Where’s the Music?

Who would have thought Jimi Hendrix would be lighting his guitar on fire right here in Monterey? The year was 1967, when Monterey County Fairgrounds hosted the “Monterey Pop Festival.” With nearly 50,000 attendees over the three-day festival, legendary artists, such as The Who, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, The Grateful Dead, and many others made their way to rock out a festival to remember.

Since then, the Monterey music momentum has begun to dwindle. Now, only seemingly being known for their Jazz Festival and Blues Festival, held once a year, the talent coming through this once “Rock” renowned area has become next to nothing.

Having grown up here my entire life, I have seen music venues emerge, fail, and disappear. Take a minute and think of all the venues in Monterey. How many can you think of? When I think of this question, only few names come to mind: Sunset Center in Carmel, which usually hosts classical forms of music, theatrical plays, and Jazz. Planet Gemini, which in my opinion, holds little to no big name shows, and Monterey Fair Grounds, which today is only known for the Monterey Jazz, Monterey Blues and Monterey Reggae Festivals.

Where else is there? Sure there is the Hippodrome, which hosts mostly top 40s music by DJ’s no one has heard of. Oh, and mind you, Hippodrome got shut down this past November, so we can forget about it. But hats off to you Hippo, you guys brought E-40. And yes, the Blue Fin does generate a nice crowd, but similar in the sense to Hippodrome, as the venue has failed to consistently bring big named artists. Fox Theatre has brought some well-known names such as Tech N9ne, but they seem inconsistent. Other than that, where else is there to go?

To give some credit for big name acts Monterey has hosted in recent times, this past year has brought some well-known artists such Trace Adkins and Furthur, which both performed sold out nights at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. Other big-name artists that have made their way to the Monterey Bay area also include Red Hot Chili Peppers, Arcade Fire, Fleet Foxes, who performed at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur.

Mac McDonald, a staff writer for the Monterey County Herald and longtime music enthusiast, agrees that the music scene in recent years has remained somewhat dormant.

“Outside the festivals, there just aren’t any good venues for big-name acts. Where would you put them except the fairgrounds? All the other decent venues are 700 capacities or less and you can’t make money with those unless you start charging $100 or more a ticket. No one wants to pay that. Plus, the Golden State Theatre is being run by a Christian group and won’t sell alcohol, so there’s two strikes right there!”
Beth Peerless, also a staff writer for the Monterey County Herald, covers the music column. She attended the 1967 Pop Festival at the age of 13. Since then, she has seen how the Monterey music scene has morphed into what is it isn’t today.

“Here in Monterey, it’s gone through many phases, coinciding with similar changes in the greater music scene in the US Psychedelic rock, followed by the disco craze and club scenes shifting. No club other than Doc Ricketts has really stayed around for long. That’s been the one constant on the Monterey scene. Clubs open, people come out and support for a while and then drop off. The club changes music format or closes. Then others open and go through a similar up and down phase.”

With the music scene here in Monterey dwindling, music enthusiasts must look outside of the area for their musical fix. Santa Cruz, San Francisco, and further south, i.e. Santa Barbara and Los Angeles are seemingly the only locations we can look too to fill our ears with the sound we want. Let’s hope that one day Monterey Bay can revisit the late 60s as world-renowned artists can make their way back to this beautiful place.