The Dives swim ashore in Bakersfield Bermuda - By N.L. Belardes

New Bakersfield area band, The Dives

There’s a Jeffersonian flavor in the Bakersfield music scene for some local bands. It’s as idyllic as the agrarian myth: the idealistic belief that farming and being close to the land is the key to happiness. Strip away the confines of urbania and industrial cosmopolitan landscapes and the nature of man toiling the land is a true existence—so claims the agrarian myth.

Such is the roots of nostalgia.

The Populists saw the agrarian myth as truth and tried to turn the tide of American politics by getting masses of Americans to buy into the notion of an ideal agrarian way of life. The agrarian way ignored the commercialization and mechanization of agriculture, ignored the importance of the culture and growth of American cities, and ignored the transplanting of people who moved to the cities in droves as progressive and culture-building.

Makes you wonder about truth, justice, and all that other stuff. Notice the agrarian-American myth is absent from the latest Superman movie. Now it’s about internationalism, globalism, cosmopolitanism, leaving grandma behind at the farm so she can get lonely, cast aside her way of life here and there to follow her super son to the cities. Did her myth die? Grandma washed her dishes and got angry, but went to the city anyways; she believed Superman wouldn’t die, that his hope for mankind would take begotten root in the cities (from the country) and grow into an idealism that could infect masses stricken with the urban infection of vandals, crooks, Lex Luthors... all to spread through the media vectors.


The Dives at Riley's Tavern

Some music scenes, as in the Los Angeles music scene, are often viewed as non idyllic, as flaky and false to some degree; as being a land of music and cosmopolitanism where finding good musicians means weeding through all the bad musicians, the drug addicts, the starry-eyed rock stars without talent. Oh sure, LA has its share of great rockers. Take a look at rocker Jessie Deluxe. She was a two-man band for a long time until she weeded her way through the LA rock and roll masses to build a better rock band.

Once in a while I run into an outcast, an exile, or the disenchanted; someone who finds his way to the Bakersfield music scene—to the heart of California agriculture and oil—to say something like, “This is a true music scene. There’s no flakiness. You can find the musicians you need, and you can play all kinds of shows within the radius of a few blocks. And the people are cool. It’s not like in LA where there’s so much negative energy and horrible dives with horrible people. Bakersfield is refreshing. I don’t even mind playing for free.”


Jon Goodell of the Dives



Forget for a moment all my bitching and complaining about bands not getting paid in a Bakersfield music scene that has as its axiom: pay for play, play for alcohol, or play for Jesus.

Last night I was in what I sometimes think as the Bermuda Triangle of the Bakersfield music scene. Oh yes, gorgeous, serene waters with islands of lust and entertainment. Drink a bit and you'll love the music even more. You can literally walk a few simple downtown Bakersfield streets and see bands and people and even eat a slice of greasy pizza. Forget the Chinese food. That burned down in a crumbled downtown dream as hopeless as a poker game sucking a man’s wallet dry—all in one hand so he could see that gambling in the end, didn’t pay off. Yet still, a vibrant street of idyllic music scene venues and streets: the scene is so alive.


Tyler animated on the drums as Kyle looks on



Is the Bakersfield music scene just a Bermuda Triangle in disguise? Think for a moment about the birthing pain of bands dying and reforming, or sucked into the bubbling waters of the Bakersfield music scene, never to return. Big label bands do it all the time, right? Yet here in Bakersfield the scene wretched and heaved. Liars and Thieves exploded along with Sioux City Sarsaparilla and an LA rock scene vomited a guitarist up the stormy 99; he found himself in a city of musical fusion. Some Bakersfield bands had given up their ghosts. This town was ready for something new. In a dust storm of broken dreams came a new band into the idyllic cityscape of the Bakersfield music scene: the Dives.

Forget about the Bermuda Triangle that gobbles Bakersfield bands. Some bands survive, transform, resurface, refresh, invigorate…

I wandered into Riley’s Tavern to see some remnants of the Bakersfield music scene: members of broken bands gathered along the bar and at tables; some depressed, in broken relationships and fallen dreams; they hung about the tables. Yet people filled the bar. They stood around to hear the new sounds of The Dives.



The scene is built of those who survive the Bakersfield Bermuda, and those who are refreshed by its New Millennial extension of sound: it's more professional, more talented, more matured, more vibrant than the early to mid-1990s, that’s for sure. And there were good bands then. I wasn’t around Bakersfield in the late 90s.



The Bakersfieldians at Riley’s Tavern didn’t appear so Jeffersonian, or from an idyllic music scene. The people just didn’t fit the myth as lovers of an idyllic renaissance. The Bakersfield art renaissance is more deliberate, confrontational, and stretching to fuse more arts together. Yet these people are lovers of a scene nonetheless, and proud of their city music. I’ve seen such fans support metal, punk, alternative, even country at the Crystal Palace. Even the brand new Dives, an alternative rock band who played a sped up Tom Petty song. The Dives had bouncing drumbeats and bass riffs with a guitar edge that could cut Colin Cooke of The Get Up Get Downs a new haircut.



Tyler Patterson was on the drums, even more animated than when he tore it up with Liars and Thieves. Kyle performed bass. I didn’t recognize him all clean cut with a brand new look from his Jimmy Holliday folk band days. He corrected me and then I recognized his eyes—big, not sorrowful, but pondering. Jon Goodell is the front man. The songs are his and so is the band name, “Because all we play are dives,” he joked.

Maybe they will perform with the Filthies soon. That would be a good gig.

If they survive in Bakersfield Bermuda of course…

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Thursday, July 06, 2006. You can leave your response.