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Press

Los Angeles Times
Ventura County Weekend
December 21, 1995

ROCKTALK

BY BILL LOCEY
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

They could have named the bar after a more applicable science-fiction movie, but perhaps "Night of the Living Dead" or "Predator" were a bit too close to reality, so "Stargate" it is. Is what? Why, the newest rock 'n' roll venue in the Conejo Valley. Actually, the place was formerly the Red Onion, then Avenues, then Red Onion again. Now it's named after a Kurt Russell movie, and there is a new guy booking the entertainment, Dave Hewitt, formerly of Pelican's Retreat in Calabasas.

Pelican's after 14 years, is history. Most bars go away because no one like them, but according to Hewitt, Pelican's was different. The owner, he said, was getting tired of the place, "but it was doing business," he said. "We had more volume than anyplace from the 405 Freeway to Santa Barbara except for the Sagebrush, which was a much bigger place. Our capacity was 400, and a lot of times, we'd have 800 or 900 people in the place on Thursday, Sunday and Tuesday, which tells you something."

It tells you that Hewitt, a 12½ year veteran of Pelican's with a management degree from Cal State Northridge, must have known what he was doing. Almost every bar does business on Friday and Saturday nights, but the universal bane of most is what to do during the rest of the week.

The Boogie Knights, a retro disco cover band, started about five years ago, and Hewitt gave them Thursday nights and began packing the dancers in by the hundreds. These days, there are five such bands -- the Boogie Knights, Bootie Quake, the Polyester Pimps, Grooveline and Disco Inferno.

Next, Hewitt got a KROQ '80's cover band, usually Vomit or the M-80s to pack 'em in on Sundays and Tuesdays, and reggae band Urban Dread was doing well on Mondays.

"You have to pick something and you have to stick with it," said Hewitt. "You can't expect overnight success. Then after that the weekends were easy, because there were about 10,000 bands in L.A.

Expect more of the same for Stargate, but don't expect to lurk in the dark corner.

"Stargate has a half-million-dollar lighting system, plus they have an intense sound system. So, we're going to start with the Boogie Knights on Thursdays, then have Vomit on Tuesdays, and by springtime, I hope to work Urban Dread into the mix," Hewitt said. "There's not a live venue between the Valley and the Ventura Theatre, so we expect big things."

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