This video can also be found on YouTube:
This is a local story with a global impact.
It’s about the importance of local venues, small venues, dive bars.
It’s about the love of live music being shared near you right now.
Winter’s Tavern is my local live music dive bar. That’s the local part of this story. The global part is you and me and all the bands that make this music happen. Live. Near you. Right now. Get it?
If you love live music, then you’ve got a local venue or three that you frequent. If you’re extremely lucky, you can walk to at least one of them, and by “walk” I don’t mean take the subway my Brooklyn friends. This makes me one of the luckiest live music fans on the planet.
After living in San Francisco for 20 years, I moved slightly south to Pacifica thinking that I had left my convenient live music attending days behind. I was right. In 2004 there wasn’t much going on in Pacifica’s 3 or 4 bars that might be doing live music. It took 9 years for things to improve … dramatically.
Sometime in 2012/13, CJ took a road trip from his home in San Diego in search of a bar. A bar to buy. How he ended up in Pacifica I’m not sure, but I’m also not surprised. The same thing happened to me. Like a moth to a flame, the first time I explored Pacifica around 1990, I soon ended up at Winter’s Tavern. There’s something about the place that over 100 years of history, and music, calls out to people like me and CJ.
I’ll save the history lesson for another time as part of a series of stories I’m planning about the impact of small venues. I’d love to hear about yours in the comment section.
What does this have to do with the avant-garde? Probably nothing if CJ hadn’t taken over the bar. Since then, all kinds of interesting music has flowed through the venue. He has a very open-minded booking policy when it comes to genres, but he also knows what he’s looking for. He says he can tell if a band is right for his bar without even hearing their music. How a band presents itself to him for a booking tells him all he needs to know.
Today, Winter’s Tavern is doing a show most nights of the week, and matinee shows on the weekend. I can drop in almost anytime and know I’m going to have some fun. I haven’t even mentioned the amazing beer selection on the 16+ taps. That aside, with stages both indoors and out, it’s easy to understand that their motto is “It’s all about the music”.
The month of April highlights 10 years of CJ bringing music to Winter’s Tavern. We talk about the bands and the personalities that both he and I have had the pleasure to experience over that time. Several of them are part of the shows CJ has booked for April.
The are two all day festival events as well. The first is happening this Sunday, yes just two days from when I’m writing this. It’s the Rock and Roll Flea Market on Sunday March 26 starting at 10 am, and as I said in the interview, don’t be late if you want to find that rare collectable LP that I’m sure one of the vendors will have. Music starts at 11:30 am.
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The Hominoids interview at Winter's Tavern experimental rock band finds a home at my local dive bar
The other all day fest event is Punk in Pacifica on April 15. Over 12 hours of bands, and as we say in the interview, who knows who you’ll meet there? CJ tells me a great story about meeting Jello Biafra for the first time.
April also includes a few bands that have grabbed my attention over the years for their heavy, adventurous, and yes, even experimental sounds. Here are my recommended shows, which I’m calling Rick’s Picks. And if you can’t possibly make it to any of these shows because you live in Cypress, then you might want to check out some of these bands online. One of them is from Cypress. Did I mention a global impact?
Rick’s Picks:
FRI, MAR 31 AT 8 PM The Hominoids (see their interview at The Non-Writer)
SAT, APR 1 AT 10 PM Disastroid
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2023 AT 8 PM Third Thursday Band
THU, APR 6 AT 7 PM The Hajj
THU, APR 20 AT 8 PM The Hajj
SUN, APR 23 AT 3 PM MATINEE***The Hajj
SAT, APR 29 AT 8 PM The Hajj
What's Happening at Winter's Tavern