Less Wok, More Rock

I’ve seen a lot of great music in this room. I’ve seen the place packed full with sweaty nerds dancing to The Faint. I saw Ted Leo and Communiqué share a bill there, playing to less than a dozen people on a Tuesday night. I saw Rilo Kiley play there when they were small enough to open for a side project from one of the dudes from Ozma, whereas now they play cavernous arenas opening for Latte Rock juggernauts Coldplay.

Now, it’s Ma Jong’s, an Asian fusion restaurant geared towards yuppies. There’s no stage and the only music I remember hearing was James Blunt piped in via Muzak. My orange-peel chicken tasted fine, but eating there mostly just depresses me (and that’s not just because I’m breaking my policy against patronizing business with pun names).

There aren’t a lot of opportunities to catch a decent show without heading to San Francisco. After the original Capitol Garage closed, those opportunities shrank even further.

Some enterprising locals opened Junta recently, giving downtown Sacramento a live all-ages music venue once again.

Thanks to its location directly in the middle of Stabbin’ Country, it’s a safe bet the venue won’t get displaced in favor of another upmarket douche zone anytime soon. I just hope it gets a chance to succeed. The kids deserve their rock.

2 Comments »

I remember that Rilo Kiley/whatshisname show. Hm. That is really fucking depressing about CG. Was there even some grand community effort to save it?

Comment by Alyssa
March 2, 2006 @ 12:15 pm
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It was Daniel Brummel. I totally remember that show.

Comment by Kevin Liu
April 19, 2006 @ 1:28 pm
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