by Chris Epting
And in the midst of all the metal clubs and still thriving punk rock clubs, a more middle-of-the-road theater opened in Anaheim in 1987. It was called the Celebrity Theater; it seated 2,500 people, and within its first year, both Chuck Berry and the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed there. It was a theater-in-the-round experience with a stage that slowly spun, giving the entire audience a chance for a full-frontal view. While more “adult” acts like the Beach Boys, George Carlin and Howie Mandel performed there, many rock ’n’ roll acts were booked there as well. Bob Weir from the Grateful Dead performed there, as did Fats Domino, the Ramones, Guns N’ Roses, Testament, Todd Rundgren, Paul Stanley, the Monkees and many more.
The Celebrity Theater closed in 1994 and reopened three years later as the Freedman Forum, a performing arts venue. That didn’t last long though, and today, the building is called the Heritage Forum, which hosts various church services, dance shows and other public events.
And Irvine Meadows Ampitheatre was also going strong. In the mid-to late 1980s, the impressive amphitheater hosted a dazzling and diverse number of artists, including Elton John, Judas Priest, David Gilmour, Elvis Castillo, the Smiths, Depeche Mode, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi and dozens more. They all performed at the site formerly occupied by the Lion Country Safari theme park, nestled into the green hills just off the freeway.
This ad is from when the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed at UC Irvine. Author’s collection.
Over the course of a couple decades, Orange County had as wide a range of performance venues as existed anywhere else in the country. From underground punk clubs to metal clubs to dance clubs to small theaters to lavish amphitheaters—even a baseball stadium—pretty much every kind of performance space was available for bands in Orange County, all with the exception of an indoor arena to rival the size and space of places like the Forum in Los Angeles and Madison Square Garden in New York. But early into the next decade, that would change.
And as tastes and trends continued to evolve, Orange County would again become a hotbed of new bands. In suburban garages all over the county, bands had witnessed what happened with groups like No Doubt and the Offspring. They had also seen the crash and burn realities of many punk bands like Social Distortion and China White. But the bottom line was, young bands all understood that Orange County was a highly fertile launching pad for whatever your rock ’n’ roll dreams were, as long as you were willing to work for it.
Chapter 5
THE 1990s
The club that today bears the name the Observatory in Costa Mesa has a very interesting history. The building opened in 1974 and was called the Harlequin Dinner Playhouse. Dinner theater was a hugely popular form of entertainment around the country in the 1980s but especially in Orange County, and thus the 450-seat performance space hosted many popular shows. In 1989, it morphed into a restaurant-concert space called Hamptons and, for two years, booked a fairly solid roster of touring acts, including David Johansen, the former New York Doll frontman who was then touring with an alter-ego act called Buster Poindexter, as well as bands such as Blood, Sweat and Tears. Hamptons closed down in 1990, and in the same space, the Rhythm Café opened in 1992. The Rhythm Café was, by design, supposed to morph into a national chain of concert clubs, something along the lines of what the House of Blues would do soon afterward. However, the concept never really got off the ground, and within a year, the Galaxy Concert Theater opened. Opened by Gary Folgner, the man who launched the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, the Galaxy did well compared to previous tenants. From 1993 until 2008, artists as diverse as Jimmy Cliff, Beck and Lucinda Williams all performed there. Next came the Revolver, which was intended to be a high-end restaurant/nightclub. However, the city of Santa Ana never gave the approval for a nightclub to open there, and so Revolver never got off the ground at all. Folgner then returned and reopened the Galaxy from 2009 to 2011. Since then, it has become the Observatory, a rock ’n’ roll club that still books everybody from Cheap Trick to Jonathan Richman to Gary Newman.
Another club that attracted a lot of attention in the early ’90s was the Bandstand in Anaheim. Of all the hard-core and metal shows that took place there in the early 1990s, many fans remember when Pantera played there in May 1991 during the Cowboys from Hell tour.
With the early 1990s came more homegrown bands in Orange County, including the Aquabats, a comedic rock outfit formed in Brea. Christian Jacobs, Chad Larson and Boyd Terry had all been playing in various Orange County alternative and punk bands and then came up with the idea of forming a band to satirize the well-known Orange County punk scene. In the middle of this idea, Jacobs was also taken in by the growing ska scene in Orange County and liked the fact that it was less aggressive and more musical. This observation affected the concept of the band, and soon, with Larson playing bass, Jacobs singing lead vocals and Terry on the trumpet, the Aquabats began developing their sound, which would ultimately include punk, ska, surf and a number of other elements.
They also tapped into the idea of matching band costumes after having been inspired by Devo. In fact, their band concept evolved into literally a cross between Devo and surf music. The three original members started incorporating several other musicians, including a full horn section. In the mid-1990s, the band costumes ranged from chefs outfits to wearing skirts, but once the members came into a large surplus of spare rubber and neoprene, they designed a set of unique helmets, rash guards vinyl belts and other uniform parts that gave them a look of underwater superheroes. Next they began adopting superhero names and created a full storyline to go along with their own made-up mythology. Their debut album came out in 1996. Entitled the Return of the Aquabats, it was a do-it-yourself venture that still managed to sell around twenty thousand copies, a very impressive first self-release. As the popularity of ska music grew, thanks to groups like No Doubt, Sublime and Reel Big Fish, the Aquabats became more popular as well. They signed a recording contract in 1996 and began touring the country extensively. In 1997, one of their drummers was Travis Barker. The next year, in the middle of a tour with pop punk legends Blink-182, Blink-182 fired its drummer, Scott Raynor, and invited Barker to sit in for the last of the series of shows.
By the end of the tour, Blink-182 was so impressed with Barker that he was brought on as a full-time member. The Aquabats are still together today, and while there have been many other personnel changes over the years, they still managed to put on an entertaining show with full costumes and comedic skits.
Around the same time that the Aquabats were getting started, another band had begun making music in Huntington Beach. Originally from Bakersfield, Korn relocated to Orange County in 1993 and rented a local studio in Huntington Beach called Underground Chicken Sound. The band began playing around Orange County, including regular gigs in Huntington Beach at Club 5902, the original site of Night Moves. While sharing a house in town, the band was spotted by an Epic Records A&R man named Paul Pontious. In Korn, Pontious heard something wildly different and provocative, a darkly ferocious and rhythmic musical concoction that would soon earn the term “nu metal.”
Led by frontman Jonathan Davis, in 1993, Korn released its initial demo entitled Niedermayer’s Mind. Though there were not many of them printed, the album was influential enough to attract even more attention. In 1994, the band began recording its debut album, and on October 11, this self-titled debut was released on Immortal Records. All of a sudden, nu metal had been truly born. The record was reasonably successful, and Korn’s next release, 1996’s Life Is Peachy, was far more of a hit, being certified two times platinum in the United States with big sales in other countries as well. “No Place to Hide,” which was the first single, garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance for Korn.
But the real mainstream breakthrough happened with Korn’s third album, entitled Follow the Leader. The band had recruited a number of guest vocalists on the album, including Ice Cube and actor Cheech Marin. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, and the
song “Freak on a Leash” won a Grammy for Best Music Video as well as nine MTV Video Music Award nominations.
Since starting out in Huntington Beach, Korn has gone on to become one of the most commercially and critically acclaimed bands of its generation. As Davis said about the early days:
Huntington Beach was a really great place for us. Coming from Bakersfield, which is really dry and dusty, it was a refreshing change. Bakersfield will always be home and we’ll always love it there and we’ll always have lots of family and friends there. But the scene down in Orange County was [what] we needed at that time. It’s where we really developed as a band and played some of our best early shows right there in Huntington Beach. It will always be an important place for Korn, and I’m not sure our band would’ve even been discovered the way it was were not for us living there.
Jonathan Davis was the lead singer of the band Korn, whose members signed their first record deal while living in Huntington Beach. Courtesy of Charles Epting.
In the years after Korn’s career erupted, their former drummer David Silvera opened a sushi bar in Huntington Beach called Tuna Town.
In the early 1990s, business at the Irvine Meadows amphitheater was as busy as ever, still packing the house and the giant lawn area for dozens of shows, including the Dave Matthews Band, David Bowie, Rush and Jimmy Buffett. But bands like Green Day, Blink-182 and Tool were also filling the amphitheater. All of a sudden, a lot of the late ’80s and early ’90s punk and alternative bands had begun finding major commercial success.
In 1993, Orange County lost one of its primary heavy metal music venues. Jezebels, which was located at 125 North State College Boulevard in Anaheim, had opened in 1986 and served as kind of a training ground for young Orange County hard rock and heavy metal bands that wanted to earn their chops before venturing outside the county. But the club was also visited by such legendary metal acts as Armored Saint, Megadeth and even Metallica. Once the grunge movement started hitting in the early ’90s, the end was near for clubs such as Jezebels. Fans and musicians still remember the club fondly and stage the occasional get-together in honor of the former metal palace.
In the midst of all this, Orange County finally got an arena to fill the last missing piece in the rock ’n’ roll performance venue puzzle.
The Arrowhead Pond opened up in Anaheim right near Anaheim Stadium on June 19, 1993. The headlining act to open the building was Barry Manilow. The all-purpose arena has been home to the Mighty Ducks hockey team since opening while hosting dozens of other sporting events. But it also fills the void of being able to attract touring arena bands that would normally only play up in Los Angeles and perhaps in San Diego when in Southern California. Since opening, the arena, which is now called the Honda Center, has hosted dozens of the biggest acts in the world.
Gwen Stephani filmed a pair of solo concerts here in 2005.
Depeche Mode has performed at the arena six times, and U-2 has played at the arena five times. The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Kiss, Rush and Blink-182 have all performed at the arena.
At this point in time, if music fans chose to never leave Orange County, they would still be able to see as many, if not more, bands than in any other region in the United States.
Yet another Orange County rock band emerged on the scene in 1998. Thrice hailed from the city of Irvine and was founded by guitarist/vocalist Dustin Kensrue and guitarist Teppei Teranishi while they were still in high school. Originally known for fast-paced rock created by heavily distorted guitar sounds and wildly imaginative and complex time signatures, Thrice self-released an EP in 1999 entitled First Impressions. The band pressed just one thousand copies and hustled them from out of their cars. Within a year, they had recorded another dozen tracks and then released Identity Crisis on Green Flag Records. The proggy, post-hard-core band finally attracted the attention of Orange County–based Hopeless Records, which released The Illusion of Safety in 2002. The band continued releasing records, and uniquely, each record saw part of its proceeds donated to a different charity. Since starting out, Thrice has long been a favorite of critics.
This is a portion of an absolutepunk.net review for the 2012 Thrice effort Major/Minor:
Whereas most bands have that one album that define a career, Thrice continuously reinforced their ever building legacy with one champion after the next without sticking to a tried and tested formula and without succumbing to pressure to write a “hit.” Message board discussions about Thrice always bring up the what is their best album debate and what is striking time and time again is that every list has all eight of their albums in completely different orders; proof of an exceptional catalog. Thrice have spanned more genres, concepts and themes than most bands have managed over the last 10 years put together. One would think this would exert enormous amounts of pressure on them every time they release a new album—but the anticipation of a Thrice album is really a question of how good it will be. The trust displayed by their fans has, for the most part, always been exemplary, creating a passionate following.”
Following the 2012 spring tour, Thrice went on hiatus with plans to return at some point in the future.
As the 1990s came to a close, the stage was set for one of Orange County’s biggest musical stories to take root. It would result in one of the biggest modern bands of the decade, but as always, there were more bands and more venues to follow.
Chapter 6
THE 2000s
In May 2009, I wrote the following article for the Huntington Beach Independent newspaper:
On the back window of a vehicle parked on a well-kept street in a neighborhood near Central Library, there is a sticker for the band Avenged Sevenfold. While you’d be right in assuming that the vehicle belongs to a big fan, which fan might surprise you. It’s not one of the millions of high school or college kids who have helped make this innovative, intense metal band one of the hottest in the world right now. Rather, the vehicle belongs to Joe Sullivan, the drummer’s dad.
Joe and Barbara Sullivan, who have lived in the same comfortable Huntington Beach house since 1977, may not look like rock ’n’ roll parents. Spend some time with them, though, and you’ll realize how deceptive looks can be. Since their son Jim (a.k.a. “The Rev”) hit it big (literally and figuratively) with Avenged Sevenfold, they’ve become industry experts.
They can just as easily discuss the importance of merchandise sales as they can the financial implications of headlining a gig versus being an opening act—and most importantly, they love the music. Raising their son, 28, in this house along with sisters Kelly and Katie, they knew early on that Jim’s life might involve percussion.
“He was desperately into music,” Joe says, laughing. “In the bathtub when he was tiny he’d be banging away on things. Then, pots and pans—anything and everything.”
Avenged Sevenfold drummer Jimmy Sullivan (far left) with his family in Huntington Beach. Courtesy of the Sullivan family.
Barbara adds, “So finally we got him a little drum kit from Sears. And we knew—we just knew this was serious.”
Neither of his folks are musicians, so Jim’s mom went to a music store that used to be at Warner Avenue and Springdale Street when he was about 6. There, they met Jeanette Raitt, a teacher who became very influential and helped spark his passion for complex percussive challenges. Soon, the young drummer discovered Metallica, then Pantera.
“Faster and faster stuff,” Joe says. “And his teacher had him transcribing all the drum work so he could really understand what was happening.”
When Jim was 10, his folks got him a more serious drum kit—an old Ludwig set with lots of cymbals.
“When his teacher found out he’d been figuring out the parts on a little toy set, she was amazed,” says Barbara.
Jim played with several local bands including Suburban Legends, before finding his way into Avenged Sevenfold, who formed about 10 years ago, in high school. All five band members (M. Shadows, vocals; Zacky Vengeance, guitar; Synyster Gates, guitar;
Johnny Christ, bass; and Jim “The Rev” Sullivan, Drums) hail from Huntington Beach.
Supposedly, the band’s name refers to the book of “Genesis” in the Bible and the story of Cain and Abel, where Cain is punished to live in exile, alone and miserable. Anyone who relieved Cain of his misery by killing him would be “avenged in sevenfold,” or punished in a way that is seven times worse than Cain’s punishment. However, M. Shadows, the driving force and de facto band leader, has stated in interviews that the band is not “not really religious at all.”
After forming, they released the album “Sounding the Seventh Trumpet.” Their follow-up album, “Waking the Fallen,” broadened their fan base quickly, and critical acclaim was swift:
Rolling Stone: “These guys excel at the complex, pummeling Eighties-metal moves that first came into circulation when they were in diapers.”
Spin magazine: “A Godzilla-size pileup of whiplash metalcore and Sunset Strip swagger, Avenged Sevenfold’s 2005 major-label debut, ‘City of Evil,’ won unexpected platinum status.”
Blender: “Avenged Sevenfold transcended the headbanger heartland with 2005’s ‘Bat Country.’ Its mixture of campy goth and ’80s Sunset Strip debauchery was matched with a refreshing sound that fused florid guitar solos with frenzied nail-gun drumming, while M. Shadows shifted effortlessly between a snarl and a croon.”
And 2007’s “Avenged Sevenfold” album won the Kerrang! Awards Best Album award in 2008. Joe and Barbara have watched their son learn to live on his own, as a member of an up-and-coming band that would soon be touring the world.
“It wasn’t that easy at first,” Barbara explains. “Those first tours, like the first ‘Warped Tour,’ they’d be in a van driving all night, not eating right. But they learned discipline fast, and the importance of hard work. These young guys work very hard.”