Urban Dread Gets Ahead

For Camarillo, a landlocked burg where malls have done to farmland what Godzilla did to train schedules, there never has been much going on for the rock ‘n’ rollers.

But what was once a dive in a strip mall called Gold Street has now doubled in size to become a viable and even happening rock ‘n’ roll venue, the Stage. The site--which, incidentally, does have a huge stage--will celebrate its first anniversary on Halloween. The Stage gives Camarillo’s musically inclined locals an excuse to stay close to home several nights a week, including a nightly offer no rational rocker can refuse.

Thursday nights are a good example. Probably the most popular California reggae band, Urban Dread, plays at around 10 p.m. There is (ever-affordable) no cover charge, and “U-Call-It” at the bar costs but 2 bucks. For those who have too much fun--get this--there are free rides home. The only thing that would be more convenient would be to have Urban Dread play at your house, where you wouldn’t even have to leave the couch.

Urban Dread doesn’t do many living rooms, but they play almost everywhere else. Really motivated bands play, maybe, once a week or so. Urban Dread plays six times per week. No blues band is more overworked than this outfit, which includes keyboard and sax player Jason Bourne, lead singer and rhythm guitarist Edgar Montas, lead guitarist Tony Lee, bass player Gary Stevenson and drummer Kris Carpenter. Bourne was actually getting nervous recently because the band had only three gigs one week.

“All you have to have is the motivation to make it happen,” he said. “I was getting down on myself, thinking maybe the band was bad, but actually, I was just lagging, and not spending enough time on the phone. Now we’re back to playing six nights a week.”

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One thing Urban Dread has been very good at is making things happen on nights that traditionally are dead for bar owners, which, in varying degrees, is every night besides Friday and Saturday. The band has brought plenty of business to a succession of club owners by playing Monday through Thursday nights.

“Not that many bands can play the same place for a year,” said Bourne. “We played at Pelican’s in Calabasas for five years before they closed. We’ve been playing at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach for a year of Tuesday nights.

Maybe the Stage is next. Owner Dave Codner hopes so. No problem according to Carpenter, the drummer.

“We’ve played a lot of places like this and made them happening gigs. But it takes time,” he said. “We have a lot of the same people that come to see us every week. Apparently, the week before we played here, there were five people, and last week there were 70, and tonight there’s more than that. Once the crowd hits around 100, it becomes logarithmic and really begins to grow.”

Sort of a Black Uhuru for the ‘90s, but without the bad attitude, Urban Dread has a vast set list, and by the fourth song, the energetic were following the advice on the wall “Get On The Dancefloor.”

“We play L.A. reggae, the whole history of reggae from the early rock, steady to the dance hall style,” said Lee. “When we first started, we did more English-beat-type stuff. Now we play sort of a cross between dance hall and roots reggae.”

Whatever it is, it works, according to the drummer.

“There are different forms of reggae--rap and reggae, hip-hop and reggae, R & B and reggae and the stuff that 311 and Sublime are doing,” he said. “We have five guys with five different influences, but our common interest is reggae.”

Urban Dread started eight years ago, basically because Bourne was a reggae fan. They played their first gig, not so far away from the Stage, on top of the Conejo Grade. Carpenter remembers.

“It was April of 1988 at Sergio’s in Westlake Village, which is now Yucatan Cantina. The Dallas Cowboys were there because they trained at Cal Lutheran and the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders were there, too. We pulled it off.”

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Thus far, Urban Dread has released a couple of tapes. The first one is long gone, but last year’s “Life We Love” is still available, and the band hopes to have a CD ready in a couple of months.

“We have a 16-track studio, and since we have our days free . . . we’d like to have a CD ready by Christmas,” said Bourne. “We probably have about 30 originals. There are songs about happiness and peace and others about girls and parties, everything from the serious to the playful. Some will make you dance; others will make you think.”

As usual, for bands that survive live, it boils down to the basics: How many people can the band draw? Most bands say they can populate a Cecil B. DeMille movie, but most lie. Urban Dread has played more than 300 gigs a year for six years, so they must be doing something right.

“I love the energy of seeing a big crowd that loves what we are doing,” said Bourne. “It’s fun to see people having a good time after maybe they came in after having a bad day. Also I love the freedom we have. We totally control our own schedule. We haven’t had day jobs for five years, we’re booked for the next two months, and I know we make more money than most bands that are signed.”

Codner, Mr. Stage himself, seems enthusiastic about it all.

“I love them, they’re great. They’re the best reggae band I’ve ever seen.”

In addition to Urban Dread on Thursday, the Stage has one of those Boogie Knights-sponsored bands on Fridays, Le Freak. Saturday is usually original rock night or tribute band night, and on Sundays, Codner gets to play his own place during Dave Codner’s Rock Jam. And starting Sunday, there will be free tri-tip dinners, clearly a cultural landslide. The venue is at 2258 Pickwick St. in Camarillo, not far from Arneill Road. Call them at 383-0286.