Image courtesy of Midnight Mass 2.
Astro Lizard Records and Freak Style Booking, two Long Beach entities who put on the first Midnight Mass last year at MADhaus, where “an unprecedented celebration of punk rock and garage music” took place, are joining together again to bring the party to The Packard on Saturday, December 10 from noon to midnight.
Droozie Lane of Freakstyle Booking and Jarrett Killen and Brent Lindenmyer of Astro Lizard Records are expecting a full house, and had to cut off pre-sales earlier this week to make sure people can still purchase tickets at the door.
“Long Beach has a very long colorful history of punk-rock,” said Killen. “If anything, we’re just trying to keep it alive and having the show yearly will only increase the visibility in our city.”
Set to perform are legendary punk band The Spits, conceptual and experimental punk duo The Garden, Feels, a band Astro Lizard Records has booked three times this year, Fullerton-based The Audacity and The Buttertones, who recently released these two tracks, among many more artists.
“This year sold really quickly,” said Killen. “We can’t believe it actually. We aren’t sure what [the] final count is, but I know it’s going to be completely sold out. I do believe last year’s success made this year much easier on us because there is measurable success.”
The trio has learned a lot from throwing the first Midnight Mass last year, when their event staff consisted of a handful of friends wearing staff T-shirts, said Killen.
“We’re experienced and have an idea of what to expect,” said Killen. “We’ve left no stone unturned. From security guards to staff schedules. We threw ourselves into the fire all year in preparation for Midnight Mass 2.”
In 2016, Lindenmyer made it a point to throw more shows around Long Beach and Los Angeles, adding to the resume of the group and to Lane’s experience with his company, Freakstyle Booking, which has organized hundreds of memorable events.
“We hope people take away a sense of pride in the City of Long Beach and its thriving community of musicians and supporters,” said Killen. “We created this show kind of selfishly because we were booking bands we wanted to see ourselves. The main thing we’d want people to take away is: we want people to realize what we already knew, that Long Beach is a great music town and we want everyone to come together in peace and have a great time ending the year off right!”
For more information about Midnight Mass 2, visit the Facebook event page here.
The Packard is located at 205 East Anaheim Street.
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