News paper article we were in hahahah.
By Eric Louie
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
LIVERMORE - Avi Cohn hopes to soon go on tour with his three-piece punk band, the Kramers. But first one of their members, who all attend Livermore's Granada High, needs to get a driver's license.
That's why he's thankful for the all-ages shows that take place in the garage behind Livermore's Unity skateboard shop.
"We need more places like this in different cities," said Avi, 16, whose band pulled in a large number of the roughly 70 teens attending Wednesday's show, with its friendly pushing and shoving that characterizes the music. "It gives us something to do, because Livermore has nothing to do," he said.
Since October, when it moved into bigger digs next door to its Railroad and North Livermore Avenue location, Unity has been booking shows on a more regular basis. The skate shop has scheduled twice-a-week shows through April. The mostly Friday and Saturday night events cost $5 to get in.
"They just keep coming," said Livermore native Antonio Trevino Jr., 29, who opened the shop with others in 2000.
Shows at Unity are held in a storage-like area of the building. Attendees enter through a covered side driveway, with the stage behind a garage door.
The space is randomly decorated. There's a disco ball hanging from the ceiling, and a couple of stuffed spiders. On stage is a life-size Ronald McDonald covered with various band and skateboard product stickers. On the wall behind the stage, the store's name is spray-painted in black and orange, with various posters in other spots.
In another room, filled with donated couches, there's a pinball machine, combination Ms. PacMan/Galaga arcade game and darts.
At Unity, crowd interaction is as much of the show as the performers. When the Kramers played, audience members freely walked up to the mikes to sing along.
There's no raised stage to keep fans from the band -- the stage is the same concrete floor the audience is on. When the Hyper Kidz played, one of their two singers took the microphone to the fans, often getting tangled up and sometimes carried around by audience members.
These days Trevino owns the shop with Jim and Rachel Stafford, who came on about the time of the move. They had all put on shows around Livermore before.
Trevino, who sings in The Fuzz and plays guitar in The Immortals -- which includes the Staffords' oldest son -- would hold shows in venues like pizzerias, meeting halls, coffee shops and parties.
He worked in local skate shops before starting Unity, having occasional shows in the parking lot. Then came the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and business slowed.
"Business was so slow, so what I would do is take the inventory, put it in the back" and empty the shop for shows, he said. "It got so big so fast."
In fact, he said, it was too big, and he stopped. Then the space next door opened up.
But Trevino and Rachel Stafford say the music aspect of the shop, which besides skateboard equipment also sells clothing, is not about the money. With a capacity of about 130, and most shows drawing between 50 and 100 people, they don't make much.
The shop gives half the money to the bands, which all get an equal share no matter how popular they are.
There is no alcohol, and snacks are cheap. Fifty cents buys a hot chocolate, water, soda or cookies. Pretzels are a quarter.
The Staffords say they try to provide a safe environment parents would like. Rachel Stafford, 36, a real estate agent, and her husband have five children. He is the local Catholic Youth Organization track coach. There are no ins and outs for those under 21. Parents get in free. They try to end shows around 11 p.m., and monitor the area for trash and drinking or drug use.
A show next month will be a benefit for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and there have been benefits for Children's Hospital.
"It's more social than it is about the music," Rachel Stafford said.
Dana Johnson, 18, of Livermore doesn't usually go out of the area for shows. She was there Wednesday to see Hyper Kidz, whose members are mostly from Fremont. She met them while camping at Lake Del Valle in Livermore.
"It's just more fun to stay here because you know everyone," she said.
Hyper Kidz guitarist Demecus Hill said they had a great time Wednesday, with the crowd showing lots of energy. Hill, 18, whose band members range from 16 to 19, said they have never played a bar. He said they also probably wouldn't.
"We don't want people not to come because of their age," he said.
While most bands fall into the punk, hardcore and related categories, Trevino would like to include other types of music, like hip-hop. In his younger days he would go with friends to longtime all-ages punk venue 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley and other places there and in San Francisco to see bands play. Now with the area more developed, he sees more need for local, all-ages venues.
"We're kind of cultivating culture for the Tri-Valley," he said.