The violence of the Bakersfield night life - By N.L. Belardes

Nile Theatre during the closed years. Circa 2002


American Standard video has bar fights galore...

A few weeks ago I was walking in downtown Bakersfield on a Sunday morning snapping photos of a local poet. We headed over to the Nile Theatre, an area I thought would make a nice backdrop. When we got closer I noticed blood on the ground. I wondered if it were from someone with a bloody nose, an injury, or the result of a fight.

I’ve seen my share of bloody altercations in downtown Bakersfield over the years. In the mid-1990s I witnessed several fights in the Wall Street Alley. To name a few: I’ve seen a punker fight off four attackers right outside Jerry’s Pizza. I’ve seen a friend assaulted with a knife, and I witnessed a bottle fight outside of the old Goose Loonies between a bouncer and a punker. The punker won; I still wonder if the bouncer got stitches. He had stumbled after having a bottle smashed against his head.


Mysterious drops of blood outside the Nile Theatre?

During the late 1990s and into late 2001 I lived in Las Vegas. I’m guessing I missed out on a front row seat to many downtown Bakersfield brawls.

None to worry, I watched and played a lot of hockey through those years in Vegas and in Bakersfield. There was always a lot of smashing going on.

Over my two years of writing about the Bakersfield music scene I’ve heard about plenty of altercations, some in and about Jerry’s Pizza. One was outside, where a cook was killed. Then of course the Cacti Widders altercation, and so on. There was the death at old Downtown Joes by the hands of bouncers, and the KooKooNauts battle royale at the old Montgomery World Plaza.

City life? Urban life? Do we just accept the violence and go on with our own lives, frequenting the very places where such eruptions occur? Violence is a staple in American movies, especially bar scenes. You almost hate to see one pass by on the silver screen without fisticuffs. I once knew a guy who got into a bar fight and killed the guy he fought. He went to jail for several years, and other than that fight I would have never known him to be mean.

Downtown Joes closed. So did Rock N’ Rodeo—there was a shooting there. As there was a shooting outside of Kosmos on 19th Street. Even though unrelated to the bar and grill, the gunfire was enough to get the Kosmos cabaret license taken away. Owner, Jimmy the Greek has talked to me several times about the whole mess.

Just a few nights ago a couple of men were shot and killed outside a Bakersfield strip club. One was the bouncer.

I’ve heard gossip about Rileys downtown being a powder keg waiting to go off. I’ve been there on weekdays for alternative music shows. Friendly enough. But on the weekends there’s a thick crowd, a rough crowd. Scary? Not necessarily. The scene is in full swing and the libido is on high alert. Maybe the cops who patrol downtown Bakersfield’s weekend mean streets are enough to prevent a shooting, fisticuffs or stabbing. And who is most likely to do it? Gang-related downtown rebels? Punkers? The hip hop crowd? Mexican gangsters? Oilfield workers with attitudes? University frat boys? Who? Everyone’s mingling.

Maybe downtown isn’t even where the next bar-related violence is going to take place?

I recently received a letter from one man who refuses to go back to Trouts on North Chester Avenue because of past violence there.


Trouts Bar, Oildale, California

In a letter titled, “What Really Happened To Randy,” Randy Dodson details what happened to him five years ago in May of 2002. He had been at Trouts on a Friday evening, listening to music, was asked to get a couple of beers, brought some empty bottles back to the bar from the bandstand and got in an argument with Theodore Cheever, one of the staff. “He proceeded to yell and scream at me that I was not supposed to be up on the bandstand.” After that argument he got in another argument as he headed toward the bar owner.

Soonafter, Dodson was grabbed from behind. “No warning. No ‘You need to leave’ or anything. This person grabbed me from behind, full force, down a hallway through a heavy door and tossed me…”


What lurks inside of historic Trouts Bar?

Dodson claims bouncers threatened him while on the ground that if he didn’t leave they would call the sheriff. He also claims to have been injured that night. “I only received help when a gentleman in a white pick-up drove through the alleyway and saw me lying on the ground…”


The Dodson Letter: what does it really tell us?

A typical story of bar roughness? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I’m sure that doesn’t make Dodson’s knees feel any better. And the fact that he’s relating this story to me years after the occurrence tells me that some people are thinking about bar violence often.

As for me, I’ll still hit all my favorite venues and allow my kids to perform in safe all-age venues. Violence at bars is often the result of confrontations. Avoid confrontations and you can avoid the rare violence that can break out in such scenes. I also avoid some of these places on weekends, when I know the rougher crowds are in force. I’m mostly just interested in the music anyway.

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Friday, January 19, 2007. You can leave your response.