Who really controls the Rock and Roll Farm? - By N.L. Belardes

You remember the old Rock and Roll Farm article from February, 2005? I wrote about the pizza-a-go-go, A.K.A. Jerry’s Pizza, A.K.A. The Rock and Roll Farm:

…now having become a punk hardcore metal frenetic zone where bands pay to play, and the young, like cockroaches scamper in to feel the music pitching them in a torrent that makes them ignore the slovenliness. They embrace Jerry’s as some kind of rebellious Bakersfield punk empire right in the heart of copland. …Jerry’s farm, its machinery was churning them out as fast as it could.

Has Jerry’s Pizza changed? Nate “The Baseball Bat of Poor Consciousness” Berg is back, sort of. His buddy Jon Coley, The Kerouac of Kmart is in… and the Rock and Roll Farm is churning bands out as fast as mini-pepperoni pizzas. I hear good and bad about Jerry’s, with the good being a reputation as a historic venue. The bad is all hearsay in treatment of bands and how the police never seem to muddle in their affairs. I haven’t been to a show there in a while but I know the crowds do show up… Jerry’s, in effect, stays open as an all-ages venue for live music.

Is that a big deal?

It is a big deal to stay open if you stop to think someone or some group might be bent on shutting many of the doors to the Bakersfield music scene. Recently, 50 people may have lost jobs at the Barbecue Factory because of a recent shut down of Club Vertigo in its banquet room. What about Street Klothes next to Jerry’s Pizza? They were told to halt any music and art shows in their venue because they had folks in their basement area. Ouch. Did they have a license? Was such deemed a fire hazard, or a safety hazard? And, have local cops been out to kick any so-called riff raff from the front of Street Klothes during daylight hours? You got it. That’s what I was told by the owner when I walked in one sunny summer afternoon. Why? I won’t even suggest that Jerry’s Pizza gets special treatment… maybe they just have all the required licenses. Or maybe they feed the city council with extra cheesy pizza…

Did you get your new city slogan collectible coffee mug?

Is keeping the downtown Bakersfield music scene vibrant simply about safety issues, health issues, or about cabaret licenses? Or, is the current shutting of doors to a vibrant Bakersfield music scene an orchestrated attack by the city council upon potentially violent clubs, Bakersfield music itself, or both? Or neither? Certainly Azuls and Kosmos have had no live bands perform because of a so-called lack of a cabaret license.

Why is it that some venues get policed while others seem to get away with… murder? Are we just talking speeding tickets here? Just catch a few, the rest will learn. Maybe the shutting down of the Bakersfield music scene is a war between cops and gangs with hard-working local musicians and businesses caught in the crossfire.

I remember sitting with Jimmy the Greek from Kosmos several months back. He was angry. I was sitting in a booth chowing down on an Ortega Burger when he made himself at home across from me. He informed me that he had a cabaret license but the Bakersfield police still closed any window of opportunity to live music in the venue under threats of heavy fines. Why? He said it was because of the shooting outside. Some gunmen got out of a car, started peppering downtown with bullets, and somehow that became the fault of Kosmos in the eyes of the police. That’s how he explained his problem. He had a license. Then why no live bands?

You tell me.

Or go ask Rock N Rodeo. Death, gangs, shootings… seems about the same number of deaths to me as Riverwalk Park, and that stays open. Maybe the city just needs to put up a few signs, “Head bang at your own risk—gun-toting gang sharks in the water,” or “Yuppies invited, but beware of shadows”.

We all know what happened at old Downtown Joes, now Capistrano’s where the ‘Downtown Sculpture and Assemblage Show’ recently went down; and I mean not just upstairs, but downstairs. Downstairs. Does Capistrano’s have a license to have people, film, and artwork downstairs? You know what happened in the old Downtown Joe’s don’t you? An angry patron and bouncers fought in a battle of titanic proportions: drugs, fists, asphyxiation, death on a lonely sidewalk... Then the doors shut.

Capistrano’s stays open to art in the basement, while Street Klothes stays closed to art and music in their downtown basement, while right next door, Jerry’s Pizza runs their rock and roll farm.

Hmm.

Who might be orchestrating this possible agenda to cast an iron curtain over the downtown Bakersfield music scene? The Bakersfiled city council? I heard Sue Benham didn’t want anything to do with Montgomery World Plaza either… Is a Latino Marketplace in inner city Bakersfield just an eyesore?



What’s going on with these yuppie monsters controlling our city, hell bent on destroying ethnic and music culture for what? An old gaslamp look downtown, but no cool look to the shoddy buildings, and no architectural theme? Hell, Kingsburg just up the road is 100 times better looking than Bakersfield’s muddy downtown vista because it has a common architectural theme. Get a hint Bakersfield City. We have potential. They’re so damn worried about a slogan and a sign, downtown gaslamps, and running out rock culture when downtown looks like a 1970s episode of Emergency, with big side burns on the buildings and everything. I thought this city was proud of its rock roots. Oh wait, what happened to Korn’s ‘Backyard Street’ sign?

Sign gone?

Or is this a sign of a rockless Bakersfield future?



The million dollar question? Is city councilwoman Sue Benham the Tipper Gore of Bakersfield, the leader of some moral majority after the heart of the downtown scene: music? Could this be some kind of city censorship going on? Stop the bands and music and the guns will stop? I don’t think Dave Hall was carrying a microphone and headed for the ghost of Downtown Joe’s when he was sickly gunned down in an apartment complex.

Where is the city council trying to scare gangbangers to, anyways? Right back into Dave Hall’s neighborhood? As if that’s the problem anyways. That’s an illusion. Gangs are already there! They’re everywhere, and just like the rest of America, Bakersfield city isn’t ready to go to war against gangs (essentially a large portion of our youth). They would rather try to force gangs into certain sections of town, corral them.

Why don’t they just hire the ghost of Buck Owens to do that? The gangsters are going to slip through ghostly fingers anyway the same way Palestinians do in Israel just before they blow up an entire market or café. And who needs that kind of terror?

So, destroy music culture, business revenue, keep the bad architecture, erect gaslamps, and erect a new slogan for the seal of Bakersfield, “In the City Council We Trust.” Sue Benham might like that since she was against smalltown mentality during the “In God We Trust “ debates. Should we just trust in her? “In Sue Benham We Trust”?

But then, we don’t even know if she’s responsible.

I’m just saying that I’m starting to see fingers point in her direction.

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