My name is Jon Halperin. I booked and managed Chain Reaction from 2000 to 2006. It all started by accident while I was running a one-man record label. I went to the club to see the band Melee perform and the club's previous talent buyer had just quit that day. I told owner Tim Hill I would do it (having only booked three shows in a coffee shop). We fell asleep and they hired me the next day.
I teamed up with Ron Martinez (from Final Conflict). I was booking the punk and hardcore shows. I booked indie, ska, emo, screamer and pop punk stuff. We made a great team. Best working wife ever.
Story time. My friend Ikey Owens (RIP) called me and told me that he and the guys from At the Drive In were going to form a new band. I had booked Defacto (their dubbing project) before and we agreed to put them on a show and just promote it as “Defacto”. There were about 200 people there to see the first concert of a band that would soon be known as Mars Volta.
That wasn't out of the ordinary. Chain Reaction had a lot of artists on that stage who went on to bigger things: Death Cab for Cutie, Avenged Sevenfold, Maroon 5, Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco, Taking Back Sunday, Pierce the Veil, My Morning Jacket. The list goes on and on.
Jon Halperin, who booked Chain Reaction from 2000 to 2006, is in front of the club during its heyday.
(By Jon Halperin)
I used to make a deal with the kids. Buy a ticket to the “X” show, and if you didn't like the band, I'll refund you. I never had to do it. I knew my audience and they trusted my room selection. … It was by the kids, for the kids, except I was 30 at the time. I had to think like a teenager. My friend Brian once called me “Peter Pan.”
Halfway through my reign, social media became commonplace. There was Friendster and a little later MySpace. YouTube declared just a few years later. But those first few years I was there, it was word of mouth. They were paper flyers left in coffee shops and record stores. It was the flyer in the window of the place. They were Mean Street and Skratch magazines.
He joked with the press when they wanted to review a show. If you don't show up with a pen and paper, you won't get in (sorry, Kelli).
Most of the music industry went to the Los Angeles show, but the smart industry came to us. Countless acts signed after their shows. You would often see the band meeting with a label in the parking lot near their tour van.
It was a dry room when I was there. No alcohol or marijuana. We only made one exception to the marijuana rule. A band artist with Crohn's disease traveling with a nurse. I'm not saying bands didn't drink backstage, on stage, in their vans (we rarely had buses), but what we didn't see didn't happen.
Touche Amoré performing at Chain Reaction in 2010.
(Joe Calixto)
We were often called the “CBGB of the West,” and for many bands, both local and touring, we were just that. We were the epicenter. There were other places, of course, but for some reason, we were the place to play. Showcase Theater in Corona was on the verge of demise. Koo's Café in Santa Ana was finished. Back Alley in Fullerton was not active. Galaxy Theater [in Santa Ana] It was still, well, the Galaxy. There was no House of Blues Anaheim. Bands would drive a thousand miles to play a show at Chain Reaction. We were the place where local bands got their start, the first of the four on a bill and would be headlining within a year. We were their starting point. We were where the children went out. The real fans, many of whom started their own bands.
Fortunately, today there are other smaller venues that foster an all-ages scene: Program Skate in Fullerton, Locker Room at Garden AMP [in Garden Grove]Toxic Toast in Long Beach, Haven Pomona, but it's not the same anymore. It was a moment in time. A time that will be forgotten in a few decades, but for today, my social networks are flooded with memories of a room that was a second home for thousands of children.
Zero regrets. They were the best and worst moments of my life. Working a daytime gig and then going to the venue almost every day of the week was difficult. Relationships and friendships were difficult, as I couldn't go out at night. I couldn't get a pet. I was constantly tired. But I wouldn't trade those six years for the world.
RIP, chain reaction.
