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Two California bands turned cellmates this weekend after both groups were arrested for putting on two separate guerrilla shows outside the Vans Warped Tour in Downtown Long Beach.<\/p>\n
San Francisco-based Hemorage<\/a> and Idle Worship<\/a>, a local Long Beach punk band, were picked up Saturday night after Long Beach police put on a massive show of force that saw more than a dozen law enforcement vehicles converging on the bands\u2019 makeshift performances.<\/p>\n For decades, it has been a time-honored tradition for smaller acts to play outside of music festivals they otherwise would not be able to play. When Warped Tour was still a tour, bands would regularly follow it around the country, selling CDs to festival-goers in line and playing to people in the parking lot.<\/p>\n Hemorage, which is known for traveling the country and playing outside festivals and major concerts in the back of buses and trucks, was playing out of a U-Haul parked at G & M Food Mart, a gas station on the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Alamitos Avenue \u2014 a busy intersection, especially given the tens of thousands of music fans attending Warped.<\/p>\n According to Long Beach Police Department spokesperson Andrea Moran, the department increased its presence inside and outside the music festival and came across the \u201cunpermitted\u201d events while patrolling the area around 10:38 p.m.<\/p>\n \u201cUnpermitted events can create public safety concerns and contribute to traffic congestion and other disruptions,\u201d Moran said. The bands, for their part, noted that the large number of police vehicles did more to back up traffic than their performances did.<\/p>\n Two songs into its performance, Hemorage \u2014 a three piece thrash and punk band \u2014 was stopped and detained by LBPD officers, according to Jon Orc who fronts the band. Orc and his bandmates, guitarist Toby Pak and drummer Ron Roussell, were cuffed and placed in the back of squad cars as the crowd of dozens of people were dispersed as they booed police, video shows.<\/p>\n Run-ins with the police are not new for Hemorage. The band has been setting up outside of music festivals since the final full Warped Tour in 2018. That year, the band played outside the California dates in Pomona, Ventura and Mountain View. Since then, the trio has traversed the country playing outside festivals, including Louder Than Life in Louisville, Aftershock in Sacramento and the Gathering of the Juggalos in the midwest, among others.<\/p>\n This is, however, the first time the group has actually been arrested, Orc said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe usually just get a ticket or a slap on the wrist,\u201d Orc told the Watchdog Monday, adding that about 30% of their guerrilla shows are stopped by law enforcement.<\/p>\n Video posted to social media by multiple accounts shows at least 13 police vehicles at the gas station to arrest the three band members.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re were just like, \u2018Oh shit,\u2019\u201d Orc said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t scared, we just were surprised by how many [cops] were there.\u201d<\/p>\n Each band member was booked for \u201cpublic disturbance and operating without the required permits,\u201d according to the LBPD.<\/p>\n Orc said the band\u2019s equipment and U-Haul were impounded. He said the property was not released when the members were and they will have to travel back down from the Bay Area next week to retrieve their belongings.<\/p>\n The band has a court date scheduled for next month.<\/p>\n Minutes after Hemorage was arrested police found their way over to the former Solita restaurant space on the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Pine Avenue where another band had set up on the sidewalk: punk rockers and Long Beach locals Idle Worship.<\/p>\n In an interview with the Watchdog Tuesday, the band members said they made it about five songs into their set before being shut down by police. They joked that Hemorage kept the cops busy, allowing them to get through more songs.<\/p>\n While Hemorage has been a band for over a decade, forming when members were in high school, Idle Worship only got together at the beginning of this year. But the members \u2014 bassist Luca Carnevale, guitarist Marco Jimenez, frontman Will Murphy and drummer Carl Ward \u2014 have known each other for years, having met while attending college in San Luis Obispo.<\/p>\n Online the band half-jokingly said the cops must have just been mad that they were singing about police brutality. Murphy told the Watchdog that every member of the band is a \u201cstaunch anti-fascist,\u201d noting that the group\u2019s lyrics cover social issues such as ICE and policing to personal struggles with addiction.<\/p>\n \u201cPointing out injustices and unfair power structures in society, that\u2019s the general theme throughout most of the stuff we write,\u201d Ward said.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcf8<\/p>\n Brandon Richardson is an editor, photographer and reporter for the Watchdog. If this work is important to you, please thank him.<\/p>\n When the police rolled up on the band \u2014 Murphy wearing a \u201cFuck ICE\u201d shirt and Jimenez in his “Chinga la migra” vest \u2014 there were about 40 people watching the performance, according to the band.<\/p>\n Like Hemorage, the quartet was booked for public disturbance and operating without a permit, according to the LBPD. Idle Worship also has a court date set next month.<\/p>\n The punk group said the local music scene is hard to settle into, and that at this point they will play anywhere they think people will gather \u2014 sidewalks included. Just before their illegal street show, the group jammed out at El Dorado Skatepark.<\/p>\n \u201cI just feel like there’s no way to concentrate all the freaks, the weirdos, the punks who just want to go out and have fun,\u201d Jimenez said. \u201cI feel like [the scene] is just so scattered and there’s no centralized third place for those who need an outlet.\u201d<\/p>\n The bandmates all agreed that the show of force by police seemed excessive. They said there was no discussion, police walked straight up to them and told them to put their hands behind their backs. The arresting officers told the band they normally wouldn\u2019t be arrested but that their superiors wanted to \u201cmake an example\u201d out of both bands to deter others, they said.<\/p>\n When asked about those remarks, the department did not respond directly, but rather said officers \u201ctook enforcement action as appropriate\u201d based on the circumstances.<\/p>\n Jimenez said the arrest made him \u201cangry that they were so hell bent on arresting two bands,\u201d rather than actual criminals. \u201cIt was absurd. There were at least 11 police vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s never ideal to spend a night in jail,\u201d Carnevale said, \u201chowever, as far as nights in jail go, it was pretty tame and mild. We were all together, which was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Carnevale said they played a game and talked a lot \u2014 both amongst themselves and with others in the cell. They did not get much sleep, however, because the lights were never turned off and the TV was blaring all night, they said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can see how everything there is designed to torture and humiliate people,\u201d Carnevale said. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to hear about it or read about it or watch a video, but the experience… it was a really interesting experience.\u201d<\/p>\n The impacts of the arrests were worse for friends and family on the outside, Murphy said, because the band members were not able to tell them where they were. He likened the experience as the briefest taste of what family members and friends of people detained by ICE must go through not knowing where their loved ones have been disappeared to.<\/p>\n One of the strangest aspects for the band was to hear officers making jokes and chatting like it was just a normal day at a normal job, which, to them, it was.<\/p>\n \u201cFor everyone else there, it\u2019s like the worst day of their life,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n The experience is sure to be channeled into the band\u2019s music, Carnevale said, noting that it reaffirmed a lot of their opinions and filled in gaps and details.<\/p>\n \u201cIt gives you more to think about, more to talk about, more ways to describe things,\u201d Carnevale said. \u201cFrom an artistic standpoint, it gives you more colors, more brushes I can use to communicate my feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n This weekend was not the first time LBPD has arrested a band outside of Warped Tour. Last year, Venice Beach-based Who Cares set up on top of a van on Pine Avenue and played to hundreds. They were arrested<\/a>, spent a night in a jail and were rewarded with an official set inside the festival<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n Idle Worship said they have their fingers crossed for a break like that next year. In the meantime, they already have one small silver lining: art for their forthcoming, yet-to-be-named EP.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just got the best album cover we could have ever wanted; put our mugshots on it,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cThat would be cool.\u201d<\/p>\n We need your support.<\/p>\n Subcribe to the Watchdog today.<\/p>\n The Long Beach Watchdog is owned by journalists, and paid for by readers like you. If independent, local reporting like the story you just read is important to you, support our work by becoming a subscriber.<\/p>\n