Few venues epitomized the eagerness of stay music like small, scrappy all-ages venue Chain Response. With an inside coated with band stickers and T-shirts and a cramped, enclosed alley with partitions coated in gum and graffiti, the Anaheim venue on Lincoln Avenue spent practically 30 years as a staple for punk, ska, hardcore, emo and extra that helped put OC on the map for generations of native music followers.
This Friday marks the ultimate exhibits on the venue, which OC Weekly as soon as known as “the CBGBs of the West Coast”. Since 1996, Chain fostered breakout bands like Touché Amoré, Atreyu, Thrice, Throwdown and Eighteen Visions. In the meantime it additionally grew to become a must-stop venue for touring bands like Paramore, Fall Out Boy, Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional, Yellowcard, My Chemical Romance and The Used.
However after so a few years of slowly waning attendance numbers, and a serious hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, Chain Response started to sink. Sadly, even the concession of including a bar to the longtime dry venue wasn’t sufficient to maintain the membership worthwhile, and so they made the last-minute announcement by way of Instagram final week:
“This name wasn’t made rapidly. We wrestled with it and have finally made the choice to shut our doorways. We wish to thank each band, fan and attendee of our exhibits. We wish to thank the scene that supported us for nearly three many years. We wish to thanks for the friendships and reminiscences made in our particular membership. Thanks for supporting us by the years and after we wanted it most. CHAIN REACTION FOREVER.”
The closing of a staple in one of many greatest various music communities within the nation is a image of a dismal state of affairs for a once-thriving scene.
“It’s type of ironic that Chain’s final present shall be on my 68th birthday,” Tim Hill, who based the Anaheim membership in 1996, advised The Occasions. Hill, who now lives in Oregon, moved to Villa Park on the north finish of Orange County in 1996 from his hometown of Maywood a number of months earlier than opening the venue. On the time he owned and operated a profitable automotive electrical firm that gave him monetary freedom to strive his hand on the stay music enterprise.
In 1996, he loaned $10,000 to a buddy named Charlie Meloncamp to open a live performance area in Anaheim in alternate for 10% of the income, however it was solely a pair months earlier than his buddy deserted ship.
“Charlie was only a man who had good concepts, and I used to be the enterprise man,” Hill stated. “Despite the fact that it was his concept to open the place, he was the one which determined he didn’t wish to do it anymore as a result of he realized it wasn’t going to generate income. However I didn’t care as a result of I already had cash, so it may function at a loss for a very long time and I didn’t want to fret about it.”
The membership’s first live performance was Labor Day weekend in 1996 below the unique identify of Public Storage Espresso Lounge, with a stage that on the time was just one foot tall.
“Sadly, Charlie had forgotten to get a stay leisure license earlier than the occasion and the town got here in and shut it down, kicking everybody out about an hour into the present, I feel after the primary or second band. We gave everybody a voucher for the following present in order that manner they didn’t really feel like they obtained ripped off,” Hill stated.
The subsequent a number of months had been a painstaking course of to acquire the required permits for a stay all-ages venue.
“The situation was once a bar that obtained shut down as a result of somebody obtained shot in there and the constructing was purple tagged by the town of Anaheim, so the outdated conditional use allow was taken away and we needed to completely begin from scratch,” Hill stated. “I needed to go in entrance of Metropolis Council to talk a pair instances, put flower beds within the car parking zone, change the variety of parking spots, put in a handicap spot, adjust to the signage guidelines out entrance, signal tons of types, and so forth.” That additionally included getting Anaheim’s police chief on the time to log off on the venue’s conditional use allow, Hill stated.
“It was a giant deal. I imply simply give it some thought, you’re gonna have a bunch of underage youngsters come to a live performance? All types of issues can go improper.” However Hill realized the necessity for an all-ages venue in Orange County. “It was so essential for there to be a spot like this for all these children to go.”
Hill labored the field workplace each single occasion after his day job, and as phrase of the all-ages haven unfold, the membership, which was working at a loss, was an in a single day success story.
“Yeah, Chain began making fairly good cash. They had been smaller bands however the scene was manner higher. Just about each present would promote out. We might be having exhibits thrice every week again then. Typically 5 instances every week. Punks exhibits, ska, hardcore, emo.”
Corridor credit the long run success to offering the scene with a protected area for youngsters to name their headquarters.
“I used to be completely dedicated to no bar. I simply thought it was so cool to have a spot that youngsters may go. Dad and mom would speak to me on a regular basis as a result of they had been frightened about their 14 yr outdated youngster going to a live performance by themselves. I might inform them, ‘simply are available in together with your child, sit within the again in the course of the present, and determine for your self in case your youngster can come again.’”
“Chain began making fairly good cash. I had discovered a superb system,” Hill stated. “When the punk and hardcore bands began coming in — Throwdown, Eighteen Visions — they might go to Showcase Theater and promote the place out, however the man would solely pay them 200 bucks or so. I figured, no matter got here in by the door, I might subtract my workers, and no matter was left over, the band would get 60% or so. So mainly if folks come to see you, you’re getting paid some huge cash. They had been smaller bands however the scene was manner higher. Just about each present would promote out. We might be having exhibits thrice every week again then. Typically 5 instances every week. Punk exhibits, ska, hardcore, emo.”
Touche Amoré acting at Chain Response in 2010
(Joe Calixto)
Hill credit the long-term success to offering the scene with a protected area for youngsters to name their headquarters.
“I used to be completely dedicated to no bar. I simply thought it was so cool to have a spot that youngsters may go. Dad and mom would speak to me on a regular basis as a result of they had been frightened about their 14-year-old youngster going to a live performance by themselves. I might inform them, ‘Simply are available in together with your child, sit within the again in the course of the present, and determine for your self in case your youngster can come again.’”
What adopted had been years of numerous packed-house nights, a Rolling Stone Journal writeup in 1999, “secret exhibits” for bands just like the Offspring, New Discovered Glory and Inexperienced Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong’s facet venture Pinhead Gunpowder, and occasional superstar drop-ins.
“I don’t keep in mind the primary time I noticed him however Jason Schwartzman used to return in on a regular basis,” Hill stated. “He really performed there as soon as along with his band Phantom Planet. I smoked a cigar with Gary Busey within the car parking zone one evening when he had come to a present… Oh, and Billy Ray Cyrus and his spouse got here as soon as, too. His son is in a band that performed there a number of instances and so they got here by the again door to observe them. Actually, there have been lots of instances I may have bought Chain Response for some huge cash, however I needed to verify it stored going the best way it was. That’s why I bought it to Andy [Serrao].”
Andy Serrao had been one of many reserving brokers for Chain Response since 2006. In 2015 Tim bought the membership to him and retired to his present house in Oregon.
“We had been doing it for such a very long time already. Take into account, most of these years I used to be working 18-hour days, going straight to Chain to work the field workplace and I might keep till all the children would depart wherever between midnight to 1 a.m. and I needed to stand up and be at work at 7 within the morning the following day. Andy was one of many guys who booked native bands for us for a very long time. In the future I simply requested him if he needed to purchase Chain and we labored out a deal. It was fairly easy.”
Hardcore band Touché Amoré performed a dozen exhibits at Chain Response from 2009 to 2019, together with their first ever headlining set with Joyce Manor opening in Could 2010, so lead singer Jeremy Bolm is nearly as good as any on the subject of a dependable supply on the topic.
“Identical to with most venues, you don’t know what you may have till it’s gone. I really preserve a guide of each ticket stub for each present I’ve ever been to, so I nonetheless have the stub from the primary time I ever went to Chain. It was Sept. 22, 2001. The bands had been Eighteen Visions and Taken.”
Taken was an earlier era hardcore band, enjoying greater than 40 exhibits at Chain Response between 1998 and 2004.
“I do know it’s a cop out reply however it isn’t actually any higher or worse, it’s simply completely different now,” stated Taken’s lead singer Ray Harkins. “The tradition has positively modified. Again then, there have been so many individuals that weren’t going to be round in a yr, however now there’s extra children keen to assist bands effectively into the long run. I feel the scene remains to be extraordinarily wholesome, broadly talking. It was once that the head of accomplishment was one thing like enjoying the Glasshouse. Now we’ve got a band like Turnstile being nominated for 5 Grammys this yr.”
Proper earlier than the COVID-19 lockdown, Touché Amoré performed what could be their ultimate cease at Chain Response on tour for the tenth anniversary of their first file, “…To the Beat of a Useless Horse.”
“We knew for the West Coast, we needed to do the apparent three on the subject of what folks take into consideration when they give thought to legendary venues on the West Coast: Che Cafe, Gilman and Chain,” Bolm stated.
Since saying the demise of the location, folks from all states and even different international locations have been broadcasting their heartbreak on-line on boards like Reddit.
“I’m from San Diego so Chain was a staple. My husband is from upstate NY and advised me when he was a child his dream was to play a present at Chain,” one Reddit person commented.
“I’m all the best way in Florida and have by no means been wherever close to SoCal and even I understand how legendary that venue is. RIP to an actual one,” lamented one other.
Greg Katz from the band Cheekface grew up in Irvine and put into phrases precisely how formative Chain Response was for his identification within the scene.
“Chain taught me how you can love unbiased music. It taught me how you can be a part of an indie scene. I discovered to like native bands and to assist touring bands. The t-shirts on the wall had been a type of highway map to different bands you may like. The again alley exterior of the venue crystalized lots of my long run friendships.
“It’s actually unhappy that it’s leaving Orange County with out an apparent substitute. And it most likely indicators the tip of an period for assist of true unbiased music in OC. In fact there are different venues, however there may be not one other Chain Response.”
