You never know what you’ll find

IT’S 10 p.m. at the Prospector in Long Beach and time for a shift change. Only it’s not the employees clocking in and out. As the DJ, Brian Jonestown Massacre frontman Anton Newcombe, spins some of his favorite tunes in preparation for a night of live bands, a steady stream of local music devotees in their late 20s and early 30s makes its way in, mining for musical gold. Upon entering, they pass the few holdovers nursing drinks in the wake of the Philadelphia Eagles’ stomping of the Green Bay Packers on “Monday Night Football.”

Wade Hammond, a bartender and booker at the restaurant-bar, says the customer changeover is typical. “The evening or dinner crowd tends to be more sports-oriented; also, they seem to be an older generation. The late-night crowd is much more rock ‘n’ roll or artsy,” he says. “The interesting ones are those who cross over and cannot be pegged as either.”

Scott Vitt, a member of the Philadelphia-based band Asteroid 4, which is playing later in the evening, might fall into the last category. “We’re the only ones here that are left except those two ladies who were here during the game,” he says, pointing to a pair of older women in football jerseys. “Most of them were Green Bay Packers fans, so they didn’t like us.”

Football loyalties aside, the patrons now are digging the bands. Some are huddled in the narrow walkway between the bar and a glass partition that separates an adjacent room, where customers can talk without yelling over the drone of the psychedelic indie guitars laid out by the opening band, L.S.D. and the Search for God. Others are standing in the main area, underneath signs and wallpaper that re-create the California Gold Rush. Still, others are residing on barstools around the L-shaped bar, where TVs show sports highlights. In short, it’s a bar, just an old-fashioned place to hang out and drink.

The Prospector has been part of the Long Beach landscape since 1965, but the transformation from a family steakhouse and watering hole to local music venue is a relatively recent one, dating seven years, when Hammond started booking DJs for a night dubbed Swanky Tuesdays.

“The night had local DJs who would spin music accompanied by exotic drink specials: flaming coconuts, etc.,” he says. “It caught on super fast, and so we started to book bands on other nights.”

THESE days, the Prospector generally has live music Thursdays and Saturdays, with frequent Tuesday bookings and rare Monday showcases. Hammond, who books bands with a partner, John Sisk, guitarist for Long Beach band Forcefield On, says they don’t follow any rules in the type of acts they look for -- which means you never know what you might see. “We both look for bands who are doing something either a little risky, unique or just damned interesting.”

David Thornton, a Prospector regular, has witnessed the metamorphosis from its infancy. “I always thought [the bar] looked really interesting, and then all of a sudden it became the hot spot because they started having DJs and the drinks are really cheap,” he says.

Talk to other customers and the inexpensiveness of the drinks, such as $2.50 import bottles of beer and nightly shot specials for $4 written on a mirror over the bar, is something that comes up often. With L.A.-style nightclubs like V20 and the Vault 350 moving into an increasingly crowded downtown community to the west, the Prospector is a throwback to the days of local bands and a neighborhood bar.

“I like the atmosphere. This is where all my friends usually go, so it’s just like a local hangout,” Thornton says. “And it’s a great place to see shows because it’s extremely intimate for bands.”

In that same vein, the spot has built up a reputation for treating artists well. Hammond says he’s able to do that because of owner Luis Lemus. “Luis is extremely generous, and lets me run things as I see fit. As a result, we are able to treat bands quite well for such a small venue.

“We try to promote local talent because there are so many quality groups sprouting up in Long Beach alone,” he says. “Often, we will mix local bands who have a strong draw with more obscure touring acts, so that the visiting bands can have a decent audience.”

If it all sounds way too “aww shucks” for Southern California, maybe that’s because the folks behind the Prospector say they think more like a small-town hang. “We are pretty much friends with most of the people in these local bands, so we all seem to just support one another,” Hammond says.

weekend@latimes.com

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The Prospector

Where: 2400 E. 7th St., Long Beach

Bar hours: 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Mondays through Fridays, 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Price: Cover varies

Info: (562) 438-3839, prospectorlongbeach.com