The Punk Stand-Off Against the Grasp of COVID-19
The Los Angeles punk scene indeed is not dead. In fact, it’s thriving despite restrictions brought by the pandemic.
Outside the Doll Hut in Anaheim late Friday evening on May 7, cold winds hit the line of people waiting to pay their $10 entry fee to see local metal and punk bands from all over Los Angeles play live. In the self-proclaimed “World Famous” Doll Hut, the live music venue has historically hosted bands since the late 1950s and that night was no different. Dozens of people from a variety of ages over 21 arrived with their denim jackets and sweaters covered in patches of various bands, beers in hand, and having a smoke outside under the night blue sky. But one thing was noticeably missing: masks.
Los Angeles ordered non-essential businesses to close their doors March 16, 2020, following a “safer at home” health order issued by L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti. Doll House was one of hundreds of night clubs and music bars in L.A. that shut their doors until they could reopen over a year later under the less restrictive yellow tier on Thursday, May 6. This tier system is a metric used to underline the type of risk level in all counties of California, where purple denotes the highest risk of widespread infection. But even as some restrictions were lifted, Doll Hut still operated without much thought to the regulations, including a limit of 25% max occupancy.
As L.A. is set to fully reopen this June and lift most restrictions on business and entertainment, one scene here in L.A. seemed to be celebrating a bit early. With news of reopening, metal and punk shows around the Greater Los Angeles area have been exploding with venues to celebrate the light seen at the end of the tunnel, away from COVID-19 regulations, and show-goers are partying hard, mostly bare faced and in packed rooms.
At the Doll Hut, live punk music was hosted as early as June 18, 2020 during the pandemic. Since then, they have sporadically hosted shows. In the flyers shared on their Instagram, earlier ones after June of last year “encourage” show-goers to wear masks during the event. The recent show on May 7 had about five mask wearers in a crowd of about 30. And despite having an outdoor area for the show-goers to stay six feet apart, the night club still had bands play on their indoor stage where show goers gathered to enjoy live music, most not wearing masks.
Edd Solalindez, a show-goer at the Doll Hut, said he is not worried about COVID because of the vaccine that is being distributed all over the country. Still, he thinks precaution is necessary for the older show-goers to enjoy the event safely, as he witnessed firsthand how detrimental the virus could be at his workplace, San Dimas Community Hospital in San Dimas, California.
“I work in the medical field. I’m a sterilization technician and patient transporter,” he said. “The majority (of patients) were the older people. They were the first coming in that whole month (of March 2020). There are some old heads in here and I wouldn’t want them to suffer that shit I have seen every day, you know?”
Warfront, a punk band from Bell, California, consists of drummer Jesus “JC” Castillo, Guillermo Molina as guitarist and vocalist, and Jon “Fro” Torres as the bassist. They played that night at the Doll Hut, notably indoors with an audience and were jolly after a successful set.
“We’ve already had COVID, at least us two,” said Molina, while pointing at Torres and himself.
He then turned to Castillo and asked, “How about you?”
“Honestly, I do not think so, but I’ve never gotten tested either and never had symptoms,” the drummer answered with a laugh.
Fro stated that he had it for a month and described it as “awful.”
“There’s still a chance for a spike, but I haven’t seen any big news about it and more and more people have stopped caring and fewer are wearing masks,” Molina said. “It just sort of wears me down so if no one else is doing it, why should I?” But despite this, they acknowledge that they still wear masks in public out of respect of others.
When asking the showrunners and the owner of the club, Mack, for a statement regarding why they have been ignoring COVID regulations and throwing punk shows, they declined to comment and redirected me to message their Facebook page to seek answers. To this day there are no replies.
At another venue known as the “Poor Kids Mansion” in Los Angeles, a large crowd easily over a hundred people gathered in a backyard show hosted by Raw War Records and Punk Scene L.A. on May 15. There, a line was formed to get into the backyard where multiple food and drink stands were available to the show-goers to enjoy hot dogs, nachos, and beers as well as merchandise from the bands in the event’s line up. And at the main opening of the backyard after the driveway, a stage elevated by scaffolding with fog lights on either side was built for the bands to play in front of the crowd. Everyone there were enjoying their drinks, smokes, and music as if it were any festival away from a pandemic, an island of bliss removed from the thoughts of a rampant virus for over a year.
Growing Moustache, a show-goer who chose to remain anonymous and only gave his nickname, said that he is not worried about COVID because he is young, age 22. Growing Moustache also stated that he is not vaccinated and is not looking into being vaccinated as he does not trust a vaccine that has been released only after a year from of the pandemic.
“It’s barely been a year… and it shouldn’t be like right after a year, how are they going to come out with a vaccine (that quick)?” he said, implying that the vaccine was rushed out to the public. When asked about shows celebrating too early, he said that “a lot of shows have been going on already, even though we haven’t opened technically… Right now, its not too early… but I think overall for everyone else (who is not punk), it is too early, yes.”
Emma and Emilia are fully vaccinated, and Emma even has a mask for added protection, albeit it being strapped under her chin. Both said that their reason of being there is for their love of music. When asked about the show being thrown despite there being restrictions, Emma said that “as long as you’re fully vaccinated and wear a mask, you’re good.”
But Jesse Killings, lead singer for Social Conflicts and record label owner for Raw War Records, said he has a significant reason for promoting these venues despite the pandemic.
“It’s a thing of like, helping out the little man and helping these bands kind of come out and gain more exposure. Because a lot of bands struggle, they don’t have the ability of going to a recording studio and then get the promotion and be put out like that.”
Killings said that the show was to celebrate the release of a compilation album for the bands playing that night and promote their music to gain exposure. The album took a year to mix and master and was just released in the beginning of May. The show allowed them to raise money and help the bands who have been struggling through the pandemic and gain traction.
“The album cost the record about 2k-3k to get these bands recorded and we didn’t ask them for anything. We solely do this to help out the scene and help these smaller bands grow,” he said. For Raw War Records, that was only their second show ever hosted, the first being on April 10.
Surprisingly, police did not intervene in either of the shows. “Police already know what goes down there (at the Poor Kids Mansion),” Killings said. “They did come by, but the only reason why was because people were double parked. Overall, they just leave us alone.”
Punk rock culturally admires itself to be antiestablishment and the consequential regulations and mandates from the pandemic was no different. But another big factor in the punk scene is a feeling of family and belonging, and with that, encouragement for vaccination. Essentially, the venue is seen as a come-at-your-own-risk endeavor, but with “a lot of the bands being vaccinated,” Killing said, “there’s less fear of going into shows.” And with the example these bands convey, it may just indirectly promote more vaccinations and help expedite the end of the pandemic. And with the CDC announcing no masks requirements in certain circumstances for fully vaccinated people on May 13, we may as well see that encouragement swell.
