Bakersfield Backstage rocks with post-hardcore from farm country and the desert - By N.L. Belardes

Raul and Weenie of The Young Death rocking at Bakersfield's Backstage

You never know what’s being produced in a farming community. Could be tomatoes or potatoes; could be melons or citrus, grapes or lettuce… or even a rock and roll band. Just check out Arvin, California. A few dozen miles southeast of Bakersfield there’s one high school, lots of good Mexican food, and lots of youth energy, all grown on the vine...


Matildakay was in the house

A little bird once told me that kids who want to ditch class at Arvin High literally step out of class and walk right through agricultural fields to who knows where. Maybe they go practice in a rock and roll band, maybe they run off to smoke some cigarettes or pot. Who knows? Everyone has their reason for sneaking from academia or rebelling against the MAN, or just seeking feelings of independence.


Music from the desert... Eyes Set To Kill

But don’t get me wrong. Lots of good students are involved in the rock and roll scene. I’m just sayin’… kids in farming communities get bored, and you don’t have to be hiding behind a trash bin from your health teacher to pick up a guitar and scream about broken society.

I was at Backstage last night. It was Sarah’s birthday. You probably don’t know Sarah. She gets crap from some people for supporting the music she likes. I don’t give her hell. I went to high school with her pop—a long-haired boy back in the day… and I just support her and Bakersfield music in general.


Sarah on myspace...


Daniel from Studio 99 gets junked on Net

So I showed up and there she was working the cash box, addicted to myspace right there at the Backstage Studio. And she wasn’t the only one. I slightly drooled as Daniel from Bakersfield’s Studio 99 also jumped online.

We can’t get enough. But I was there to cover a show.


KRAB DJ Hammer is faced toward the camera (without hat)


The Young Death from Arvin, CA....

DJ, Hammer from Hell was in the house kickin’ it, while I meandered to the front of the crowd to photograph a bunch of Arvin kids from The Young Death rocking the stage. The music, post-hardcore screamo, was, to put mildly, ear-wrenching angst-filled music squeezed from Central Valley farmland. My ears burned, rung, and I desperately wanted to jam silly putty into my brain to stop it from vibrating—these kids rocked. I waded my way through the darkness and sound, got some good shots of these youth, these 16-year-old rockers who have been rocking in their band The Young Death for three years.


Look at Jorge screaming while Raul rips bass
(Tyler and Weenie are shredding in middle of photo)

“How many times you guys play Jerry’s?” I said after the show to the most youthful kid in the band. He’s sixteen, but a youthful sixteen, and will thank me for saying such when he’s my age.

“Maybe seven times.”

“And your favorite venue in Bakersfield?”

“Studio 99.” That’s over by Buck Owens Crystal Palace.

“What about in Arvin? Where do you perform there? Do you play at the high school?”

“We’re allowed to play there at lunch. We do house gigs a lot. Wherever we can play.”

I asked what their parents did for a living and was told various jobs with at least two working in the fields. This is rock from farm labor country we’re talking about.

These kids piled all their gear and ducked down dusty roads in the severe heat just to perform and sweat in Bakersfield. For what?

Because they choose to?


Subliminal message in the posters of Backstage?

Hell yeah, why not? Backstage is an all ages venue, with posters on the wall, a few tables and a big fluffy couch—plenty of room from any potential mosh pit shenanigans…

I dig it.



I also saw Eyes Set To Kill from Chandler, Arizona. Chandler lies in the greater Phoenix area, in case you’re wondering… This mostly chick band destroyed what was left of my hearing, with one vocalist screaming at decibels I thought only jet aircraft could roar. Yes, Brandon was that loud.


Brandon from Eyes Set To Kill screams



I couldn’t understand a word he was saying; and just like the previous band, one vocalist screamed, while the other, in this case, the beautiful young Lyndsay, sung in a poppy tone that wowed all the strapping rockers in the crowd. It was a strange mixture of lovely and terrifying… but that’s just today’s post hardcore flavor.

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Friday, July 28, 2006. You can leave your response.