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Helsott lead singer Eric Dow mourns the passing of Brick by Brick
Band will perform as part of storied venue's final night at Bay Park location
Helsott performing at Brick by Brick
Tomorrow night, August 13, the SoCal metal band Helsott will play Brick by Brick as part of the venue’s Bye Bye Buenos show. The lineup also includes The Undertaking, Blackcast, and Cascade Effect, which started its journey toward winning the 2024 Wacken Metal Battle USA at the storied Bay Park venue.
For Helsott the performer, Brick by Brick’s closing is a painful loss. “It was just one of those perfect venues,” he says. “It was like a dive bar atmosphere, but they had a sound system and lighting rig that most smaller venues didn’t. If you weren’t that big, you could play. You could have a band from Oregon or Texas come and draw 100-200 people, and it would sound good. The drinks would be flowing. Everybody would be having a good time. They would get merch sold without the venue taking a merch cut. It was perfect for them.”
But it was also perfect if you were big. “You’d have these on-the-precipice bands that could sell 500-700 tickets, but they would come to the Brick and sell 400 and it would be packed and rowdy and awesome. Bands like Deicide, Kataclysm, Symphony X. They could have gone to House of Blues, but maybe they wouldn’t have sold it out. But if they went to the Brick, everyone was happy.” At a smaller venue, “a lot of bands might say, ‘Oh, we’re just playing this little bar. We’re just going to show up and have fun.’ But when you got booked for a show at the Brick, you knew you were on your A-game.”
All that talk of tickets gets at the other reason the Brick’s closing hits hard for Dow: he booked a lot of shows there as the USA Rep for the annual international Wacken Metal Battle. “This year, we had over 500 bands submit to play over 40 shows throughout the U.S. Since I’m in California, I run those battles myself. And in San Diego, I always brought it to Brick by Brick. There was no other place for me.” Besides Cascade Effect, the venue also proved the first step for eventual USA winners Monarch (2019), Mythraeum (2022), Fadrait (2023), and Gannondorf (2026).
Dow had seen the signs. “For the last several years, they had been going really strong. It started getting to the point where if you wanted a weekend date, you’d have to book almost a year in advance.” (Dow knew this from experience: besides Wacken, he loved building showcases that included unsigned SoCal metal acts on open nights at the Brick.) “And then this year, I would get there on a Saturday and they wouldn’t have a show booked for 10 days. I asked them what was going on, and the owner said, ‘Abnormality deserves explanation.’ And then didn’t explain anything. It was his way of acknowledging what everybody knew. I was like, ‘Man, I’m gonna keep that line with me.’”
It was while he was in Germany for the Wacken finals in late July that the word of Brick by Brick’s closing started to spread. “People knew about it. I was in Germany having the time of my life, and then just got super bummed out. It’s a huge loss. The day I got home, I got a phone call from one of the owners telling me about it. They had been flying month-to-month on their lease, which is no way for a venue to operate when you have to book shows months in advance. I felt for them. Then they gave my band the opportunity to be the last band to play there, and that’s quite an honor.”
Here's something you might be interested in.
Helsott lead singer Eric Dow mourns the passing of Brick by Brick
Band will perform as part of storied venue's final night at Bay Park location
Helsott lead singer Eric Dow mourns the passing of Brick by Brick
Band will perform as part of storied venue's final night at Bay Park location
Helsott performing at Brick by Brick
Tomorrow night, August 13, the SoCal metal band Helsott will play Brick by Brick as part of the venue’s Bye Bye Buenos show. The lineup also includes The Undertaking, Blackcast, and Cascade Effect, which started its journey toward winning the 2024 Wacken Metal Battle USA at the storied Bay Park venue.
For Helsott the performer, Brick by Brick’s closing is a painful loss. “It was just one of those perfect venues,” he says. “It was like a dive bar atmosphere, but they had a sound system and lighting rig that most smaller venues didn’t. If you weren’t that big, you could play. You could have a band from Oregon or Texas come and draw 100-200 people, and it would sound good. The drinks would be flowing. Everybody would be having a good time. They would get merch sold without the venue taking a merch cut. It was perfect for them.”
But it was also perfect if you were big. “You’d have these on-the-precipice bands that could sell 500-700 tickets, but they would come to the Brick and sell 400 and it would be packed and rowdy and awesome. Bands like Deicide, Kataclysm, Symphony X. They could have gone to House of Blues, but maybe they wouldn’t have sold it out. But if they went to the Brick, everyone was happy.” At a smaller venue, “a lot of bands might say, ‘Oh, we’re just playing this little bar. We’re just going to show up and have fun.’ But when you got booked for a show at the Brick, you knew you were on your A-game.”
All that talk of tickets gets at the other reason the Brick’s closing hits hard for Dow: he booked a lot of shows there as the USA Rep for the annual international Wacken Metal Battle. “This year, we had over 500 bands submit to play over 40 shows throughout the U.S. Since I’m in California, I run those battles myself. And in San Diego, I always brought it to Brick by Brick. There was no other place for me.” Besides Cascade Effect, the venue also proved the first step for eventual USA winners Monarch (2019), Mythraeum (2022), Fadrait (2023), and Gannondorf (2026).
Dow had seen the signs. “For the last several years, they had been going really strong. It started getting to the point where if you wanted a weekend date, you’d have to book almost a year in advance.” (Dow knew this from experience: besides Wacken, he loved building showcases that included unsigned SoCal metal acts on open nights at the Brick.) “And then this year, I would get there on a Saturday and they wouldn’t have a show booked for 10 days. I asked them what was going on, and the owner said, ‘Abnormality deserves explanation.’ And then didn’t explain anything. It was his way of acknowledging what everybody knew. I was like, ‘Man, I’m gonna keep that line with me.’”
It was while he was in Germany for the Wacken finals in late July that the word of Brick by Brick’s closing started to spread. “People knew about it. I was in Germany having the time of my life, and then just got super bummed out. It’s a huge loss. The day I got home, I got a phone call from one of the owners telling me about it. They had been flying month-to-month on their lease, which is no way for a venue to operate when you have to book shows months in advance. I felt for them. Then they gave my band the opportunity to be the last band to play there, and that’s quite an honor.”
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