A Sour Taste From South of the Border

A recent fiasco involving local rap artist-entrepreneur Neil (Trick) Westbrooks and a Tijuana nightclub has left Westbrooks thousands of dollars poorer and more than a little miffed. But, in this week of Thanksgiving, the 28-year-old rapper’s overriding emotion is extreme gratitude that he was able to get out of Mexico alive.

In an interview earlier this week, Westbrooks said his troubles began not long after he agreed to promote an eight-week series of Saturday-night rap concerts at The Club XS, in Tijuana’s Viva Tijuana shopping center.

On Nov. 7, Westbrooks--who has produced other big-name shows on this side of the border--promoted his first rap concert at the Baja venue. Notorious rapper Ice T headlined a bill that featured Rhyme Syndicate members Hengee and Evil-E, and the evening’s fare included dancers from the “Soul Train” television program, other exotic dancers, a wet T-shirt contest and an open-mike segment that gave aspiring rappers a few minutes in the spotlight.

Nearly 600 reportedly well-behaved fans paid a modest $10 each to attend the show. Ice T himself hung out at the club for several hours after his performance, and the series appeared to have gotten off to a promising start. But a week later, things went sour.

“Part of my agreement with the owners of the club stipulated that they wouldn’t try to promote any concerts there during my series,” Westbrooks said. “But on Friday (Nov. 13), the night before our second show, they brought a rapper in who’d released only one single, and he made a brief appearance and split without really performing.”

Westbrooks said he thinks the owners lost money on that show, which might have led to the events of the next night.

Westbrooks alleges that, on the night of Nov. 14, at the midway point of the series’ second concert, Club XS’ owners refused to advance Westbrooks’ business manager the promoter’s share of the door receipts, from which he was supposed to pre-pay the headliner, female rapper Yo Yo. Westbrooks claims that when he himself demanded the payment, one of the club’s owners, Oswaldo Casares, “went spastic,” and began yelling for everyone to leave the club. The following sequence of events reads like the script of a bad movie.

“I went to the microphone and told the audience what the situation was, because I felt we had a responsibility to those who had paid to see Yo Yo,” Westbrooks said. “Some people started demanding their money back, and that’s when (the owners) called the police.

“At that point, I tried to make sure that all our people--artists, dancers, my own employees--were accounted for, so that we could get out of the club and into the tour bus. When the police got there, they huddled with the owners, and then came outside after us.”

Westbrooks alleges that the Mexican police singled him out, got him up against a car and began leveling phony charges against him.

“First they told me they were charging me with possession of marijuana. Then they decided (the charge) would be tax evasion. And finally they settled on possession of cocaine,” Westbrooks said. “Now, I don’t mess with any of that stuff, so I didn’t have anything like that on me. But they took me and my bodyguard in the police car and threatened to beat us up right there in the car. We offered to be tested for drugs, but they said--in very good English--that even if we passed that test, they’d charge us with drug trafficking.”

Westbrooks says the two were taken to the squalid Division 8 jail, where they were subjected to electric shock torture, among other scare tactics. At one point, Westbrooks said, a team of Mexican reporters showed up, stuck microphones in the arrestees’ faces and tried to get them to admit on the record that they smoke marijuana.

After two days, Westbrooks and his bodyguard were able to collect $1,000 from friends in the States to pay their way out of jail. When added to the $3,500 he says he is owed by the Club XS owners (which includes the $1,500 still owed to Yo Yo), Westbrooks computes his net loss at about $4,500. But the money remains a secondary consideration.

“To tell you the truth, I thought we were going to be sent to the Mexican pen, because these (policemen) were really worked up,” Westbrooks said. “At first I wasn’t worried, because I knew we hadn’t done anything wrong. But as time went on, I realized we were in serious trouble. I prayed and prayed, and we even contemplated trying to break out, ‘cause I knew if they sent us to a Mexican prison, we wouldn’t live long.”

Two weeks removed from the experience, Westbrooks believes he paid heavily for a hard-learned lesson.

“I will never, ever get into another club contract down there,” he said.

Repeated phone calls to the owners of The Club XS were not returned.

As Trick, Westbrooks performs on a rap bill tonight at the Distillery in Escondido (741-9393).

For the past year, Secret Society’s almost total absence from the local club scene had made it seem as though the hard-rock band was trying too hard to live up to its name.

Only a just-for-fun acoustic set at the Spirit last March indicated to fans that guitarist Dave Britton, drummer Dale Patterson and bassist Brian Mafi still existed as a unit. It surprised even Britton, then, when fans braved a chill, damp night to attend Secret Society’s coming-back-out gig Sunday at the Rhythm Cafe.

“For months, we were just auditioning singers and writing new material,” Britton explained in a phone interview Monday. “With no singer involved, the music we were writing was very aggressive. Finally, about four months ago, (vocalist) Drew Robinson joined the band, and we tore all the songs apart and rearranged them to make them more vocal-oriented. As a result, the new stuff is aggressive and melodic at the same time. It’s a weird mix, so we wanted to get people’s reaction to it, and things worked out better than we expected.”

According to Britton, Secret Society’s new tunes went over exceedingly well, although some older fans voiced disappointment at not hearing the band’s more familiar material. One who thought the new stuff was just fine was local recording artist Robert Vaughn, who recently inked a multi-album deal with major-label Epic Records.

“Coe Lewis (a deejay at KGB-FM) brought Robert to the show, and afterward we discussed having him produce a demo for us,” Britton said. “Meanwhile, now that we have a singer, we’ll be playing a lot more shows.”

Secret Society’s next local gig will be Saturday night at Club 860 in Pacific Beach, where they will perform in the 10 p.m. slot, following the band Jokers Wild and preceding Doctor X and Rich Kid. Call 272-1513.

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BOOKINGS: (Tickets for the following concerts will be sold at all TicketMaster outlets--278-TIXS--unless otherwise noted.)

Zulu Spear plays tonight at the Rhythm Cafe. . . . On Friday, singer-guitarist Brad Cahill, host of the local cable-access program “Songwriters Spotlight,” plays a 7 p.m. set at the Better Worlde Galeria in Mission Hills. Elsewhere, the Paladins are at the Belly Up Tavern, reggae star Eek-A-Mouse is downtown at SOMA and Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials rip up the Rhythm Cafe.

Singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding, Barenaked Ladies and actress-singer Mare Winningham team for a triple bill at the Rhythm Cafe on Saturday night. Comedian George Carlin performs two shows at that venue Sunday. Wooden Ships, an electro-acoustic group featuring former Jefferson Airplaners Paul Kantner and Jack Casady, sets anchor at the Belly Up Tavern on Dec. 2. Gil Scott-Heron plays the Rhythm Cafe on Dec. 3, followed by Tower of Power on Dec. 4.

Tickets are on sale for comedian Steven Wright’s Dec. 4 show at the Spreckels Theatre and for the Dec. 4 concert at the Civic Theatre featuring 10,000 Maniacs, who last played here in 1989 before a sold-out San Diego State University Open Air Theatre. Joining the Maniacs are the Wallflowers. Mudhoney, Eugenius, Supersuckers and Honeyglaze play SOMA on Dec. 5.

Local folk stalwarts Sam Hinton and Johnny Walker perform their annual “Holiday Concert” Dec. 5 at the Folk Heritage Auditorium (215 9th St., Del Mar, 436-4030). The Stray Cats’ Brian Setzer brings his 16-piece band to the Rhythm Cafe on Dec. 6. Soul Asylum, the Lemonheads and the Jayhawks invade Club 860 on Dec. 9.

CRITIC’S CHOICE / ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT

Local act Rocket From the Crypt has more than validated its choice as Best Alternative Band in last summer’s San Diego Music Awards. The group, which shares guitarist-vocalist John Reis with another popular area aggregate, Drive Like Jehu, is being touted by the national press as one of several up-and-comers with a real shot at the big time.

As the band puts the finishing touches on a three-album deal with Interscope Records, it will make an appearance Dec. 4 at Club 860, on a bill with the Cows and the Nephews. Tickets are $8.91 in advance, $10 the night of show, available through TicketMaster or at the club’s box office (272-1513).