Club Scene Finds Strength in Numbers

The booking wars some had expected to erupt when the House of Blues opened earlier this year in Anaheim so near the Sun Theatre have given way to a kinder, gentler music scene, a change that’s led to an unprecedented range of live music choices for Orange County music fans and bands.

Rather than rock the county with heated competition, the 1,200-seat Sun and the 1,000-capacity House of Blues have moved toward generally distinct missions that have unexpectedly strengthened the local music scene, both by design and by happy accident.

“Now bands can do a show in L.A. and a show in Orange County and they don’t affect each other. Nobody [outside Orange County] ever believed that before, but finally the message got through,” says Tim Hill, owner of the all-ages Chain Reaction club in Anaheim, where cutting-edge alternative-rock, punk and pop acts play an average of 20 nights a month.

Many of those acts would have skipped Orange County just a few years ago and played instead at some trendy Los Angeles nightspot.

The biggest pop and rock tours are still the domain of two venues--the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim and Verizon Wireless (formerly Irvine Meadows) Amphitheater.

But where one or two clubs historically struggled to stay alive in the past, the county is now dotted with a dozen or more of various sizes, shapes and missions.

Like Chain Reaction, several other small clubs now focus on bands from Orange County in particular and Southern California in general, spicing those bookings with cutting-edge touring acts. Among the others are Linda’s Doll Hut in Anaheim (one of the few that’s been operating for more than five years), the Gypsy Lounge in Lake Forest, the Back Alley, the Hub and Al Cappuccino, all in Fullerton, Koo’s Arts Cafe in Santa Ana, the Shack in Anaheim and Club Mesa and the Tiki Bar in Costa Mesa.

Between the grass-roots clubs and the House of Blues and the Sun, in terms of size and clout, are the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana. Both are owned by Gary Folgner, who dominated the county’s club scene for more than a decade before the Sun opened.

Now Folgner’s clubs take what’s left over after the House of Blues and Sun skim off the top nationally touring acts, but he’s not griping. In fact, Folgner and senior talent buyer Roger LeBlanc are casting their net wider, booking a range of folk, country, jazz, roots rock, punk and rap acts.

“Financially, it’s worked out real well,” Folgner says. “Since the Sun and House of Blues started, we’ve been doing more shows than ever, with less risk and more success. Plus we’ve brought in some other things, like a little record company we started [Coach House Records] that’s working with the local scene and with some bands the majors aren’t interested in anymore because they’re not the flavor of the month.”

Because the Sun and House of Blues also draw on local and regional groups as opening acts and for the occasional “local band night” shows, it adds up to growth opportunities that were all but nonexistent in the past.

“If I were trying to build a career in any major city in the country, we’d have the cards stacked against us,” says Andrew McMahon of alt-rock band Something Corporate. The group headlines a local bill at House of Blues tonight, having played frequently around the county at the Coach House, Galaxy, Chain Reaction and other venues. “But in a smaller environment like O.C., with so many clubs, there are so many opportunities.

“I feel like we’re on a fast track in a lot of senses,” McMahon says. “As of Saturday, we sold out the House of Blues, and we’re pretty fired up about that. A lot of people don’t expect three local bands to sell out a club that holds 1,000 people.”

Sun, House of Blues Seek Different Audiences

Bands and fans are benefiting from a drastic reduction in the cutthroat competitiveness that once typified the local music scene.

“I’ve heard all the stories about how competitive the clubs can be,” says McMahon, “but I haven’t had to deal with any. I’ve never had a club discourage me from going to play at another club.”

Part of that stems from the Sun scaling back its concert bookings somewhat while upping the number of private and corporate events it hosts.

“Realistically our goal is probably eight to 12 shows on a monthly basis,” says Sun general manager Steven Lazar. “We want to be able to offer a variety of concerts and still have dates available to work with local corporations and conventions.”

The Sun’s concerts are generally aimed at an older, more affluent audience than what the House of Blues shoots for, Lazar says, which further reduces the sense of cross-town rivalry.

“We’re definitely looking for people more from the 30s to the 50s kind of range,” Lazar says.

That leaves many acts to the House of Blues, which in its first six months has been mixing headliners with acts on their way up the industry ladder and with noteworthy local talent.

That reflects the backgrounds of the club’s two main talent buyers--John Pantle and Sean Striegel, both of whom promoted and even played music in the county long before they joined House of Blues.

“What we want to do here is to present artists from every facet and every genre,” says Pantle, “down to a band like Driving by Braille--a fantastic alternative emo-rock band we saw play at the Hub in Fullerton.”

The emergence of Orange County as a spawning ground for hit bands in recent years also has helped spur the growth in club activity. A decade ago in the pre-No Doubt, pre-Offspring, pre-Sugar Ray and pre-Lit era, few in the music industry or within the county itself put much stock in Orange County bands achieving major success.

The new commercial clout of O.C. bands has bolstered the pool of music fans willing to go to clubs and look for rising stars, rather than limit themselves to arenas and amphitheaters to hear proven ones.

“We’ve always been a pretty great hotbed of music,” says Tazy Phyllipz, host of the long-running local-music intensive “Ska Parade” radio show that’s now carried on the Internet (https://www.skaparade.com). “Obviously now people can see how many different groups and styles have come from O.C. and it’s nice to be recognized for that.”

“It seems,” adds Chain Reaction’s Hill, “like it’s a really good time to be a concert-goer. There is no more Orange Curtain. It’s gone.”