N.L. in the Blackboard and the question of Jerry's Pizza, Gigantic and unity in the Bakersfield music scene - By N.L. Belardes
I still don’t know what to think about Gigantic joining forces with Jerry’s Pizza. I suppose it will be a good thing in the end. It’s just kind of strange. I wonder if the hipster vintage-clothed counterculture crowd will mingle well with the punk vibe of Jerry’s Pizza’s regulars. By Gigantic declaring an end to the boycott, does that mean we can say they initiated it? Are they selling out to the Pizza-a-go-go? I don’t think so. And I do admit shaking hands in the name of unity was a wise strategy by both parties. Unity in the scene is what is needed rather than the fragmenting that has been taking place under Nate Berg‘s tactless promotions.
Personally, I get no credit for the unity, but I do believe if it weren’t for old N.L. taking a stand and giving Gigantic and many local bands a music scene voice , there may never have been unity in the scene again between Gigantic and Jerry’s Pizza. (You can still read several blogs on the Jerry's Pizza controversy here, but not for much longer as I will be making some serious changes to my arts page)
I still remember the night I went marching down to Gigantic Vintage. I was, and still am concerned about downtown intimidators. I remember hearing about Gigantic getting the boot, and so began an entire online series writing about what I heard was going on in the music scene: all the intimidation, the run down pizza joint not paying bands, the baseball bat of poor consciousness threatening to swing away as the promoter wanted a cut of the ticket sales, local bands not being supported and not being paid to play, and so on...
But I can’t prove that I was responsible for all this unity, so let’s give kudos to Jerry, Alex and AJ for their handshake over the whole deal.
Enough said. I read an interesting report in the Blackboard, Bakersfield’s underground newspaper. The title is, “Nate Berg Hits the Skids,” and is a really interesting piece of work by Francis Mayer and the Blackboard’s own mysterious girl on the streets, Sandy Crane. The article gives me a few dandy quotes, but really relies on Jake Chavez of Downtown Records opening up and discussing what he had been telling me all along. I had been very careful not to implicate Jake, but he seems to have given Dandy Sandy and Francis Mayer some serious permission to use his all-seeing wisdom on street happenings.
Of course I have other sources as well who have written to me extensively on the going’s on under Nate Berg, which of course includes lawyer threats from Nate Berg and other threats who will go unnamed for now because they aren't yet proven. I hand it to Francis and Sandy, they did their share of digging, which includes some interesting quotes from Jerry himself who claims he will call the cops on Nate Berg if he sees him around. Here’s an excerpt although you can read the entire article in the July issue of the Blackboard: Bakersfield and Kern County’s Free Press Newspaper…
“They (Gigantic) were having $1 shows, those kids were doing cutting edge stuff, the type of thing that Nate didn’t know a thing about. And he got them shut down,” explains Chavez.
Berg took action to make sure that the shows did not continue.
“Nate told me he was jealous that they didn’t pay for a cabaret license,” Chavez said, “so he told Alex (of Gigantic Vintage) ‘give me 15% and I won’t say anything.”
The 15% didn’t come, so Berg made a complaint to Gigantic’s landlord who then evicted the tenants, according to Chavez. Which was terrible, because the shows had been going strong for 3 _ years without a hitch.
“I was trying to help out the scene. The bands got to run the show, put the fliers out, learn about promotion. It was a really cool thing,” Chavez said.
Downtown observers like scene blogger Nick Belardes of nlbelardes.com say this follows Berg’s established pattern of intimidation.
“He has single handedly fragmented the downtown music scene,” Nick Belardes said, “He’s the baseball bat of poor consciousness.”
Belardes’s statement is not just a metaphor.
“He carries a kid’s size baseball bat around with him,” Chavez said, “Besides that, what he does is he’ll make fake noise and firework complains to the Fire Department when someone promotes a show that Nate doesn’t have a piece of, or Nate feels threatened by.”
But Baranowski says things will be changing.
“I’m emotionally involved in the well-being of downtown,” Baranowski said, “We’re a place that started out with music and we’d like to continue that way, but we’ll be doing some different stuff.”
Jerry’s Pizza is ready to go back to small time scene fun. Baranowksi has a new vision.
“We’d like to do some afternoon stuff where kids can come up with the parents and have some pizza and do open mic. It’s a popular stage and the kids can say, ‘Yeah, I jam at Jerry’s.’ At the same time, I hope parents buy some pizza and beverages!”
And if Jerry promises to not put so much sauce on the meatball sandwiches, and to clean up downstairs, I will definitely go back to the Pizza-a-go-go. That would truly be unity.
Personally, I get no credit for the unity, but I do believe if it weren’t for old N.L. taking a stand and giving Gigantic and many local bands a music scene voice , there may never have been unity in the scene again between Gigantic and Jerry’s Pizza. (You can still read several blogs on the Jerry's Pizza controversy here, but not for much longer as I will be making some serious changes to my arts page)
I still remember the night I went marching down to Gigantic Vintage. I was, and still am concerned about downtown intimidators. I remember hearing about Gigantic getting the boot, and so began an entire online series writing about what I heard was going on in the music scene: all the intimidation, the run down pizza joint not paying bands, the baseball bat of poor consciousness threatening to swing away as the promoter wanted a cut of the ticket sales, local bands not being supported and not being paid to play, and so on...
But I can’t prove that I was responsible for all this unity, so let’s give kudos to Jerry, Alex and AJ for their handshake over the whole deal.
Enough said. I read an interesting report in the Blackboard, Bakersfield’s underground newspaper. The title is, “Nate Berg Hits the Skids,” and is a really interesting piece of work by Francis Mayer and the Blackboard’s own mysterious girl on the streets, Sandy Crane. The article gives me a few dandy quotes, but really relies on Jake Chavez of Downtown Records opening up and discussing what he had been telling me all along. I had been very careful not to implicate Jake, but he seems to have given Dandy Sandy and Francis Mayer some serious permission to use his all-seeing wisdom on street happenings.
Of course I have other sources as well who have written to me extensively on the going’s on under Nate Berg, which of course includes lawyer threats from Nate Berg and other threats who will go unnamed for now because they aren't yet proven. I hand it to Francis and Sandy, they did their share of digging, which includes some interesting quotes from Jerry himself who claims he will call the cops on Nate Berg if he sees him around. Here’s an excerpt although you can read the entire article in the July issue of the Blackboard: Bakersfield and Kern County’s Free Press Newspaper…
“They (Gigantic) were having $1 shows, those kids were doing cutting edge stuff, the type of thing that Nate didn’t know a thing about. And he got them shut down,” explains Chavez.
Berg took action to make sure that the shows did not continue.
“Nate told me he was jealous that they didn’t pay for a cabaret license,” Chavez said, “so he told Alex (of Gigantic Vintage) ‘give me 15% and I won’t say anything.”
The 15% didn’t come, so Berg made a complaint to Gigantic’s landlord who then evicted the tenants, according to Chavez. Which was terrible, because the shows had been going strong for 3 _ years without a hitch.
“I was trying to help out the scene. The bands got to run the show, put the fliers out, learn about promotion. It was a really cool thing,” Chavez said.
Downtown observers like scene blogger Nick Belardes of nlbelardes.com say this follows Berg’s established pattern of intimidation.
“He has single handedly fragmented the downtown music scene,” Nick Belardes said, “He’s the baseball bat of poor consciousness.”
Belardes’s statement is not just a metaphor.
“He carries a kid’s size baseball bat around with him,” Chavez said, “Besides that, what he does is he’ll make fake noise and firework complains to the Fire Department when someone promotes a show that Nate doesn’t have a piece of, or Nate feels threatened by.”
But Baranowski says things will be changing.
“I’m emotionally involved in the well-being of downtown,” Baranowski said, “We’re a place that started out with music and we’d like to continue that way, but we’ll be doing some different stuff.”
Jerry’s Pizza is ready to go back to small time scene fun. Baranowksi has a new vision.
“We’d like to do some afternoon stuff where kids can come up with the parents and have some pizza and do open mic. It’s a popular stage and the kids can say, ‘Yeah, I jam at Jerry’s.’ At the same time, I hope parents buy some pizza and beverages!”
And if Jerry promises to not put so much sauce on the meatball sandwiches, and to clean up downstairs, I will definitely go back to the Pizza-a-go-go. That would truly be unity.
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Monday, July 11, 2005.
You can leave your response.
leave a response