Hard Rock Rolls Into Two Unlikely Clubs

The Palomino crowd was in for a shock--Shock and The Night and Day Horns, a commercial rock band with a pulsating beat and almost inaudible lyrics.

“I wasn’t sure about playing here,” said Jamie Rae Jones, Shock’s lead singer, after a gig at the North Hollywood club last week. “A lot of people asked us, ‘Isn’t that a country-Western bar?’ ”

Twenty-four hours later, Long Gone delivered its hard-driving rock at the normally reserved, Top 40 dance-oriented Sasch in Studio City. Soft, melodic ballads gave way to sharp, pounding guitar riffs.

These two shows weren’t one-night stands; both represent new efforts by the Palomino and Sasch to capitalize on the youth-dominated, hard-rock market in the San Fernando Valley. Without forsaking its mainstay audiences, the clubs hope to provide enough top-notch hard rock ‘n’ roll to slow down the nightly exodus of music fans to popular Sunset Strip spots such as the Roxy and Gazzarri’s.

“People won’t have to go over the hill to hear good rock ‘n’ roll,” Palomino owner Bill Thomas said.

Last week, Thomas introduced a new Wednesday night series, “In Your Face, Hard Rock Wednesdays,” designed mainly to showcase unsigned rock talents. As Shock’s Jones delighted his young female fans by jumping on the dance floor, the band’s agent, Shelly Berggren, confessed that she worried about the Palomino gig.

“At 9:30, I was here and there were only 15 people,” Berggren said, “and I thought, ‘I’m never going to live this down.’ ”

Within an hour, though, the crowd swelled to about 100. Thomas said he’s committed to the Wednesday hard-rock series for at least four months. “That’s how long it takes a new special night like this to take off,” he said.

At Sasch, plans for the club’s rock future are more ambitious. Since late April, Sasch has featured hard-rock music every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Mark Yandle, the club’s manager, said he hopes to eventually present the same format on weekends too. The club now rotates Top 40 bands on Fridays and Saturdays.

“We were known as a nice disco/dance pickup joint,” said Yandle, who came aboard this year. “But there was no originality. I guess it was just time to change the image of the club.”

Asked if changing the image might alienate fans more accustomed to dance music, Yandle responded: “It might, but we’re hoping to get hard-rock bands that you can dance to, not heavy-metal-thrash types.” Also, he said, with enough promotion, fans would know which nights offered hard-rock, and when disco would be on the musical menu.

Scott Hurowitz, general manager of the Country Club in Reseda, which, along with FM Station in North Hollywood, is the Valley’s most prominent base for hard-rock entertainment, said he is surprised by Sasch’s sudden leap into hard-rock music.

“They have a cosmetically nice room,” Hurowitz said, “and it’s unavoidable that with this type of music, a place gets torn apart. That’s what’s happened here.”

Responded Yandle: “Everyone has been well-behaved. People walk in who look like Billy Idol and they sit down and enjoy themselves. We’ve only caught one person with a phony ID.”

Hurowitz and FM Station’s owner, Filthy McNasty, say they welcome the new competition from the Sasch and Palomino, insisting the added exposure will only enhance hard-rock’s popularity in the Valley. “And we’re confident a lot of people will pick our place to watch it,” McNasty said. His club features rock music seven nights a week; the Country Club stages several shows a week.

Hard-rock bands, Hurowitz added, usually possess the most loyal followers, which makes it easier for clubs to book successful shows. “The groups really put the effort to get everyone to the show,” Hurowitz said.

“For pop groups, they focus more on the rehearsals; they put less emphasis on getting the big crowds. The harder guys sees the gigs as their arena concerts, their chance to prove they can make it.”

At last week’s shows at Sasch and Palomino, most of the audience had been personally contacted by band members to show up. This is to be expected until a rock scene is created at these clubs, said Michael Faley, president of Metal Blade Records in Sherman Oaks, which produces heavy metal/hard-rock albums.

“The goal is to have people show up knowing there’s going to be hard-rock entertainment, even if they don’t know which bands will be playing,” Faley said.

Faley, who spends a lot of time scouting new bands, attended a recent show at Sasch and believes the club has an excellent chance to gain a new reputation as a hot spot for hard rock ‘n’ roll.

“It’s in a perfect location, close to Hollywood and the Valley,” Faley said. “Plus, they have no problem with volume. There’s nobody around there to complain.”

Management at Sasch and Palomino believe that the new attitude toward hard rock music will pay huge dividends for the aspiring bands. Because many executives at record companies live in the San Fernando Valley, stopping by to listen to a band is no major excursion. “We’ve been getting people from Warner Bros,” Yandle said. “They’re just around the corner. It’s a lot easier than going down to the Strip.”

And, Shock’s Jones said, there’s much less pressure than playing on the Strip.

“Shows like this help us,” Jones said after performing at the Palomino. “This helps us not be so nervous when we play the Roxy. In Hollywood, there’s a lot more bands to compare yourself to. Here, we can just relax and play and be ourselves.”