New Music Venues Are Preparing to Join the Club

It’s a time of ferment on the Orange County club scene, as promoters seek to launch new venues for original music.

Johnnie Liddi, an Orange-based independent promoter, says he will try to establish the Kono Hawaii, a 600-capacity nightclub in Santa Ana, as a home for a variety of pop styles. The 26-year-old promoter says he will start Feb. 9 with a bill of local alternative rockers: the Swamp Zombies, A Sight Unseen and the Ziggins. Also booked, Liddi said, are shows by Loud Sugar, Godhead and Caustic Monkey on Feb. 16, Failure on Feb. 17, Tarrga on Feb. 19, No Doubt on Feb. 23, the Daddyos on March 1, and Pancho Sanchez on March 15. Plans also call for two comedy nights each month. The club is at 226 S. Harbor Blvd.

Also stepping up original rock offerings is the Sunset Beach Club in Orange. Orange Wedge, fronted by Joe Wood of T.S.O.L., headlines on Friday, followed by Webb Wilder, a hard-rocking Tennessee band that will be the club’s first touring attraction. Quiet Riot plays the Sunset Beach Club on Feb. 14.

Owner Mary Tigner said the 350-capacity club, at 777 S. Main St., has dropped the Top 40 format it embarked on when it opened last spring in favor of original rock. The Sunset Beach Club is also the site of a monthly Cajun dance party thrown the third Saturday of each month by Westminster-based independent promoter David Gaar. T-Lou & His L.A. Zydeco Band play the next Cajun bash on Feb. 15.

Meanwhile, the Meadowlark Restaurant in Cypress, which was simmering with original-rock possibilities a few weeks ago, appears to be cooling to some of the more punkish alternative rock strains.

James Hernandez, who had planned to promote a series of all-ages concerts at the Meadowlark, said owner Yoshi Horio was unhappy with the audience’s youth and its tendency to slam dance at the first show in his series. Hernandez said he is moving his shows to El Nuevo Monterey, 601 N. Harbor Blvd. in Santa Ana, where concert-goers will have to be 16 or older to get in. Playing tonight at 7 are punk bands Pennywise and No Crisis.

But independent promoter Chris Martin says he is going ahead with his projected Saturday night alternative-rock series at the Meadowlark, dubbed Martinis. A re-formed Gherkin Raucous, featuring Darren McNamee and Warren Fitzgerald, the band’s original singer and guitarist, plus a new rhythm section of Josh Freese on drums and Bob Thomson (moonlighting from Big Drill Car) on bass, will play Saturday. Opening are Smash Palace and the Goods. Tex and the Horseheads and Suicide Doors will play Martinis on Feb. 15, with other bookings to be announced.

SPICY EXPORT: Thanks to some favorable word on the international folkie grapevine, the Louisiana Cajun Trio will leave its customary Southern California haunts for a 17-show tour of England starting Feb. 8. Band member Carolyn Russell said the trip stems from her promotion of “The Living Tradition” concert series at the Anaheim Cultural Arts Center. Northern California guitarist Bob Brozman played a show in the Anaheim series last year and got to know Russell. On a subsequent tour of England, Brozman told his British agent about the Cajun Trio, which features Garden Grove resident Russell on guitar, Louisiana native Wilfred Latour on accordion, and former Jo-el Sonnier sideman Tom Sauber on fiddle. The agent was looking for a Cajun band to tour in Britain and decided to hire the trio. Upon its return in March, the group will release a new album, “Homage.”

CASHING IN: Johnny Cash will make a rare club appearance March 9 and 10 at the Crazy Horse Steak House. The club’s booker, Fred Reiser, said he had been trying to land a show by Cash (who will perform with his wife, June Carter, and the Carter Family) for five years, but was always told that Cash doesn’t play clubs. Reiser said favorable reviews from Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson, a couple of Crazy Horse regulars, may have persuaded Cash to take up the offer. Tickets go on sale Feb. 6 at 10 a.m. at the Crazy Horse.