Scene Less Podcast
Jerm from the Union and Metro Podcast ,discusses art, music and life with San Diego artists ,musicians and influential people who are working to bring the arts and music scene together. This podcast is a way to document the scene and The people in it. Jerm is known for being an artist , musician and skateboarder who booked and ran club SOMA in San Diego, California from 89-97 .Jerm also has been in bands such as P.O.U.R.,MEAT, cockroach! , URINE , Sin Sin 77, Tribe of fallen dreams, black, widow, prophecy, Morningstar, off with your head,Graveyard Dogs and many other projects as a bass player , vocals and primary song writer as well as an artist since early youth and owner of Red Rum Skates as well as sister companies with wife Miss V. Red Rum Skates was all hand painted skateboards and also had skate wax , wheels and more .
Currently in The Waste Aways .
Scene Less Podcast
John Arquillo : Beta7 : Unreleased Episode from Union and Metro podcast
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unreleased episode from the Union and Metro Podcast . https://www.buzzsprout.com/1256618
this is an unreleased episode with John Arquilla (g Spot / Beta 7 )
and Pete Kalker ( music trader )
#punkrock #punkrocker #sandiego #jermaddams #thewasteaways #musichistory #punrockscene #punkrockhistory #podcast #podcaster #Diy #jermwarfareproductions #skateboards #artist #redrumskates #halloween #mars #museum #haunted #oddities #bassguitar #bassplayer #unionandmetropodcast https://youtube.com/@jermaddams?si=4bjqYtyh3tUaPCUd https://open.spotify.com/album/6WxUfbKnAAtKiNDphjHvmT?si=hM7myq-RQ0qtRIvskClG8A https://www.instagram.com/jerm_addams?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
Will you please introduce yourself?
SPEAKER_01Hey, what's going on? My name is Dr. Cha and uh lead vocals for T-Spot back in the 90s.
SPEAKER_04So is that who we're listening to right now?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, this is Tal. This is one of our we we put this on a cassette the first time. We recorded in my uh apartment. Wow, my standing this day was horrible.
SPEAKER_04That would be uh Cycle Luna from 1997.
SPEAKER_01Uh no, we actually released a self-titled one and then we had our cassette we put in off the record before music trader was around. Yeah. And that was the goal. It's like, you know what, we're gonna we're gonna put out a cassette and then we're just gonna quit because we've got a cassette out in a record store.
SPEAKER_00That was always my goal. Is I wanted to be on vinyl, and I still haven't done it. Me neither.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, I can say I've never been on vinyl as well.
SPEAKER_00Well, I've stood on vinyl and cracked it.
SPEAKER_04But throwing it at throwing it at a couple people, you know.
SPEAKER_00That's true. And we also have Pete from Music Trader from God, what what years were you working there? I was there ninety-five to ninety-seven, I believe. Nice, nice. I well, Music Trader for anyone that would know anything about what we were doing here, or especially the scene, knows that Music Trader was like God, it was hugely influential. One of my main stops is the many, many stops that are bring flyers and tickets and try to figure out the the best placement in the window to have my shows above everyone else's. And then the flyers would end up at my house after. Yeah. Well, thank God, because you know, someone's taken history of that as as the photo album that we're looking at earlier, which was that's that's some crazy crap. I can't I some of those shows I I I barely even remember, but then looking at it, I was like, oh yeah, that's some good shit. Yeah, so thank you guys for showing up and um let's talk some shit. You know? So, John, since we got you in here first and uh dropped a little music, so what what have you been up to lately?
SPEAKER_01I don't even know where to start, buddy. I just start what do you want me to start? I mean, like uh we uh yeah, like 2019 we got the band back together after maybe 15 years, and we started uh our bass player works for the city of Marietta, I think, and he's like, I cannot be in a band called G-Spot. It's just not gonna happen. We gotta change the name because I will get I won't get, you know, I won't get my promotions, or if they find out. I had to change some lyrics from from some of our songs too, but uh so we decided on beta seven. It took a long time, but it's basically beta saying it's like our second attempt at what we were doing. And then we have seven members again.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01So but uh and then I started a yeah, Scott documentary. So what we're doing, I'm doing a uh San Diego in the 90s documentary. So basically the trying to encapsulate what happened from like 90 say 90. Well, it actually goes back to the 80s, right? To like around 98. And then we're trying to encapsulate what happened um talking to a lot of the bands. I mean, nine 2019 during COVID, I was interviewing all kinds of people. Right. And Dur was basically, yeah, you were the were you the second or the the second room?
SPEAKER_03Uh music playing here in the background.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's uh well that's that's our new one. That's better seven.
SPEAKER_04It's uh just a party file, right?
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, yeah. So uh yeah, it's crazy because um you remember the 90s and the crowds and just crazy. Now it's like we started playing that again, and it was like it's weird, it's totally foreign now. Like now there's Facebook, there's social media, and there's all this crap going on. And you know, we're just old guys, and we're like, how do we promote ourselves now? We didn't know. And um, I don't know. We just started we played our first show at the tower bar under G Spot, and it was like, okay, you know, we're gonna play this one show. If the kids, meaning kids, I'm like 50 years old now. So I'm like kids are like 20 to me now or 30. I'm like, if they like go, get the hell off the stage, old man, you're done. Then we're just gonna call it. We were just gonna call it uh it was cool we played, and you know, tower bar so freaking small. Like I mean, 30 people looks like a sellout, you know. So uh we played around, I think maybe 30 or 40 people, and uh they they fucking loved it. And they're just there, these 20-year-olds are coming up, like, oh my god, do you have any other music? I'm all a shitload. We only learn like a little set.
SPEAKER_02You mean 21-year-olds because it's a bar.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, 21 year olds. Well, it could be. Oh, wait, no, no, no, no, they don't do that.
SPEAKER_04But uh you mean they don't fake IDs anymore?
SPEAKER_01What's what's up? I was just talking about my talking to my friend when I was like 16 years old, we'd get fake IDs to go on to the TJ.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it was does that happen now though?
SPEAKER_02I just wonder it probably does, but not at a bar like the tower, I doubt. I don't know if you've been to the tower. I love the tower, but I have not. Yeah, not at the tower. I doubt it.
SPEAKER_04I'm not an SD local. I you know, I live up north, so yeah, yeah. But um my actual hangout was the Viper Room. I'd hang out there quite a bit, so um because it's only like an hour from my pad, and I I know everybody that works there. So I used to get hooked up all the time. And then COVID hit and no more viper room.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01So we started I started something called Ska Punk Live. So I have a lot of background in like video and media, audio and photography. So I'm like, hey, let's try and get this scene back together somehow. So we started I started going out interviewing bands in the scene now, and then I'm like, hey, you know what? I'm gonna do a documentary. So we started this uh SD ska in the 90s documentary, and then we just I didn't know if anyone's gonna join the side or be into it, but I put a little Facebook group up, and it just like people were just like throwing stuff, all kinds of stuff, like flyers and videos and old pictures of their CDs, and and then Germ jumped in and he was you know from then uh like Mikey Beats and Germ, and then they started this the San Diego podcast as yeah, the Soma Soma page. So I think it's kind of cool to see all these uh older people come in. Right. And um it's funny because our shows now um one of the strangest shows we play, we opened up for uh Cashed Out. So it's you know it's a Johnny Cash band, and we're playing at a brewery, and um we we I don't know how we got the gig, but then it was funny we're just sitting around because we had to play first and like oh yeah, there's really good reggae band coming up. I'm like, I'm like, oh my god, dude, we're not reggae, we're far from reggae.
SPEAKER_00And then like see it I don't understand that I'm like 50 years old right now, so I'm like looking at the I don't think any of us realize that no because I'm not 50 and I'm still toiling with the idea that I'm over 30. You know, exactly and it I'm well above, well above I'm decently above fifty, so yeah, it it's well we're all mentality-wise, he's not that far above.
SPEAKER_04He's 53. Come on. He just turned 53 on Hollywood.
SPEAKER_00You know, I'm gonna go around my skateboard tomorrow.
SPEAKER_04Hey guys, we're you know, if you're in your 50s, you're actually in your 30s. That's just the way it is.
SPEAKER_00It's yeah, but it's it's you know, it's music and it's I don't know. I I I can't believe I'm this fucking old. You know, yeah, right?
SPEAKER_01I mean, and that's the thing. So we were scared, we're like, oh crap, we're playing in front of like all these older people are looking out in the crowd, and we just like that's off. We started with Party Foul, and people were nodding their heads, they're like, Oh, yeah. I mean, they weren't moshing or anything, but then they're getting into it. So the whole set was really good. But they weren't like, hey, where's the reggae band? Yeah, no, they weren't like where's the reggae band? That's what I was scared of. But after that, they're buying us beers, like, oh my god, you know, we were we used to go to your shows and we used to go to scotch shows all the time, and then it just hit me like, oh my god, I'm old. That's like out there, it's like old.
SPEAKER_04So like everybody are we're all in our 50s here?
SPEAKER_02No. I just turned uh 46 in July.
SPEAKER_04Oh, so well, you're you're catching up. You're catching up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm catching up. Oh, you're a baby. I have a few more years to go.
SPEAKER_04So at the at the Metro days, uh, so you were you were a teenager.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was in um But you're you were coming in.
SPEAKER_04Early high school.
SPEAKER_02But then you were I think you went on you were there when you were in your like 20 or yeah, um, I was mainly, I mean, I did go to the original Soma, and then uh most of it was um um what street was it? Metro.
SPEAKER_04Union Union and Metro.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, union was a original, and then the second one. Yeah, yeah. I spent most of my time there, but I went to the first one. I remember um the the dungeon and the catwalk. I remember how cool the catwalk was when I was like 14. I'm like, that's the coolest thing I've ever been to, and stuff like that. Behind the stage, yeah, it was pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_04Behind and above the stage, I should say.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um, I don't remember that one as much as I remember the second one because I spent a lot of time there. I was I don't know. I might I want to say I felt like I was there four or five times a week at times for shows. Um most of the time I would be going to a show, and if it wasn't a band I liked, I was just hanging out with Jerem. Um seriously, like we would just hang out there. Um, we come up and you know, just chill and whatever.
SPEAKER_04And that's kind of like what we were talking about, you know, everybody just hanging. So you didn't necessarily have to be there for a band just to come to hang out. It's something something to do on the weekend.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, it was it was there was a lot of that. Um, and all the bands that I loved and saw. And you know, like you were saying, when I worked at Music Trader, um, we sold tickets for Soma. Um, so I got into any show for free. You know, that was the cool one of the cool perks.
SPEAKER_04And so which show which music trader did you work at?
SPEAKER_02I um I managed um Claremont and I managed Escondido. And then um when I first started there, I worked at the college store and I worked at El Cajone and uh I was the assistant manager in Powaway. So you were everywhere. Yeah, I remember the you know, kids from Blink coming into my store, you know, and stuff like that. I remember um we were just talking about uh Gabe Serbian from The Locust. Yep. Um drummer was uh um he would come into my store and like looked up to us, you know what I mean? Um I managed when I was in Escondido, uh Travis from Cattle Decapital Decapitation. Yeah, yeah. He was he I worked for he worked for me, you know. It's just funny, like and looking at all these people and like whoa, look at them now, you know. So um yeah, it was a crazy time. I mean, I had a lot of fun. Um, like I said, I went to a lot of shows there, um, had a great time, loved pretty much everybody that worked there. Um, you know, just went there a lot and had a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_04Because we all vibed. Yeah, we all got along, actually. Yeah, that was uh yeah, really no angst with anybody over there.
SPEAKER_02No, no, everyone was super cool and I um you know I had a lot of fun. Um, I actually stopped going to shows for a long time after because I was backstage at everything, and I gotta sit on the stage and watch the show and not get kicked in the head. And you know, when I started going to shows elsewhere, it was like, oh, this isn't fun anymore, you know.
SPEAKER_04When you have the VIP treatment, exactly.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I did, it's true. It's true, you know. People asked me about bands, you know, you know, like who I saw back in the day, you know, and it's they're like, Oh wow, I can't believe you saw all these people.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that then that time period was amazing for the bands that were coming out and just huge bands. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I had a question. So music creator, yeah. Who picked out the local music that got sold there, or did everyone get like a chance to sell their music?
SPEAKER_02Um, yeah, it was pretty much everything was on consignment. If you wanted to sell it there, we took it. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, any, you know, anything that you know, bands would come in and we put it on consignment, and you know, that was it. Um we sold a lot of local music. We were one of the bigger places. I know off the record was probably bigger than us at the time, but um, we had 16, 17 stores, something like that, or at our peak. Um it was a brilliant idea. The guy, Jeff Clark, who owned it. Um, and then he sold it to this other company, and then all of a sudden, right when he sold it, like MP3 started coming out and Napster, and it collapsed. That would have been CD warehouse, right? Yeah, and then it completely collapsed. I think they were out of Texas or something. Yeah, I believe so. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01How fast did it collapse?
SPEAKER_02Probably a couple years, something like that. I mean, it was it was pretty quick. Um, I left in ninety seven, I think. And that's when I started getting into the restaurant business all of a sudden. Um, yeah, so I left there in like I think it was like 97. I think I was there from 95 to 97. Because I know I started there right before I turned 21. Um, and then I was 21 when I was there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm thinking you would at the tail end of my flyer route. I don't think that you were at a store anymore. Yeah. And you know, I left in 97 myself.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, he wasn't at a store anymore because I would have dealt with them and I was doing it. I remember you coming in. Do you remember because I was doing that full ticket and flyer route. Yep. Yep, absolutely. I remember that. That was hell. That was a hell different thing.
SPEAKER_02I remember there's a lot of there's a lot of music traders. Yeah, but like I said, I think it was like 16, 17, something like that, our peak. Just all over. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah absolutely. I want to know who designed the Soma Flyer.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay. Well, no, um back oh god, in the early, early days, I remember we had a gal named Hope. Oh my god, she was amazing, absolutely amazing. And it this is like seriously trying to pull out cobwebs and bones and and gravestones to try to remember this out of my memory, but I do remember in Hillcrest, so this is probably by the point so I'm gonna say early nineties, she was in Hillcrest. So I th it it was like kind of a generic thing. I would say probably the original design was a combination of Len and Hope, but Hope did our flyers. So if there was like a misspelling, you know, I had to be clear about every band name the way that they were spelled, which didn't always work out too well. So, you know, she would get yelled at if it wasn't spelled correctly and then had to redo it and blah blah blah. But I think the original generic design design and everything was was Len and Hope. Um and then it just kind of grew, you know, it just it was so generic and it was easily readable, you know, and one of the things that I would emphasize is that the bands do their own stuff so that you know it made more sense and made it more personal. But yeah, I mean, as generic of a design it was, it became pretty symbolic.
SPEAKER_04Um and it and it was until Golden Voice took it over, because when Golden Voice took it over, that flyer went away. That design went away. Yeah. Because they had their own their own uh basically at the main office they had their own advertising people that yeah would put stuff together. And basically it just became the band logos, you know, the actual stuff from the bands. Yeah. And or or they had some kind of uh funky generic thing that didn't stand out like the Soma Flyer did. Right. Because those those Soma Flyers are totally iconic. Yeah. And the fact that they were all neon colors as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, see, again, I I hate to give, you know, credit, but credit is due where credit is due. And that was kind of that was probably just on lens vision. Because I remember going to Kinko's and then there's all these neon colors. I'm like, but what the fuck is this? An 80 this isn't a Cindy Lopra club, but it worked. Because it stood out. And then who if anyone looked at any of the flyers that I made back in the day, I mean, come on. I have one of them tattooed on the back of my leg, and that's gonna be covered up at some point in my life if we get to it.
SPEAKER_04But that kind of that's kind of funny. I wonder if anybody ever took a flyer, like an old Soma flyer that was in a band and actually tattooed the whole flyer on the floor.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I've got to see this because I don't remember this one.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's the bondage one. It's the it it looks horrible because it was all done, you know, dot to dot, you know, needle poke style, but God, it's horrible. But that was the thing, is you know, eventually I started to even appreciate it. Being, you know, the the punk rocker that I was and completely against everything. It it made sense because it was recognizable. And then the bright color you can tell, okay, well, that's different than the week before, but it's the same art. You know. So it just proves that you know your mind is kind of it's tricked into appreciating something, and then you can add a little bit of diversity to understand it's been changed.
SPEAKER_04Well, the cool thing too with that flyer was every band had a different font.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So that yeah, kind of you know, one would be in the color, one would be in black. Yeah, you know, so and a little broke it broke a character so you could see every band that was on there.
SPEAKER_01You can just see that flyer from a mile away from space.
SPEAKER_04And if that was a Soma flyer, and if that was no, and if it was Lin's idea, I mean that was a pretty good idea to have it in Eon.
SPEAKER_01So dude, yeah, it's like you're looking at an Eon and you just see that. You could just you don't even you probably couldn't even read it. You just saw the shapes. Oh, yeah. And that's what that was that's great marketing at their point.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, you can see it in in anything with marketing is something that has a bit of consistency. You know, your mind becomes more and more comfortable in relating that. But then with the different fonts and then the different sizes, and then to be able to scale it into a flyer. I mean, that's all you know, that's all hope. And we're looking at one right now with the total chaos built to to last cockroach and subversion. And you know, unfortunately, they didn't put the exclamation point after cockroach, but I didn't get on you know hope's ass about that because it's my band. And I I just I always felt lucky to actually be on a bill, you know.
SPEAKER_04Even when we played with fear, I was like, see what that's cool with Pete saving those because he got them fresh when you dropped them off.
SPEAKER_02So he could save them like brand new, you know, keep them nice, good condition. And then they did the mini flyers for all the shows too that I remember having. Wow. But yeah, you're right. Like going back, oh, that was a great logo. But you're right. I mean, the flyers to me, like, you know, looking back, like they were kind of boring, and I like seeing the local bands make their own flyers, but then you're right, they did stand, I mean, they do stand out. I mean, they're huge. Compared to any other venue, no other venue did anything.
SPEAKER_01I mean, being a local band, I didn't want to see my logo on there. I wanted it to see it on a soma flyer. Right with their fonts. And it was you, yeah, it's just awesome because you like, wow.
SPEAKER_00It's a form of justification that we've actually made.
SPEAKER_01It's a total justification thing for any band to have you know be on a soma flyer.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and and now to look at the time, and now to look back at that and say, hey, I did that, I played there. How I mean, how cool. It's just like you know, playing at CBG's, it's not it's not there anymore.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And then the flyers at other places, like I just saw one from the Casbah, and it's got like 50 bands on it for you know a bunch of different shows. So yeah, you're right. The Soma Flyer was great because it was separate, it was just for that show and yeah, exactly. So I mean they were iconic.
SPEAKER_04Everybody wants to do uh the cheap flyer now where they just put every cram every bit band on there, yeah, try to advertise everything all at one little spin. And it's hard to read all those bands.
SPEAKER_00To me, it's a lack of emphasis of the importance of each show and each band playing. So basically, you know, if you have a single flyer with you know, with the bands that are playing on that, or if you have a listing of a month with all the different bands that are playing, then you're gonna look at it and go, okay, well, I I kind of like that show, and I kind of like that show, but it's you know, it's jumbled up in a bunch of other shit. You know, it's like reading a book and then trying to remember, oh, I remember that one sentence.
SPEAKER_04It doesn't have the same importance unless it's you know Do you do you remember how we used to put all those flyers out there by the box office up front or all those staples that were all but the flyers would never last because kids could come and they would take the flyers off the wall.
SPEAKER_00So there was a thing I knew when I was doing my route that I would have to go by the club and I would have to put up some more flyers on the wall because they'd be down. And granted, it might take me two days to do the entire flyer route, but I worked seven days a week.
SPEAKER_04And the and the other thing is we promoted the shows on the reader. It wasn't the we didn't have the color flyer, but it was that long tab that was black and white. Yeah, that's the comedy and it still stood out because I mean it's still I'd always go into the reader and because a lot of times when we were doing shows, sometimes we didn't even know who was playing, you know. You find out that's how we'd find out who was coming to Soma. Unfortunately, I didn't know, but opening the reader.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I love I love that every single week. Like the reader was like the coolest thing in the world when I was, you know, in my you know, early twenties. Seeing what bands were playing, and you know, it was exciting to me, you know, because maybe I didn't have a flyer yet for a show or something.
SPEAKER_04Every Thursday.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Every Thursday. We had him at Music Trader. Like that was a big bad City Beat.
SPEAKER_01Did the Reader come out? Yeah. Did the Reader come out?
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, City Beat was the same thing for us, you know. I don't remember if you guys advertised in City Beat, but I remember you know that was no, I don't think we did.
SPEAKER_04I mean, I think CD City Beat might have uh covered some shows. Yeah, but we didn't advertise our main advertising was the reader.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and that that again, you know, that was that was not my doing because if I would have gone in there, I won't I wouldn't have the credibility.
SPEAKER_04And and the other thing was the phone line. Yeah, that was the other way to find out who's playing. You just called it.
SPEAKER_00That that is eventually that's a whole nother story, which which is funny, is I know little about the phone line.
SPEAKER_04It was either Lynn, and then once Lynn left, it was me. I was doing the phone line. It was a pain in the ass.
SPEAKER_02And then was it was the address 555 or was that the phone number?
SPEAKER_04No, that was a 55 metro.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Okay.
SPEAKER_04Or no, 5305 Metro. Okay. I think actually 555. If you look at the if you look at the flyer, it would say uh the it would have the phone number, I think, on the bottom. Or the front one right here. Let's see.
SPEAKER_00239 Soma, I believe.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, this it was it was a SOMA.
SPEAKER_00Um on the but we were at 555 Union 239 Soma. There you go. Yep.
SPEAKER_04So that was that was the number you'd call to find out all the upcoming shows. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But that's back in the day where you were able to plan to manipulate your phone number as well by saying, Okay, well, sure, I want these numbers.
SPEAKER_04Do you guys remember the voicemail thing?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Hey, San Diego. Oh, yeah. With uh Music Trader, one of our phone numbers was 444 cash, 444 cash, 444 cash. Oh, yeah. And we'd have the commercials, and then there was a couple others that were like, you know, 555 cash or whatever, because he like you said, you were able to manipulate it.
SPEAKER_04We'll give you a dollar for your CD. Yeah. Consider 18 bucks.
SPEAKER_00Bless Jeff for that. Jeff, you know, I'd you know, yeah. Jeff was brilliant with that. And he's well, we'll get into him at some point, but um, yeah, there was a lot of things that that worked back then, but one of the greatest things about the way that we were doing all the promotions and everything back then was things were simpler. And it was tangible to have something in your hand and have something in front of you. You could put it up on your wall, and it meant something. Even if it was up on your wall for like a month and then you covered it up with you know, whatever. But it was something in your hands nowadays with everything on the social media, which is something I'm gonna come back to John on, where when it comes to promoting nowadays, because things seem so much easier. And is everything that we're trying to do now is to promote the podcast and trying to figure out all these things. You know, I'm I'm not a computer person. I I still draw stick figures on skateboards. And I've been doing this a long frickin' time. I still don't know how to promote myself. I've been an artist my entire life, and you know, I can't figure out the social media. I have to have my daughter come in and be like, oh, okay, well, you need to push this to turn it on. Oh. Well, I I thought it was on. No, it wasn't. Here. Let me let me get you a glass of water and a vitamin, old man. You gotta turn the frickin' thing on. So, like, to promote a show now, like how how do you guys promoting what's going on? How did you promote the last show?
SPEAKER_01You know what? We kind of went old school and we just told all the bands you have to get out there and you have to talk to your friends, you have to use your social media to get to these people. And then we were uh we're doing a lot of like uh I would interview, I was interview having these guys do interviews and about themselves, like, oh yeah, we're the blisters and we haven't been, we you know, we're coming out, blah, blah, blah. And they'd send us like uh videos and we'd uh make you know like uh basically flyer video flyers and we'd write those out. And uh but yeah, it's it's mainly it's kind of like uh back in the day, you know, like word of mouth.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And uh City Soul Club, you know, you know, you know those guys? Ernie, the uh they're like the DJ group. Uh unfortunately, no. Yeah, they're they're a bunch of like uh they've been around, they weren't they were the scott kids back when we were playing, and then they started their own little DJ group like uh in the 2000s.
SPEAKER_04Oh, the was that the DJ that was at the soda bar?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, those guys, yeah. So they we teamed up with them and they have so we teamed up with a lot of different uh promoters to promote that one show, like uh Spar Customs up in um uh they do a lot of shows out of Carlsbad and then uh the club itself, us with Scout Punk Live, and we just like just hammered it online on Instagram and Facebook. And yeah, we just got lucky and they came out, you know, and but uh like I was telling you when we came back in 2019, like all the we didn't know. We you know, we you know, we understand we understood like social media and everything, but like promoting for a band is kind of hard, you know. Yeah, I mean, yeah, they would know about it, but not necessarily, yeah, we're gonna go. Yeah, we're gonna go. You know, you you look at your events and you're like like we would our first Sky Punk live shows, we'd have like 300 people say interested or going, and you're like, Oh my god, this is gonna be great. Yeah, 80 people show up. But if you think but in but you think about at the scene like right now, or back in 2019, dude, I was talking to the guy, uh Brett, I think Brett from the Ken, and he's like, Yeah, I worked, yeah, I worked there for Brett Bodie. Yeah, Brett Bodie, yeah, he's a super cool guy, but he was just like John, man. Sometimes we give like 20 people or maybe 30, and then and then it's like, man, you brought in 80. That's fucking amazing. So it's like weird. And yeah, it's just a lot of it's a lot of talking to people, and then we're mixing up shows. So we're doing like ska and like rockabilly. Okay. And then we had a ska show with uh Morrissey cover band, tribute band is still ill played, Johnny Deadly trio. So we mixed up the genres like you know, Jerry Wood and I were talking about, and um we're just like pulling different subgenres that come in and experience everyone's stuff. So the Rockabilly guys and the you know, the tribute bands are gonna see us play and they're gonna see Johnny Deadly play and then the still ill guys, and they hopefully create m another fan base. Right. But then hopefully we build up our our you know, promoting you know the scalp live thing, like, oh well, there it's a scalp live show, they usually have really good bands.
SPEAKER_00We should so you're still establishing credibility.
SPEAKER_01Still establishing credibility, but I mean we didn't we're not hardcore throwing shows all the time. I just kind of do it like every six months or so.
SPEAKER_00Right. No, and I've I've seen, and there's also all the regulations right now, which is kind of a sore thumb to talk about, but it it does make it harder because of the mixed messages, and there's people that aren't too sure whether or not they should go or whether or not they're gonna go and what's gonna happen, and where do you how do you kind of you know navigate that whole issue? Is it just a matter of mass production and and utilizing all sources to promote or you know what's weird?
SPEAKER_01Like when we play at Soda Bar with Bucko 9, um, yeah, they were checking, you know, COVID, you know, your the vax cards and couldn't get in unless you're vaccinated. Yeah, and it just depends. I mean, I'm gonna try and go to the Ken tonight and see what they're fine say. You're fine. Oh.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I know, but I was saying like No, I'm saying you don't need a vax card for the Ken. No, I worked I worked for Brett for 15 years. It's not even it's not even a COVID issue. They just it's just a bar. I mean, he's not gonna, I mean, I haven't heard anything. I worked for him for years. I think I would have heard by now. Yeah, um, so I don't think you have any.
SPEAKER_01I think it's like it depends on the cloak.
SPEAKER_02It's up to the exactly it's up to the other.
SPEAKER_04Well, yeah, because you know what was weird? You remember how they at the soda bar. Okay, so we did that show September 16th at the soda bar. They made everybody wear masks inside. You remember that? Everybody had to wear masks other than those people performing.
SPEAKER_01So you didn't have to wear sunglasses, so I didn't see anything.
SPEAKER_00I just thought like lights, I was stupid.
SPEAKER_04I just so bright, you're like I was over at the door selling merch with a mask on. Oh wow. So then so then uh September 22nd when Soulfly plays at Brick by Brick.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_04No masks. Nobody had masks on.
SPEAKER_00See, that was one of the issues I wanted to go because I want to see you on your birthday. Mind you, to today's what, October 6th or November.
SPEAKER_01November, brother. November. Oh my god. This year's almost had a birthday.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I forgot it's even past my birthday. So, you know, the the miss messaging and everything, that's where I'm curious about is we're, you know, everyone's trying to move forward and we're trying to rebuild this scene is the messaging and then the clubs and everything, because that's a that's a huge roadblock for anyone. Like, oh yeah, I might be able to get out because all you know, all of us are older. We have families.
SPEAKER_04Um let me let me throw another thing in here. So that show at Soda Bar, it was sold out, but 50% of the people didn't show up because of having to be vaccinated. Really? Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh, oh, that's crazy.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah. And I heard that's going on in other venues.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I think it really depends on the venue because um probably just up to own um ownership more. Yeah, it really depends.
SPEAKER_00But it also means that people want to get out, people want to see good music.
SPEAKER_04Well, it's also the city restrictions through environmental health. So whoever's whoever's enforcing like the mask mandates or um actually I don't think they're mandating the vax, but the masks. But it's just weird how one venue you didn't have to wear a mask, the other venue you did. But at Brick, they did make you show proof of vaccination, or they were doing um rapid testing out front.
SPEAKER_01Oh, really?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and I think they're charging I think they're charging 80 bucks. So, hey, you want to go to the show, you're gonna have to pay a ticket and you're gonna have to get tested.
SPEAKER_0180 bucks, yeah. That's great.
SPEAKER_02Ten bucks and beers or three bucks if you get a pass, but I I think it's all up to owners. I mean, I work in a restaurant and we don't um we don't have the guests, don't have to wear them. We still have to wear them because we're indoors also.
SPEAKER_04And it's because of environmental health, they're enforcing that you guys wear them.
SPEAKER_02Well, no, it's it's it's our policy. It's not uh because I've been to plenty of restaurants where nobody wears. Oh, really? Yeah. I've gone to like several restaurants.
SPEAKER_04Because usually when you see those mandates that are posted out front, that's usually by the way.
SPEAKER_02We don't have a mandate, it's a company thing. So it's it's it's the company I work for, and it's only for um employees that are indoors. So I work at an indoor outdoor restaurant, so yeah, we we just you know we wear them, we don't know.
SPEAKER_04Because I know Ventura Ventura County was uh there, the county itself was pushing uh the mask mandates. There was a lot of restaurant owners that would be like, no, we're not making people wear masks, and they would go in and pull their permits to operate. So they would shut them down basically.
SPEAKER_01Damn.
SPEAKER_02I've I mean, I mean, if we want to get into this, I could tell you about the mask mandates that we had um and how crazy. I mean, you know, whether you want to wear them or you don't want to wear them, it doesn't matter. If you think about it, it's how stupid is it? You you're going in there to eat. Well, no, that's what I was just gonna explain. That's what I was gonna explain to you.
SPEAKER_04So, yeah, it's so stupid.
SPEAKER_02I I I totally see your point. But at the same time, the reason I because guests would tell me that all the time, like constantly. Like, I had to tell people to wear masks. I had people, um, I had one guy that was gonna spit in my face over wearing a mask. It got to that point where he wanted to fight me because he had to wear a mask in my restaurant. Um, but I did get a lot of the, you know, like, you know, having to do, having to wear it and then take it off when you're eating. The actual mandate when it came out was that if you were sitting at the table, you had to wear a mask, pull it down, eat, pull it up, eat, you know, so on and so forth. Nobody's gonna enforce that. That's ridiculous. Yeah. Whether you believe in the mask or you don't believe in the mask, that's just past ridiculous. Okay.
SPEAKER_00So we should take our mask off during this podcast.
SPEAKER_02So uh with with a with a sitting down thing, the reason why we explained it to them is because when people would get up, my very first day back after the um after we got shut down, my very first day back, I had some guy walk by me and sneeze right in my face. No mask. My whole point is, is before COVID, I would punch you in the face if you sneezed in my face. Or you know what I mean? It was like this guy, I mean, what do you mean? Like if you're just hanging out before COVID, somebody sneezes in your face. You're like, what the what the fuck? You know what I mean? Yeah. So after it, that that was kind of like the whole thing. Um, that's just my my restaurant view of of of what happened.
SPEAKER_04And that's also like the uh six-foot rule. Um, like you're in the airport and you have to stand six feet away from each other, but then you get on the plane and you're all crammed in together. Yeah, it's all I mean, you know, it's it's all recycled air.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, it's not, you know, there's there's a lot of yeah, there's a lot of ridiculousness to the whole thing. I agree with you on that. Um but at the same time, like I'm not gonna, you know, argue with you if you're vaccinated or not vaccinated. That's your choice. I've always thought it was that way. I don't think I don't think that you should be forced to, in my opinion. Um, and that's that's about as far as I'm gonna go with it. You know, I mean it's your it's your choice. I don't think you should be forced. You know, that's just me.
SPEAKER_01But unfortunately, some of us were forced to do it. Yeah, which sucks. But you know what, San Diego, we have a really high vax rate right now. Yeah, so it's it's pretty much fine.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I'm high risk, so I mean I I did it because I'm high risk. Like I'd rather, you know, do it and feel a little bit safer than you know, get sick and possibly die because I'm high risk. So exactly. You know, it's just kind of that's that's the way it was for me.
SPEAKER_01But so moving forward with shows the funny thing is, is yeah, when we did that show, I mean, we we didn't think we were gonna get like a hundred people, and this is like an outdoor venue that can fit it, it could actually fit like 500 people in that place, right? But they cap it at 300 because I guess they the city told them they can only do like 300. But uh yeah, we ended up bringing in like 340. It was a trip, yeah. So it was a fun show. It was like uh it was just great. I it felt like sort of like the 90s, but not really as crazy. So no mask mandate at your show. No one had masks on. Other than the soda bar show. I guess. Well, I didn't know they were wearing masks on. I was like, I guess I saw them wearing we were all wearing masks. We were all wearing masks.
SPEAKER_04Everybody in the crowd, unless you were drinking, you had to pull you had to pull the mask down, drink your beer, pull it back up. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00But that's good then if if people were willing to go through all that because I've noticed that in the beginning with the shows that I had done with the kids that I was working with, there was so many, you know, the the messaging is so wishy-washy, and I wasn't sure what you know the next mandate that's coming out, right? The the one that's been turned down now.
SPEAKER_04No, no, we're gonna all have to wear hazway suits or hazmat suits, I should say. Oh. Well with air tanks on. You know.
SPEAKER_00I'd I recommend everyone wear gas masks when we're doing the podcast, just in case I have to use mole.
SPEAKER_02You have some. I'm like, we're gonna call them earlier. It's never weather than this thing.
SPEAKER_00I don't think you're weather in this gas mask.
SPEAKER_04I don't think we could uh actually, I don't think we'd sound very well if we're wearing those masks.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, but do you also win, you know, I had mole earlier.
SPEAKER_04Just I had to wear a gas mask in Desert Storm, man.
SPEAKER_00Oh that'd be horrible. Can you imagine going to I mean the the whole thing is like what a bigger like absolute buffer. We're trying to create like a scene again. We're trying to we're trying to come back from something that's completely just knocked everything out. And here we are, we we got bands that are willing to come back together. I mean, just sitting here at this table, I mean the four of us with my wife. I mean, this is this is amazing. This wouldn't happen ten years ago, but because of COVID, it's actually happening, and people are are like anxious to get back in this scene. They're anxious to start talking. We're we we're creating bands again, we're getting bands back together. So we're proving as a town and as a community and as a scene that we want to take something above what's happened, and we want we want to have normalcy and we want to be San Diego again. This scene is is it's you know it's called We Wanna Live. And we're stronger than that. You know, we just we're we want our freedoms back. Yeah. And it's uh it's the main thing to me that like that makes this podcast work is the fact that there's so much talent and there's so many people that have been part of this scene in San Diego that have literally been it's it's my life, as we all know, as I talk about it more and more, from 89 till now. This music scene in San Diego is just so incredible and is it's got so much strength.
SPEAKER_04So we gotta get John back in here and and go over some of the history of uh of uh G Spot. Um especially because I didn't know at your age, I didn't know you were fifty. Um thought you were younger than that, but um Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome.
SPEAKER_02He thought I was older, so you know. I thought I thought you were close. Yeah, but you're pretty close.
