Cover Photo Credit: Rob Wallace
After nearly three decades, the legendary Chain Reaction has shut its doors. Located in Anaheim, California, the 250-person venue was once the center of the Orange County independent music scene. The venue became a stop for many of the biggest acts in punk, hardcore, ska, and emo. It also provided a space for kids to form lasting friendships, cultivate a sense of community, and watch some amazing shows at a time when punk rock was still viewed as childish and a nuisance.
Opening in 1996, the legendary venue started as the Public Storage Coffee Lounge, offering an alcohol-free place for teens to hang out and see bands at a time when most venues were 21 and over. Eventually, it changed its name to Chain Reaction but kept its commitment to being a space for all-ages shows catering to its young patrons. It was a welcoming place for all who were finding themselves in genres of music with no clue where to start.
As people posted their own eulogies about Chain Reaction to their social media, a good number of them shared flyers from older shows. Those lineups ranged from bands who became titans in punk, ska, hardcore, and emo. Chain Reaction was a stop for bands like the Ataris, Fall Out Boy, Rise Against, and Avenged Sevenfold. You’d only need to look at the band shirts stapled to the venue’s walls to know who had made their way through Chain Reaction.
There are stories of bands like Yellowcard signing a record deal in the parking lot after playing a set. While bands like Paramore and My Chemical Romance gained some of their earliest supporters and fans from playing shows in the small room. It wasn’t unusual to see stalwarts of the scene play shows with these bigger up-and-coming acts. Bands like Longfellow, Rx Bandits, and Home Grown are just as integral to Chain Reaction’s legacy as the bigger acts.
A good number of live albums were recorded, too. Bands like New Found Glory recorded their Kill It Live album in 2013, where guitarist Chad Gilbert had collapsed on stage after being shocked by the faulty wiring in his microphone. Chain Reaction was where hardcore band Death by Stereo recorded their live album, Death Alive, in 2007. A couple of years before that, Death by Stereo guitarist Paul Miner did the sound for Boston, MA’s Bury Your Dead’s Alive album. Strung Out‘s contribution to Fat Wreck Chords’ Live in a Dive series was also recorded there. Each of these records documents the many different types of bands that came through the venue.
In 2016, the venue put together a festival to celebrate its twentieth anniversary, the appropriately named Chain Fest. While this wouldn’t be held at the venue itself and would take place at the Observatory Grounds up the road a bit in Costa Mesa, the spirit of the venue was still there. Booking a slew of acts from all sorts of genres and eras of the club, like Underoath, MxPx, and Coheed and Cambria, the festival brought together generations of performers and fans alike to celebrate the importance of Chain Reaction.
There were plans for another Chain Fest in 2020, but due to the COVID-19 outbreak, those plans were nixed for obvious health concerns. Given that a venue only survives when it’s putting on shows, we came close to losing one of Orange County’s oldest institutions. Owners Andy Serrao and Kevin O’Connell put much of their own money into saving the venue. However, bands like Terror and Knocked Loose, along with independent brands like Violent Gentlemen and BlackCraft Cult, made limited Chain Reaction merchandise to help keep the lights on with hopes that shows could resume after restrictions had been lifted.
However, the little venue that was a staple for many inside and outside Orange County announced that it would be shutting down at the end of December. Final shows were announced at the last minute despite rumblings of the club’s shuttering for the month leading up to the announcement. While owners cite the usual reasons for ending Chain Reaction’s tenure in the scene: economic and operational pressures in a post-pandemic environment, there’s still a feeling that this is the owners’ diplomatic way to appease the city of Anaheim.
After Chain Reaction announced its closure on its social media pages, the City of Anaheim piggybacked and made a post on theirs. While many people expressed the same sentiments and mourned another portion of their childhood dying, a decent number of people pushed back due to rumors that the lot Chain Reaction sits on will become affordable housing. Yet, it only takes a drive down Lincoln Avenue to confirm that assumption as fact: the building of housing, that is, not the affordability of it.
On a personal level, Chain Reaction was the first punk rock club I had gone to in my late teens. I ditched a college class with some friends to see the band Audio Karate headline a set. The night out was an attempt to set me up with a friend of a friend. While that relationship didn’t take off, my love for live music did. It put me on a path to lose myself in a genre and a good portion of my hearing in the process.
I saw many bands in that building, from the power-pop sounds of Ozma and Nerf Herder to local punk rock bands like Bullet ‘n’ Octane and Up Syndrome. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen Kris Roe bring The Ataris to Chain Reaction, but I also experienced the greatness that is Peelander Z for the first time, as they performed their set to a crowd of confused kids in such a tiny space.
As I got older and time became much more finite, my trips became less frequent. John Lennon once sang, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” Despite living a stone’s throw away from the venue for the last decade and a half, I just couldn’t make it out. As my kids have gotten older and found their way in music, I have made the pilgrimage twice in the last year: once for my daughter to see Half Past Two in May, and the other time for Homegrown about a month back, a birthday present to myself. Little did I know it would be my last time.
In the last couple of weeks, the venue had set dates for what would be their final shows. A line to purchase tickets for these events reached past the parking lot and almost to the corner of Lincoln and Euclid. I thought about buying a ticket for the show, but felt satisfied knowing my last show there was special for many reasons. The closing of Chain Reaction leaves a few all-ages venues in Orange County. This week, as I attended shows at the Constellation Room and the House of Blues, it gave me the sad realization that there wasn’t a venue like Chain Reaction left in Orange County. If you throw a rock in the surrounding counties, you can find spaces closer to what Chain Reaction cultivated despite the venue’s pioneering ethos as a safe space for kids.
I’ve seen lots of posts online calling Chain Reaction the West Coast’s CBGB’s, but that’s not accurate. While similar in concept, venues like punk bands are unique in their own way. What makes them special is the people that gather there. It’s what makes punk rock great. You can take punk rock and make your own scene. You can grow it, and if you’re lucky, it will be as successful as what Chain Reaction built.
So long, Chain Reaction, and thanks for all the shows.
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