The Good Charlotte's sold-out August 1 show at the Wave House indicates the viability of a second music venue at Belmont Park. 'Canes is the other Mission Beach venue capable of hosting national touring artists. But, unlike 'Canes, the Wave House is an all-age venue that is allowed to serve alcohol to those over 21. The House of Blues is the only other music venue in San Diego that is allowed to mix the two.

Although the Wave House has a capacity of 1875, to avoid overcrowding, only 1200 $10 tickets were sold for the Good Charlotte.

"This show really allowed us to get into the loop with talent buyers and agents," says Wave House general manager Ty Hauter. Last year, his beachside venue presented shows by Ziggy Marley and James Blunt and hosted an MTV crew to shoot a TRL segment. This summer, the Wave House has hosted country artist Blake Shelton and American Idol finalist Elliott Yamin. Three other Wave House concerts will be announced next week.

"Next year we want to do ten shows," says Hauter. "But we don't want to do too many more than that because then it gets to be too much."

Although the Wave House hosted Busta Rhymes last year, for business reasons Hauter says there won't be any more hip-hop artists booked "at this time.... It wouldn't be a problem selling tickets, but in the past there wasn't as much food and beverage sales [for hip-hop shows]."

"Yeah, right," says Kemical Ali of Defamation League. "No one ever associates stoner hip-hoppers with buying appetizers.... Besides, how do they define hip-hop? We rap with guitars and drums."

Hauter says plans are underway to expand the Wave House facility from 30,000 to 50,000 square feet. That expansion, to be completed in 2009, will include the construction of a new 700-capacity music venue to accompany the existing outdoor concert area near the artificial wave.