A Brand New Home for Original Rock Bands

Another outlet has opened for the county’s venue-starved original rock bands. It’s the Underground, a downstairs room at Jeremiah’s restaurant and lounge, 8901 Warner Ave. in Huntington Beach. The club’s recently inaugurated series of Thursday night original rock showcases continues tonight with a double bill: Ray Cruz’s Field of Vision and Reverie.

Allan Gassman, a recently-transplanted New Yorker who is entertainment director at Jeremiah’s, said this is “basically a summer of experimentation, just to see what works and what doesn’t.” Gassman, who ran a club in New York and managed a rock-reggae band, Zoning Board, said he hopes to expand live rock offerings to Wednesday nights as well.

The 125-capacity Underground offers recorded rock-dance music on weekends. The upstairs lounge at Jeremiah’s features a softer brand of pop and jazz, Gassman said, with acts mixing their own songs with “cover” versions of well-known hits. He also plans to introduce one-act plays at lunchtime.

One experiment that Gassman says did not work was an attempt to open the Thursday night rock shows to all age groups. Some minors were smuggling in alcohol, showing fake identification or having older friends buy them drinks. After the July 7 show, featuring techno-rock band London Issue, the Underground will become strictly a 21-and-over club.