In addition to hip-hop and DJ performances, Milano in downtown San Jose will host rock and heavy metal shows starting in June.

Mike Beard, one of the former promoters at the Avalon, has just booked a handful of rock and metal shows at Milano Nightclub starting Friday June 7th.

The first show features five local bands: Potential Threat, Six Weeks Sober, Mukagee, Mudface and Silent Sinner. Additionally, Beard has also already booked shows at Milano in July and August. This effort to get Milano off the ground as a live music venue is being driven by Pross Fernando, another former promoter at the Avalon, who is currently one of the managers at Milano.

“I didn’t really pick the Milano,” Beard explains. “The Milano picked me by Pross calling me, as we both worked at the old Avalon in Santa Clara together. It is a fresh new place, and it’s in the South Bay. Anything to do with my home area and any new place wanting to open its door up to rock/metal, I am down to help and try to do my part to keep the live rock/metal bands playing at venues anywhere they are wanted,” Beard says.

While Beard always booked rock shows at the Avalon, Fernando used to promote hip-hop shows there. He plans to continue that at Milano by booking rappers and DJs, while Beard books rock bands. The rock show, for now, are on every first Friday of the month. If all goes well, there could be more added to the Milano scheduled in the future.

The first rock show at Milano will be on Friday June 7th at 8pm. Tickets are $10.

It didn’t take long after the Avalon closed for independent promoter Mike Beard to find a new home for his south bay bookings—the Rodeo Club in San Jose.

The venue isn’t new to live music, but up until recently, it’s catered primarily to country-western bands. Beard, on the other hands, specializes in hard rock and heavy metal.

Beard’s first show at the Rodeo Club is on August 24th with Winger, AC DZ and Madman’s Lullaby. Beard already has several more shows booked through September and October, including:

-Static X, Prong and Angerhead on September 7th
-Dokken on September 9th
-John Waite on September 13th
-Quiet Riot on September 16th
-Otep on September 18th
-Faster Pussycat on September 23rd
-HED P.E. on October 7th
-Death Angel on October 21st
-The Misfits on November 16th
-Fixx on November 23rd.

Winger plays the Rodeo Club on August 24th at 7:30. The show is all ages. Tickets are $25. More info.

This Saturday marks the final show at the Avalon Nightclub in Santa Clara. Promoter Mike Beard—while hasn’t been the only person to book shows there—has been a major force, bringing in countless local and national acts. Y & T play the Avalon’s final show on July 30, which is sure to be a sell-out. We interviewed Beard about the Avalon’s closing and San Jose’s music scene in general.

How long have you been putting on shows at the Avalon?

I have been doing show since 2003 with local bands and moved into national bands. I started in Boise, Idaho at Tom Grainey/J.T. Toads venue. I booked this band called Midline and they drew and the owners told me to keep at it, and I did. I called it Monday Metal Madness with Man Down Productions with Midline. We drew 1,000 people on that Monday. I was in from then on.

What were some of the favorite bands you’ve been able to bring to the South Bay that wouldn’t have otherwise come?

All of the local and national bands to me are a gift and special. Without the bands and fans this would not happen. It’s all about them and not the promoter, to be honest.

Here is a partial list of bands I’ve booked: Exodus, Trapt, Dredg, Hed Pe, Prong, Testament, Fishebone, Fingereleven, Geoff Tate, Y & T, Lizzy Borden, Armored Saint, Taproot, Misfits, MSG, Saxon, UFO, Otep, Death Angel, Alien Ant Farm, Stryper, WASP, Lynch Mob and Montrose.

Do you have any plans to continue booking shows in San Jose?

I do have things in the works for the South Bay. Stay tuned for those shows and bands to be announced.

Of all the places you booked, was there anything about doing shows at the Avalon that were particularly special?

It was in my home town of Santa Clara. I grew up here. I joined the U.S. Marines from 1988 to 1992 here. My dad and brother Rich were Police officers here—dad for 32 years at SCPD.

Tell us about your last show? Other than the bands you have playing, do you have anything special planned?

M.I.R.V., Fungo Mungo was my last show, really… Y & T on June 30th is the Avalon’s last show and all the credit goes to Mike and Julia Jafari, the owners and people who I owe a huge thank you to for allowing me to do show all these years.

What do you think the San Jose scene will be like without the Avalon?

Well the scene has been hurt over the years with The VooDoo Lounge and Toons closing. The bands are as good as ever, but I just don’t feel like they have many places to play.

The Blank Club and Johnny V’s have been wonderful keeping the pulse going and the Caravan too. The Brit as well. We’ll see what happens. There are rumors of new owners and bookers wanting to open up a new/old place downtown. I’d be into it when I see it or get the call to do shows there. This is nothing new for me I have been through many club closes so Man Down Productions just moves operations to others places that need me.You’ve been about of the South Bay scene a long time. What is the greatest secret most people may not know about our little scene?

The secret—which is not a secret, but so key—is the support from The Metro, the bands, the fans and the bands’ studios keep all this alive. The scene to me will never die, it just needs a new place to hang out or re-invent itself. I am working on that as we speak with a few friends TBA later. Stay tuned South Bay.

Y & T Play the Avalon on Saturday July 30 at 8p. Tickets are $30.

There’s a certain symmetry to the alpha and omega of Santa Clara’s Avalon Nightclub. Mike Beard, who has booked hundreds of shows there though his Man Down Productions, remembers when Avalon owner Mike Jafari first transformed what used to be the DJ-dance spot Backbeat into a live music venue back in 2003.

As a Santa Clara native and a hard-rock fan, Beard knew that Y&T lead singer Dave Maniketti lived not far from the club, and decided one day just to walk over to his house.

“Dave was out there gardening or whatever,” he remembers. “You’re not really supposed to do that, but I did. I didn’t care, because at that point Y&T was really doing nothing, Dave had this band called Maniketti. I said ‘Hey, Dave, my name’s Mike Beard. I grew up in this area, played little league down the street. There’s a club here that’s doing live music now, called the Avalon. Why don’t you call over and check it out?'”

Beard didn’t think much of it at the time.

“But a couple days later, [Maniketti’s] wife, Jill, called the club and chewed Mike Jafari’s ass about me coming over to the house. But they started talking, and they played a show there,” he says. After a long, close relationship between the band and the club, which includes a benefit held for Y&T bassist Phil Kennemore before he passed away in 2011, Beard says “They’re cool about it now.”

Fittingly, perhaps, Y&T will play the last-ever show at the Avalon, on the day the club is set to close, June 30.

“It’s kind of come full circle,” says Beard.

There’s some symmetry, too, to the “Last Days of Avalon’ show this Friday at the Santa Clara club. Headlining will be El Chicano, the L.A. group known for hits like “Tell Her She’s Lovely’ and “Viva Tirado’ in the 1970s. A documentary about the band, In The Eye of the Storm, was filmed at the Avalon in 2009.