{"id":501,"date":"2018-09-17T16:28:15","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T23:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/?p=999918940"},"modified":"2018-09-17T16:28:15","modified_gmt":"2018-09-17T23:28:15","slug":"why-arena-rock-is-dead-in-lb-but-the-outdoor-music-scene-is-very-much-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/music\/why-arena-rock-is-dead-in-lb-but-the-outdoor-music-scene-is-very-much-alive","title":{"rendered":"Why Arena rock is dead in LB\u2014but the outdoor music scene is very much alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

The country is abuzz right now with heavy metal, rock, soul and hip-hop artists criss-crossing touring cities across the map. Primus and Tesla, The National and Arcade Fire, Foster the People and Liz Phair, the Beach Boys and the Isley Brothers, Jay-Z with Beyonc\u00e9.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a fan of any of these nationally touring bands, you\u2019re going to have to do what they\u2019re all doing now: Hit the road. Because they\u2019re not coming to Long Beach.<\/p>\n

At the risk of sounding old, music lovers have to be AARP-eligible to recall a time when the biggest and best rock bands regularly put the Long Beach Arena on their tour stops, and most were at the peaks of their careers.<\/p>\n

Today, the Arena\/Pacific Room is practically a black-tie event space. It\u2019s as gorgeous as it is spectacular and we can hardly blame its operators into muddying up the joint with rock or its many spin-offs. (I\u2019m using the term rock for just about everything but classical, jazz and show tunes here.)<\/p>\n

The official reason for the death of arena rock in Long Beach, according to Charlie Beirne, the general manager of the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, is, simply, \u201cWe\u2019re too busy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a bad thing, it’s a good thing,\u201d said Beirne. \u201cWe\u2019re just booked with conventions and other events and we just don\u2019t have dates open for the bands.\u201d<\/p>\n

The center\u2019s Terrace Theater is the one bright spot for fans of major rock acts, though local stops are exceedingly rare, with a couple or three major performers of a quieter sort stopping by \u2014 in recent years there have been Terrace concerts by Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Crosby & Nash. Next up is a blues show by Joe Bonamassa on Nov. 23.<\/p>\n

But, otherwise, fans of arena rock and roll are left stranded in the old days of Wolff & Reismiller shows, usually held in conjunction with radio stations, including KLOS and Long Beach\u2019s old KNAC (they also promoted the Santa Monica Civic, another venue that\u2019s pretty much disappeared, and the Forum).<\/p>\n

The glory years were the 1970s, and you can be old enough to run for president and not recall those concerts. A list is called for, and it\u2019s pretty impressive.<\/p>\n

What follows are some of the acts that played the Long Beach Arena from 1969 through 1979.<\/p>\n

A year-by-year best of that 10-year run:<\/p>\n

1969:<\/b> Creedence Clearwater Revival, Simon & Garfunkel, Three Dog Night<\/p>\n

1970: <\/b>The Doors, the Moody Blues (with the Steve Miller Band and Poco), Jethro Tull<\/p>\n

1971:<\/b> Deep Purple (with opening act Rod Stewart), the Who, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath<\/p>\n

1972: <\/b>The Allman Brothers Band (with the Marshall Tucker Band and Boz Scaggs), the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Leon Russell, Santana, Elvis Presley and the Grateful Dead<\/p>\n

\"\"
Robert Plant, left, and Jimmy Page, of Led Zeppelin. The band played at the Long Beach Arena in 1972 and 1975. Courtesy photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1973: <\/b>Traffic, Chicago, David Bowie & the Spiders from Mars, Stephen Stills & Manassas<\/p>\n

1974: <\/b>Neil Young, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, ZZ Top, Frank Zappa<\/p>\n

1975:<\/b> KISS, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Aerosmith<\/p>\n

1976: <\/b>Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Black Sabbath, Willie Nelson<\/p>\n

1977:<\/b> Lynyrd Skynyrd, Yes, Blue Oyster Cult, Queen, Kansas<\/p>\n

1978:<\/b> Styx, Journey, Van Halen, Ted Nugent, Cheap Trick<\/p>\n

1979: <\/b>Elvis Costello & the Attractions, AC\/DC, Marvin Gaye<\/p>\n

Those days are 40 years in the rearview mirror, and if you\u2019re hoping for their return, you\u2019d better be well-versed in cryogenics.<\/p>\n

But, while arena rock is dead in this town, the local club scene still has some life. Both Alex\u2019s Bar and diPiazza\u2019s carry on with plenty of live shows, though they seldom book blockbusters.<\/p>\n

Remember Vault 350? Not too long ago it had stars like Boz Scaggs, Bob Weir, TSOL, the Killers, Cheap Trick and BB King. But now it\u2019s been shuttered for a decade. You know who plays there now? Crickets. The insects that make the sounds of silence, not the Buddy Holly backup band.<\/p>\n

The Queen Mary, now that Goldenvoice has taken over the music on and around the ship, offers a glimmer of hope for occasional festivals and concerts. The ship\u2019s next show<\/a> is the Nov. 3 and 4 Tropicalia Festival, with dozens of bands including headliners Morrissey and Cardi B, with Mazzy Star and Mac DeMarco.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s a nice big dose of rock, again in a festival setting, as Music Tastes Good<\/a> returns to Long Beach for its third year, carrying on the legacy groundwork of the late musician\/promoter Josh Fischel, who died<\/a> just after the wrap-up of the inaugural festival in 2016.<\/p>\n

Volume 3 of MTG will feature a mess of great bands (and chefs) over two days, Sept. 29 and 30 at Marina Green Park. The performers include New Order, James Blake, Janelle Monae, Broken Social Scene and, just because we like them, Manuel the Band.<\/p>\n

So rock isn\u2019t dead in Long Beach, it\u2019s just left the building. Now you\u2019ll find it in the great outdoors which, in the sunniest city in the country, might just be where it belongs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the risk of sounding old, music lovers have to be be AARP-eligible to recall a time when the biggest and best rock bands regularly put the Long Beach Arena on their tour stops, and most were at the peaks of their careers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":66025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[301],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-rock-and-roll","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/208"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=501"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}