Major Changes Are on Tap at The Bar

The “Honey, I’m at The Bar” routine won’t be a viable alibi at least for awhile. According to Dave (The Owner) Wollman, The Bar in Ventura has closed, at least for a while, as of Feb. 24. A couple of gnarly fights and visits from the cops didn’t help. But mostly the fact that Ventura doesn’t rock is responsible for the change, said the 6-foot-6 owner.

“We’re going to be closed for a couple of weeks,” he said. “We’re gonna change the atmosphere around, maybe paint some palm trees on the walls and make it more beachy. We’re probably going to change the name, too.” The “we” refers to himself and partner Chris Cullison. “It’s going to be more like the Metro--we’re going to have a dress code. If you’re wearing gang attire, you’re not getting in.”

And it will be even leaner times than usual for local groups. There are five local bands who more or less make all the money, drink all the beer and pick up all the women--while the others at least had The Bar, formerly the Midnight Hour, a place they could play between tears and curses.

“To tell you the truth, the hard-core format is not working, and if I don’t change the format, I won’t be able to afford to stay open,” said Wollman. “The people these hard-core bands attract just cause trouble and they don’t have any money, anyway. From the business aspect, Ventura just did not want to hear that kind of music. We’re going to bring in some reggae and ska bands and make it more of a dance place. The bar business is tough, dude, it’s an up-and-down thing.”

During the last few years, and also disappearing into that cloud of rock ‘n’ roll smoke, were the Bermuda Triangle, the Vampyre Lounge, Cheers, Charlie’s, Club Deja Vu and the Insomniac. But never fear, says Wollman.

“We’ll definitely be back by the end of March.”

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Oh man, it’s nostalgia time for all those former hippies to flash back to the good ol’ days.

Psychedelic Summer, a Thousand Oaks-based quartet, will be doing the first of what they hope will be many Come As You Were shows. This one will be at the Palms in Carpinteria on Friday and Saturday nights, and is billed as “the one and only ‘60s Flower Power tribute and cosmic vibe freak-out show.” But will the group stay in character and come to the gig in the world’s slowest land vehicle, the VW van?

“Yeah, it might look cool to have a chartreuse micro-bus sitting outside the gigs, but we’d never make it back up the Conejo Grade,” said band member and party organizer Chris Lovejoy. “You know, everyone is doing disco and all the newer stuff, but no one is doing the psychedelic era. We do some Jefferson Airplane, some Janis Joplin, some Hendrix, some Mungo Jerry--but just the fun ‘60s dance stuff, none of the depressing stuff. We’ve played at a lot of private parties, and it went over well.”

Psychedelic Summer is better known as Babylon Sister, a band that has been a mainstay on the local scene for the last couple of years, doing R&B; and blues. But sometimes those blues can be debilitating, Lovejoy said.

“Once you get pegged into the bluesy dance band slot, you never rise above that 500-bucks-a-gig level. We’re just trying to make some extra bread and bring our wages up to the next level,” he said.

The Palms is at 701 Linden Ave., Carpinteria. Call the venue at 684-3811.

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“Well we finally took the plunge,” said Pinching Judy singer John Lombardo. Did they take a long walk on Ventura’s shorter pier? Nope. According to Lombardo, the Ventura quartet is about to sign with Elektra Records, shortly after their most recent album, “More Like Morphine,” gets some national distribution. As Something for Nothing, this band almost signed before, to Priority Records. Someday, some group will have to be the first Ventura band to get a deal.

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Is Marcia Clark’s favorite band those rockin’ blues dudes out of Santa Barbara, the Pontiax? Does she go to their gigs? Does she dance? According to several locals, she and presumed new blues beau Mitch Kashmar were being dogged by members of the tabloid press at a recent gig at Joe Daddy’s. The next local Pontiax gig will be March 14 at Alexander’s in Ventura.