Kim and The Created headlining Save the Smell Fest
Last Saturday, hundreds of music fans crowded into a corner warehouse in Lincoln Heights. It was Save The Smell Fest, a concert featuring 36 bands on three small stages. The day was hot, and smelled of sweat and cigarettes. At times it was so crowded you couldn’t help but step on toes or elbow someone while you tried to slip through the doorway dividing the outdoor stage from the two inside. It was twelve hours of distorted guitar and thunderous drums, guaranteed to leave ears ringing for days after.
Save the Smell Fest was a show to benefit the iconic downtown Los Angeles venue The Smell, which in May received notice that it’s building was scheduled for demolition. The all ages, volunteer run performance space has been a home for punk kids for 18 years and those kids, some now grown, want to help owner Jim Smith open the club in a new location. Three of them, Greg Cole, Chris Gonzalez, and Sophie Negrini, the festival’s organizers, are doing pretty well in that goal. At the end of the night they were able to pledge $15,000 to the cause.
Cole, performing as part of Crescendo.
"It was like June or July and we went live with the event, and instantaneously it went viral. Just the name, 'Save the Smell Fest' it was like, boom. It just hit everybody, hard."
“I think it's because everyone feels so emotional about (The Smell), because everyone has so many memories there. I have a million memories there,” Negrini, 19, said. “When I was 12, I saw my friend's band Kitten play there, and it was like, ‘What is this? I have to do this, this is crazy!’”
Greg Cole, 26, has been putting on festivals and concerts for years, through his organization Dreamgaze Collective. He’d been planning a show for August 6th, but the news about The Smell made him consider cancelling. After talking it over with Smith he decided to make it a benefit show instead. He got in touch with Gonzalez and Negrini, and together they started planning. He admits they didn’t know what they were in for.
“It got out of control, everyone was like, 'this fest is getting crazy' and headliner after headliner kept on getting added to the bill, so we wanted to do the best we could for everybody,” Cole said. “We actually extended it about 6 more hours so everybody could play.”
Gonzalez working the door.
"I've never done an event where I've had so many bands hit me up."
Gonzalez, 28, is a show organizer and the founder of Top Acid, a Santa Ana venue modeled after The Smell. He was quick to join festival planning committee. He says Smith is a personal hero.
"I wouldn't run a DIY venue if I never went to The Smell. When I would tell people about my venue I’d say it's the Santa Ana version of The Smell, except everyone's wasted," Gonzalez said. "That's what I liked about The Smell, it's a sober space, I always admired that ,‘cause man, it's so fucking hard to pull off."
Negrini, fronting Janelane.
"This has been DIY as fuck. I brought my laundry basket for the recycling bin."
A veteran Smell performer, Negrini is the frontwoman of jangly garage pop quartet Janelane. Cole asked her about organizing after she wrote a heartfelt post about the venue’s impending closure on Facebook. She, Cole, and Gonzalez did most of the planning online or over the phone. Negrini and Cole didn’t even meet until they were scouting the venue.
As with all big ventures, Save The Smell Fest came together in the 11th hour. The day before the show, Negrini spent 18 hours preparing the venue, putting up lights, stocking the concessions stand, making it as ready as it could be for the storm of performers and fans that would be coming. She, Cole and Gonzalez were all running on minimal sleep as they alternately sold snacks, worked the door, and helped bands load gear, aided by a volunteer staff of Smell devotees.
The crowd numbered in the hundreds, small enough to recognize faces but big enough to lose yourself in. You might see the person you bumped into on your way to watch Mo Dotti's set playing bass in White Fang later, but that's what punk is all about. Mingling with performers in the audience you realize that it could be you — there's nothing stopping you from Doing It Yourself.
Although light on logistics, the day was still fun. There were only only two port-a-potties to support a crowd in the hundreds, and food appropriate for a late night study session (bottled water, oreos, costco baked goods), it was 12 hours of dedication from those who saw the whole thing. Security patrolled the borders of the venue to ensure fans weren’t loitering in the street, attracting attention from the neighbors. It all added up to heat, sweat, crowding and exhaustion, but it was an experience that at the end of the day, gave reason to smile.
Surf Curse playing with Peter Pants
From the snotty punk of Superlunch (with song titles like “Eat a Dick”), to the shoegaze drone of San Francisco trio Balms, to the soft, indie rock sensibilities of Alyeska, Save the Smell Fest had something to offer everyone.
There was a VCR connected to a projector aimed at the main stage. So Many Wizards played an energetic set in front of old Nickelodeon cartoons, while scenes from Trainspotting, or Beavis and Butthead colored other performances. The walls were lined with tables of band merchandise and the work of local artists. Christmas lights were draped over drumkits, and fans took pictures in front of balloons spelling “SAVE THE SMELL”.
The warehouse festival was across the street from a residential neighborhood, and as the day went on, concerns about disturbing the neighbors grew. By 10 pm, Cole could be seen negotiating with the property owner to get punk quartet Audacity twenty minutes to play before closing the outdoor stage.
The loudest, and certainly the “Smell”-iest band on the bill were noise rock duo No Age, who honed their craft on The Smell’s stage a decade ago, and have since toured around the world. Before their set the crowd watched guitarist Randy Randall assemble a wall of amplifiers through which he would conjure a wall of fuzzy noise.
Dean Allen Spunt of No Age performs in front of a projection of "Wild at Heart".
“Anything for Jim,” drummer Dean Allen Spunt said. “He runs the place professionally, with artists in mind. It exists in it’s own way... If there were no volunteers, there’d be no Smell.”
Smith himself has been surprised by the outpouring of support. There have been numerous independent benefit concerts, there were even two others the same day as Save the Smell Fest.
“I didn't expect it to be as big as it's been, in terms of the outpouring of support,” Smith said. “From day one, when we got the notice, it's just been really incredible, and it seems like it hasn't really died down. You know, I'm really moved, really makes me feel like I have to make this work out, keep it going.”
At the end of it all, it was clear that everyone still standing had a good time. It was all about giving back to the venue that has welcomed so many of them over the years
"Jim opens a place for kids to explore and gets out of the way," attendee Jenn Prince said. "People learn to do sound, book shows, etc. It's been 20 years of kids going through there, not just one generation. It's an important place."
At 32 years old, Prince should know. She's been going to The Smell almost half her life.
