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NOFX Farewell and Club Blob Tub Energize San Pedro
By Eric Noble, Columnist
This month, I witnessed the closing of a chapter in punk history at NOFX’s last show in San Pedro. The streets of San Pedro were thick and thrashing with punk rockers from all over Los Angeles and beyond, here to help give NOFX a proper send-off. The deep history of San Pedro punk was on full display as other legendary bands like the Descendents and Pennywise, steeped in LA punk lore, joined in on the bittersweet celebration of NOFX’s 40-year career. San Pedro is much overshadowed by its neighbors Long Beach, Orange County and Hollywood as famous cities of American music. Still, what it lacks in general renown, it certainly makes up for in its reputation as a place of rebellion and experimentation.
The Sardine started a new chapter in its history with a monthly show, Club Blob Tub, which ripped open in 2023. Its founder, Neil ‘Cloaca’ Young, a musician, filmmaker, and general creative troublemaker, describes it as an “anti-genre music sound performance series.” Club Blob Tub (CBT for short) fits perfectly into the zaniness of the Sardine’s interior.
The last two CBT shows featured a variety of acts: ensembles of musicians playing guitars, basses, drums and other traditional instruments, and producers hunched over mixers and sampler units playing back their sonic creations in the great sounding, high-ceilinged space. I found my eyes following the colorful lights in the room as they passed over clown dolls hanging on the wall, egg-crate-like sound insulation covering the ceiling above the stage, a single disco ball and other eclectic visuals spread about. Although I’ve seen quite a few shows at The Sardine, I also noticed for the first time a photo hanging above the stage: a capture of D. Boon, frontman of the Minutemen, who died in 1985, wailing into a microphone.
Like his famous namesake, Young comes from somewhere else. He emigrated from Western Massachusetts two years ago when an irrefusable job opportunity opened up for his partner. He is not a complete stranger to this port town’s spirit. He grew up listening to the Minutemen and other acts from San Pedro’s revered music scene. From the way he describes his upbringing in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, as being “on the more conservative bend of things,” he was perhaps better able to appreciate the brilliance and inventiveness of the San Pedro music community than your typical Angeleno, blessed with a plethora of iconoclasts, freaks, in the constant “show” of Los Angeles.
The fittingness of his CBT being at The Sardine becomes more apparent as we consider that his “anti-genre” ethos is heavily inspired by the Minutemen, who freely mixed punk, funk, and jazz, and other styles and generally abandoned “traditional” sound structure and pop form in what fans later called “jamming-econo.”
Young made it clear in conversation that he considers CBT a continuation of this early period of “punk’s” history, pre-Vans Warped Tour and Hot Topic. D. Boon enshrined over the proceedings like a “Catholic saint,” giving his blessing to the free-form creativity. Young recalled a conversation he had with local legend Mike Watt in which the original bass player for the Minutemen described their music as a “river,” a “continuum.” “Punk is what you make it,” Young said, passionately speaking for the generative principles of punk over the adopted and commercial tropes such as spiked hair and four-chord song structures.
Young is the engine of CBT; his quirky essence runs through its gears. His marketing platform is a Google document (tinyurl.com/clubblobtub) he shares with his community, “Tubbers,” on which the intrepid newcomer shares notes about shows, description of each act, pricing ($10 on the nights I attended) and copious links. He also includes a substantial list of events, organizations and performance spaces in the greater Los Angeles area.
I recently became acquainted with Young at Lockout Music, the local music-room rental space on Beacon Street. Young buzzes with creativity; he is seemingly always on his way to another show, gallery, or jam.
CBT isn’t his first venture producing a show. His event, Montague Phantom Brain Exchange, had a three-year run starting in 2007. He performs with various acts, including his solo act Bromp Treb and the band Muscle Beach. It is not surprising that he’s convinced so many to depart from the well-tread paths of Los Angeles to brave the cliffs of San Pedro. He is a gifted community builder. After sharing with him some of my interests, I could feel his mind thumbing through his mental Rolodex for a potential game-changing connection. On both nights at Club Blob Tub, there was a sense of people not only discovering new music but also an openness to making new friends, hand-shaking our way to new possibilities.
Back to Young’s Google doc: Young lists Angels Gate Cultural Center as his “favorite place in LA.” A number of San Pedro’s many artists operate out of the Center, which held an installation this year on “sound art” called soundpedro <=> southbay, organized by the artist group FLOOD. The event was itself under the umbrella of the annual SoundPedro, which makes it clear on its website that it is “not a music event.”
Young, who performed at a previous SoundPedro event, is much-experienced in traversing the often separated worlds of academic “serious” art-making, and music-making/music performance. The world of sound-art installations and “experimental” shows attended by a monochromatic population, versus “popular” music shows.
On the CBT Google doc, Young states that he is not sure he “likes the fit of the box [of the term “experimental”], so [he] casts it aside.” I had to follow up with him on this. The ensuing conversation revealed Young’s curational and organizational goal of actively moving away from the “boring” tropes of “serious” experimental events and moving toward an inclusive night where both artists and audiences are encouraged to be honest and raw, where no one is expected to act in any prescribed way (you’re even free to NOT like the music). Young believes that his “experimental” night could be “more fun” than typical “popular music” shows.
There was one particularly interesting and surprising aspect of my experience of Club Blob Tub. As I stood there, absorbing the sometimes quite abrasive sounds being exhibited, I could feel something you may not always hear at shows: rapt listening.
Everyone in the room, mostly strangers to each other, was joined together in very committed listening to the artist in front of them/us. This is perhaps a reflection of the success of Young’s endeavor: no one knows each other, no one knows what to expect, and therefore one can only help to be absolutely present in the moment of what is occurring. Whatever typical barriers people may have to being absolutely present, such as clique-ish behavior, expectations of the art or audience based on typical genre archetypes (head-banging, butt-shaking, looking for “bass drops” or “guitar solos”), are, indeed “cast aside.” Everyone is discovering something that is very difficult to find nowadays: a pure “now.” But yes, there is plenty of head-banging and some butt-shaking.
The next Club Blob Tub will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 20 at The Sardine, 1101 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro, and will feature Justus Stellar, Ashley Frith, John O’Neill, and DJ Harry Bridges.
