Mayhem at Every Show

"He looked like a Tijuana skinhead," says Allen Camp, the soundman who worked June 18's all-day show at Heartland Masonic Lodge in El Cajon. Camp describes the primary assailant who led the charge to beat a patron. "There were three or four guys who jumped a guy, punched him, knocked him down, and started kicking him."

Camp estimates 300 people paid $12 to see U.S. Bombs, the Ignorant, Orange, Born to Lose, Media Blitz, Tim Raldo and the Filthy Fucks, Dreaded Solution, and the Jakked Rabbits. The beating occurred shortly after 9 p.m., when the last band, U.S. Bombs, was onstage.

"The U.S. Bombs weren't being cooperative at all," says Camp. "We told them to quit playing, that we had to get the crowd out of the building, but they wouldn't quit.... [Security was] nowhere to be found. We had to become the security."

Promoter Willie Carter says he'd hired security until 9 p.m., when the show was supposed to end. Though Carter has presented about 15 shows at Heartland Masonic Lodge, he won't host any more of what he calls "gutter punk" bands in San Diego.

"[At the Masonic Lodge,] someone smashed the mirror in the girls' bathroom and one of those porcelain china dolls in the lobby.... It's just way too much of a liability. I'll still do shows, just not any underground punk.... There is mayhem at every show. And it's not that bad in other cities. People in San Diego just don't get it. I heard rumors that some bands skip San Diego entirely."

Other punk shows put on by Carter have included one at Brengle Terrace Park in Vista ("The cops came with mace" after reports of vandalism) and at the now-closed Hindquarter restaurant.

"The owner [of the Hindquarter] said to me, 'No more punk shows.' Then, the next promoter came in and the same thing happened to him. The bathrooms were destroyed again; there were more holes in the wall."

About the victim of the recent attack, Carter says he was helped by his friends. "It looked like part of his head was split open. Police were called to the scene, but no arrests were made."