“From sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, your mind had to be on nobody but God,” says Phife Dawg, remembering weekends at his grandmother’s house growing up, in last year’s documentary about A Tribe Called Quest, Beats, Rhymes and Life. “So I had to sneak and watch Soul Train. I had to sneak…
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To say that opening a nightclub is risky business is an understatement—eight out of 10 new clubs fail within the first year, according to Nightclub and Bar magazine. What does it take to beat those seemingly insurmountable odds? Trends, concept, funding, business plan, luck—a hundred factors both practical and abstract. But like…
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DAVID MA on June 5, 2012
“I like candied yams, I never jeopardize who I am!” says Andre Nickatina, the renowned West Coast rap veteran who’s making a highly anticipated tour stop at Santa Clara’s Avalon Nightclub this week. Formally known as Dre Dog, Nickatina has achieved luminary status through slanging tapes and CDs hand-to-hand, most of which…
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With the reunited Jane’s Addiction headlining Live 105’s BFD this weekend, it’s the perfect time to remember the first club to bring Perry Ferrell’s legendary band to the South Bay. From 1985 to 1990, Santa Clara’s One Step Beyond was a hub of counterculture in the Valley, with their all-ages policy exposing…
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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.
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It’s been seven years now since dredg released their breakout third album, Catch Without Arms. Considering the impact the record had on the Los Gatos artists’ career—both because it was their first album to chart, and their last album for Interscope—it’s ironic that one of the best-remembered shows from the supporting tours…
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