.A. venues, Pete probably has a million stories
> of wedging stupid people off the boards.  I mean, sometimes, it got real
> heated.  This is about SERIOUS musical differences.  I mean, these are the
> guys who 
> ended up bringing Smile to the stage.
> 
> Wasn't Cathay de Grande, BTW, mostly an early-'80s thing, not late '80s?
> 
> Domenic Priore


The Cathay's heyday was the early 80's, that was when Top Jimmy & the Rhythm
Pigs had their regular Monday night residency and there were all kinds of
great shows going on every weekend. During that period I was either there
for the punk/roots rock/etc. Stuff, or at Club Lingerie for the old R&B
guys. Cathay briefly changed its name to something like the All-American
Cafi circa 1986 (the only show I saw there was bluesman Johnny Copeland),
then in the later 80s it got a total unrecognizable makeover and became a
horrible industry jam-session place called the China Club (I think the
original one was in New York). I only went there once when some friends
played, and was heartbroken to go down the stairs to the basement where I
had seen so many great shows and the sleazy low ceiling, water damaged
ceiling tiled basement had been transformed into an antiseptic dressing room
area. Just a reminder that any music club is just four walls, no matter how
great or bad the ambiance...any positive vibes come from the people running
and booking it, and the kind of crowd they attract.

The AntiClub was always a complete sewer, but in the early-mid 80's the
bookers were great, and you knew if you went there on a given night the
bands booked would usually have something worthwhile. However, by the late
80's they got run out, and after that there was no consistency....as a
result, like all such situations, it became the kind of place where often
the individual bands would bring their own crowd who would leave right after
they played (before the next band, whose crowd--or no crowd--would arrive).
I think it went pay to play (or pre-sell tickets...essentially the same
thing) around that time.

I was a regular at Safari Sam's in HB during its brief two year reign in
85-86. It was the kind of place where people would go without knowing who
was playing because Sam and Gil would have something interesting going on
every night, and you got to know a lot of the people hanging out who had
similar tastes. I'm sure that vibe is what Sam is trying to establish with
the new place, and the Hollywood area will benefit from having that in
addition to Spaceland and other places with that vibe...versus a bunch of
"four-wall" places.

Brent Walker

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