On February 6th, I was invited to the grand opening of the Commissary Lounge located in Costa Mesa, adjacent to Gunwhale Ales. The Commissary Lounge is a new 21+ concert venue being operated by Ben Clor and Efrem Schulz (Programme Skate, Death by Stereo, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Manic Hispanic) to bring local and touring acts another great venue to showcase musical talents. The Commissary Lounge was originally strictly a dance club which is why the venue itself has an LA warehouse club vibe to it with artwork sprawled across the walls, and lounge couches to relax and have a few drinks while listening to live music. But now the venue will also hold live music events as another alternative to see great shows. There’s even an arcade to kill some downtime in between bands. The stage is less than a foot off the ground so performances feel very personal and fans can feel like they are a part of the band.
First up was Melted, hailing from Long Beach. On this night, they would perform as a four-piece instead of their usual three, as an experiment to see if giving singer Justin Eckley more frontman creativity while on stage as he relinquished guitar duties to strictly be a vocalist. I have a feeling that Melted will remain a four-piece as the energy felt right and a more crowd inducing performance than I remember from some of their past shows. Knowing that they were the first band to perform on the Commissary Lounge’s stage, they maintained high energy with blistering songs such as “Sleep” and “Bigger Maggots” to help christen the stage.
Next on the stage was Fat Wreck Chords recording artist, The Last Gang, who came to finish tearing down what was left of the stage. An always energetic band with such punk rock anthems as “Believe in the Poet”, “Blood Drunk”. Their performance of their new song, “Intelligence is a Plague” off their upcoming album had fans singing along and at times, drowning out the vocals from Brenna Red. I myself live in the San Diego area and there was a fan base from my area that came up to support The Last Gang on this grand opening event, and I thought I was the only one who traveled far to see shows. For anyone into punk rock, The Last Gang is a great band to see live, you won’t be disappointed.
The final band of the night was LA’s, Naked Aggression, a political punk band that has been around since the early ’90s. They opened early with “Desperation”, a more sing-along friendly song before they gave the crowd what they wanted, in your face punk rock. It was a scorching set and a great introduction to what to expect for future shows at the venue.
If this first show is any indication of what to expect, then I would say it was a success and I myself will surely return to see upcoming shows. The sound was good and not blown out, the bar was of nice size with plenty of bartenders to take your order, there were great places to chill if you want to watch the bands from a distance, and the arcade was just an added bonus. From bands already announced to play the venue, it looks to be a venue that will have everything from reggae to punk rock and everything in between which includes cover bands. I’m ready to see more events here as I really enjoyed the overall energy, the people, and especially, the atmosphere.
Check out the Commissary Lounge on Instagram
