Name Bands Drawn to ‘New’ Trancas for Spirit, Convenience

Carole King has played there. So have the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Bo Diddley. Future acts include Dr. John (Dec. 26). But the venue is miles from any population center and holds something like 200 people--less than half the legal capacity of Hollywood’s Roxy.

What’s going on at Trancas?

“We don’t have the capacity of other clubs, but we’ve positioned ourselves as a club that books good acts,” said Peter Kernan, who coordinates talent for the Malibu room.

“There’s kind of a roadhouse atmosphere there,” he said, “as opposed to the kind of room you have to get dressed up for. Some acts use Trancas as a routing stop, when they’re playing in Hollywood or further down the beach. We don’t really compete with the clubs in those areas. Also, a lot of the acts have friends in Malibu, or even live there.”

Kernan, a 20-year veteran of the concert promotion business, grew up in Detroit. He’s been booking Trancas since March.

In March, 1988, after being closed for several months, Trancas was leased by Gene Ball, a longtime Malibu resident and plumbing contractor.

“I used to come here for years,” Ball says. “I’ve lived in Malibu since 1953, and there’s been something called Trancas on the property since the late ‘30s. It started as a restaurant and store.”

Ball prefers to call today’s Trancas a “music school,” with the customers (including Bruce Springsteen and Sylvester Stallone) “students” and the performers “teachers.” On Wednesday night, admission is free, and a band frequently featuring alumni of Chicago, the Doobie Bros., Vanilla Fudge and Bonnie Raitt’s group Padlock holds lessons in the form of an open jam session.

Padlock appears regularly, and there have been drop-ins by Raitt, Bob Seger, George Thorogood and Christine McVie. Sam Kinison has performed at several of the room’s Monday comedy nights.

“The remote location works well for us sometimes,” Kernan says. “Carole King used the room to warm up her band before going on tour. Mother’s Finest did a series of Tuesday shows in August, before they went on the road.”

British blues man John Mayall has lived in Los Angeles for several years. Just finishing an album for the Island label, he and his band will perform in New York City in February, as part of a concert celebrating B.B. King’s 44th anniversary in show business. Mayall’s group plays about 120 shows a year, he estimates, “in 17 countries, give or take a country.”

Mayall favors Trancas because many of the larger clubs don’t regard the venue as competition. “Also, there’s no overhead, which is an important factor. We get paid less then we might in a larger hall, but we all live here, and don’t have to pay for transportation and hotels.”

A neighborhood bar in spirit, Trancas draws from all over Southern California. “When A Flock of Seagulls played,” Kernan said, “Ticketmaster reported sales as far away as Pomona and southern Orange County. Mostly, though, we draw from Santa Monica and the San Fernando Valley, and not as much from Malibu as you might expect. The town’s quite long, but it’s only a mile or two wide, and there just aren’t enough people here to fill us on a regular basis.”

Trancas, 30765 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, is open seven nights a week; show times and admission vary. For information call (213) 457-5516.

FUNNY LADY: Reviewing a Teresa Tudury performance for The Times earlier this year, Don Heckman compared the comic singer-composer to Tracey Ullman, Sophie Tucker and Beatrice Lillie. In addition to her originals, Tudury’s repertoire ranges from Lillie’s “There Are Fairies at the Bottom of My Garden” to “Melancholy Baby.” The expatriate San Franciscan will appear at the Vine St. Bar & Grill on Wednesday night, then departs for a monthlong run in Gotham. She’ll be playing sets, accompanied by a pianist, at 9 and 11 p.m. There is a $10 cover charge. The Vine St. & Grill is located at 1610 N. Vine St. in Hollywood. For information call (213) 463-4375.