“Black, Hispanic, queer, Asian - it was all identities kind of united just by the ability to hang out somewhere that was all ages, and people were listening to hip-hop to punk to two-tone ska.” “The scene was very diverse, in terms of all the different students and tweens and teens who are converging on the Fireside,” said Alex White, who plays in the band White Mystery and goes by the stage name “Miss Alex White.” Back then, in middle school and high school, White attended shows and performed at the venue. Sorrondeguy had been on tour with his band Los Crudos and tested the waters by coming out as gay on stage at those shows. He finally decided to try it at the Fireside. “There were little ripples that happened afterwards, and people who were a little homophobic didn’t like it.” But overall, “the response was really positive.” It was nerve wracking, but I did it,” he said. ‘When I look at the backs of people’s heads that I see in these photos, those are people that became my friends. I met other girls and exchanged zines with them, and found this community that I became a part of when I moved into the city,’ said photographer Rebar A. Ramirez, a regular at Fireside shows, said things weren’t always peaceful at the venue. Occasionally, skinheads would show up at the Fireside, and they’d have to choose between getting out and getting beaten up. “Someone would come up to me and say, ‘There’s a guy wearing Nazi pins. ![]() He’s gonna get jumped,’ ” remembered Ramirez. ![]() “So I would go to him, like, ‘Hey, listen, this is not a good place for you to be. A lot of people are angry that you’re here. But I didn’t want somebody to get destroyed at the club because they’re an idiot.” I’m gonna give you your money back, but you need to leave.’ Obviously, I wasn’t happy that they’re there. People kept each other safe at the Fireside in other ways. They “self-policed”: people in the scene kept an eye out for potentially dangerous behavior. “We’d go up to someone and say, ‘Hey, you’re way too drunk for this,’ or ‘you’re way too violent for this,’ ” Fireside regular Christopher Gutierrez explained.Ĭourtesy of Christopher GutierrezBut the Fireside’s troubles went beyond complaints from neighbors and visits from police. Starting in the early 90s, the city pushed to seize several buildings on the 2600 block of Fullerton Ave., including the Fireside, using eminent domain. The city wanted to expand Haas Park, located just west of the venue, to create more greenspace. While small improvements to the building were made over time, the constant threat of being shut down by the city disincentivized Lapinski from giving it a proper facelift. According to several people we spoke with for this story, by the early 2000s, the air conditioning had given out, making mosh pits at Fireside extra sweaty. ![]() “It was grimy, it was rundown and it was small,” said Gutierrez of the venue during these years. “It had charm, though.”ĭespite the money coming in, Lapinski said he was getting tired of the risks that came with running a club. Even if he won his battle with the city, he craved a simpler, more predictable day-to-day work schedule that would come with reverting the venue back to a full-time bowling alley. ‘I eventually moved just down the street ,’ said Fireside regular Rebar A.
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