Those of us who came up in the San Diego scene at the turn of the ’80s were privileged to witness Tim Mays’ emergence as a promoter and club owner. Over the ensuing decades, it’s hard to think of anyone who’s done more to keep San Diego on the musical map.
To reboot our Then and Now feature, Tim has provided Che Underground: The Blog with an exclusive history of his career — and his insights about the future of live music in San Diego as we all contend with the challenges of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
From there to here
I put on my first show in Barstow, the town I grew up in, in 1979. It featured a hard rock band from Orange County and a friend’s band from Barstow — smashing success.
After that, a friend and I decided to put on a show in East Hollywood at Baces Hall, which, unbeknownst to us, had been the site of a show a couple years earlier that ended in a riot. This show was Weirdos, the Plugz, Suburban Lawns, and San Diego’s Penetrators.
We turned away people at the door, and the next thing I know, I’m getting a call from Laura Fraser asking if I would be interested in becoming her partner in the Skeleton Club. This was early 1980. I gave her a check for $1,000 and became her partner. This was the second incarnation of the Skeleton Club and was located at the corner of Market Street and 2nd Ave, two blocks from the police station at the time. We got hassled constantly by SDPD and had to close down in May 1980 over permit issues.
I then started managing the Unknowns and also putting on shows at the Spirit Club. Started getting calls from LA punk rock bands wanting to play. I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes, so I met up with and teamed up with Marc Rude, Mickey Williams and Cheri Cotton of Dead Or Alive. We put on a bunch of shows at Fairmount Hall, North Park Lions Club, and Adams Avenue Theater — but after a while the other partners lost interest, and it became Tim Maze Presents.
Tim Maze Presents did a ton of shows at Adams, NPLC, Wabash Hall, Carpenter’s Hall, Spirit Club, California Theatre, and other assorted forgotten venues around San Diego.
From the Pink Panther to the Casbah
I quit doing shows in 1987 after myself, Peter English, and Bob Bennett opened the Pink Panther. Got tired of the skinhead problems back then and just quit. I think the last show I did back then was Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Dickies and Thelonious Monster at the North Park Theatre — the theater got trashed, and I threw in the towel.
After a couple years owning the Pink Panther and doing very well there, we were approached about a place called Harp & Shamrock on Kettner that was for sale. We decided to buy the business, with the idea that we would serve beer, wine, espresso, and light snacks. We’d have occasional entertainment — mostly rootsy stuff, acoustic, or jazzy. We named it The Casbah.
After a few months I started getting calls from booking agents looking for somewhere else for bands to play besides the Spirit Club — Harlan Schiffman, who had kind of taken over doing indie and punk shows when I quit with Fineline Entertainment, booked a lot of bands at the club, and we started booking a lot of touring bands. By the time the SD scene got really crazy in early ’90s, we were going full bore. Legal capacity being 75 people, we started looking for somewhere a bit bigger. The original idea was we might expand into the radiator shop next door, but our landlord was difficult, and it didn’t work out.
Then we got a call from the same commercial business broker who had sold us the original Casbah, that there was a club for sale down the street, a lesbian bar called Club. They were close to going out of business. I had driven past the place hundreds of times on my way home from the Casbah but had never been inside. We did a tour and when we discovered that it had a patio, separate back room, three times as much space, full liquor license, and an office with a private bathroom, we signed and opened there in January 1994.
Over the years, as bands outgrew the club, we were able to partner up with other venues in town to continue our relationships with these bands as they got more popular — Belly Up, House of Blues, Irenic, North Park Theatre/Observatory, SOMA, etc. … And here we are today!
The first Casbah Day was Jan. 14, 2014, to commemorate Casbah’s 25-year anniversary. There was a second Casbah Day on Jan. 14, 2019, for our 30th Anniversary. My mom was very proud!
Where do we go from here?
Che Underground asked Tim a series of questions about the prognosis for live music in San Diego, the health of his enterprises, and ways fans can support venues and bands until the scene can reopen.
During this seven-month shutdown, I have not had much contact with city or county authorities. There hasn’t been much in the way of outreach to the live music community. We’ve been awarded a few different grants from city, county, Better Business Bureau, et al., and also received some PPP funding and an EIDL loan from the federal government. We kept a lot of our employees on payroll early on in the shutdown with the PPP funding, but that got used up within first three to four months on payroll, rent, utilities.
We have no idea on when we’ll be able to open with live music — even at, say, 25 percent capacity, which may not even be financially feasible — if/when it is OK’d. We have been selling a lot of merch over the past seven months and that is helping with ongoing expenses.
Casbah and Soda Bar have both been closed since mid-March. We’ve been doing a lot of refurbishing at Casbah — painting, cleaning, fixing, remodeling, adding some flair to the space if you will.
My record shop, Vinyl Junkies Record Shack, started doing online ordering back when we had to shut down in March. Then we were allowed to open in early May with limited capacity — gloves and masks mandatory — and the shop has been really busy since June.
The Krakatoa coffee shop was doing takeout until mid-May, and then we were able to use our patio seating and that has been very steady and we’ve been able to stay open and keep our employees working since then.
Starlite was closed from mid-March until late August, when we started doing patio seating. It’s been going OK — very limited capacity, hours and days, but again, it’s good to be able to serve our loyal customers and have staff back to work.
We’ve been trying to keep the Casbah brand out there during this shutdown via merch sales of new products/designs/expanded repertoire. Ben Johnson, our bar manager, designed a custom color combo of our classic tee that sold nearly a thousand shirts. We had Rick Froberg of Drive Like Jehu/Hot Snakes design a shirt that has been really popular. We’ve added hats, mugs, socks, enamel pins, etc and have generally tried to keep people’s interest by coming up with new items.
We’ve also been doing weekly YouTube video playlists from local musicians/friends that we post every Friday.
We’ve done a lot of free livestream shows from the club with various local bands that have been really great. We’re doing a couple ticketed streams with bigger bands (Little Hurricane and Earthless), and we’ll see how that goes.
We’re just trying to keep the name out there and be as creative as we can until we can come back.
The best way people can help support our ongoing existence is to buy some merch and watch our livestreams, where you can donate to help cover the expenses of the actual streams.
We anticipate when we are able to open our doors to the public again that there will be pent-up demand to see live music.
I personally won’t open until I feel safe going to a show, so we’re hoping that people can continue to follow simple, safe guidelines and if a reasonable vaccine and therapeutics are come online we will be raring to go.
Of the new developments in presenting live music, I’m not really sold on the drive-in concert; the idea of sitting in my car listening to the simulcast on my car stereo just doesn’t move me. The logistics and expense of these endeavors are not really optimal. and it doesn’t really replicate the experience of seeing a live band, especially in such close quarters as Casbah or Soda Bar.
Livestreams are pretty cool, but again, without the physical interaction of the band and the crowd, just not the same.
We will be there when things open up again. Can’t wait.
More San Diego then and now:
- Then and Now: San Diego!
- Then and Now: Ideas as my maps
- Then and Now: Graveyard Park
- Then and Now: New Year’s resolutions
- Then and Now: Saigon Palace
- Then and Now: the Chicken Pie Shop
- Then and Now: Off the Record
- Then and Now: Rock Palace
- Then and Now: The Ken Cinema
- Then and Now: Adams Avenue Theater
- Then and Now: Topsy’s
- Then and Now: Greenwich Village West
- Then and Now: Funland
- Then and Now: Studio 517
- Then and Now: La Posta
- Then and Now: Presidio Park
- Then and Now: El Cajon Blvd. Denny’s
Tim, thanks for all of this. You bring up names that I haven’t thought of in years, like Cheri Cotton, who did a stint as The Crawdaddys booking agent, as Pete Verbrugge was losing interest as manager. Those were pretty fun days for me.
I think it’s amazing that we went from the Skeleton club days on Market St, with the battles against Pete Wilson and the SDPD, to having two celebrations of The Casbah Day.We should dig up the old Reader article about the Skeleton, here on Che Underground! It’s a pity that the conservatism of the city runs so deeply a vein, tho’ I don’t know if the indifference to the health of your ventures, and live music in general, can be attributed to that. It’s kind of going around.
Some folks might not know, Fairmont Hall and Carpenter’s Hall were the same venue. I lived with my mother, a few blocks away on Euclid. I considered that my “local”, until Pete got things started at the International Blend, more than one night a week. But all those places were amazing in the day. I saw the Unknowns at The California Theater, which was probably one of yours, held outside of the Skeleton which was probably the last night there, and caught too many NPLC and Fairmont shows to untangle in memory -- lots of Trowsers and an Unknowns at NPLC. The X gig, with Ray Manzarek on keys was a Fairmont highlight, I think that was yours. My last one in the venue was The Adicts, which must have been TMP, because it had gotten to the middle of the decade and Mark was already in LA.
Well, thanks again! Here’s to you, to keeping the places open for sounds to still be heard, and to a return of soundchecks!
Also, does anyone here remember Michael, who cut hair on College Ave., in the same retail mall as Aesop’s Tables? He was a part of D.O.A., I think. I know he booked punk shows at The Adams Avenue Theater. He used to have an orange 75cc Vespa. He gave me my “David Bowie Pin Ups” Ziggy Stardust haircut, back in 1979, and I think he was the introduction of an even younger David Klowden to the whole scene.
Between Michael and Gary Ra’chac, who was working at Wear It Again, Sam, then Dan’s Monty Rocker’s shop, I was generously invited to discover an underground I couldn’t have expected, walking down the dusty, blazing pavements of University Avenue and El Cajon Blvd, looking for comic books and hobby shops.