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December
2002 |
© Skate Scene Media . |
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We have received hundreds of emails from people all over to do a look back at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. Allot of the requests came from old school Punkers that live out of state and have wondered if the place was still there and what did it look like now. For you post 80's Punks, the Olympic Auditorium was one of the bitchenest places to see a Punk show. We are not going to try to come off as some kind of "expert" on the Olympic in this piece, just our experience. |
| We saw bands like, The Exploited, U.K. SUBS, Agnostic Front, Dr. Know, Agression, DI, Doggie Style, Youth Brigade, Dead Kennedys, B.G.K. Raw Power, CH3, Reagan Youth, Angelic Upstarts, S.S.D., Wasted Youth, Mad Parade, Uniform Choice, SUBHUMANS, Scream, Bad Religion, Ill Repute, DETOX, D.O.A., Abrasive Wheels, Battalion of Saints, FEAR, Circle Jerks, Social Distortion, T.S.O.L., The Adicts, Blitz, Peter and the Test Tube Babies and Red Scare to give you just a sample of the bands that played there - there were more than what is listed here. Every show had bands that could carry their own show all on one bill. These shows would attract a few thousand with pits that had 300-400 people skanking in them amid a frenzy of stage diving. |
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| Goldenvoice led by Gary Tovar were the promoters of the shows that took place at the Olympic. Goldenvoice is still around today, putting on many killer shows. | ||
| Anyone that went there in the old days remembers the parking deal. You could park under the freeway where it was dark, fights took place, cars would get broken into or your windows busted out. We got wise after dealing with that a few times and decided go first class. We parked across the street from the Olympic in the tire store lot ran by a man named Sporty. For $5.00 and a place to party, it was perfect. |
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If you went to the Olympic back in the day you will remember Sporty who was a former boxer that ran the parking lot at the tire store that bordered on the Burger King lot. The photo we show here has taken in 1984 and we told Sporty that night that we would look at this photo 20 years down the road and remember how cool he was to us. We would back our car into the parking spot there for 2 reasons, first was so that we could party out of the trunk without causing a scene, and secondly-the most important, so that the car would be heading straight so we could get the hell out of there through the driveway at the other end if a major riot or hassle with cops went down. |
 Main corner |
 Down the street |
 Front door |
 Alley |
| I wish we had some pictures of the inside of the place with a show going on, if any has some, let us know. The outside of the old building was recently refurbished, so the outside may look newer than you remember it. The architecture of the building remains the same as it was 20 years ago. |
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The one day we went there we snuck into a side door and walked around inside. The day we were there they were setting up for a very non-Punk show. The two skaters with us were tripping that they were inside the place where some of the best shows LA had seen went down ......... what and old school field trip. |
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Here are a sample of what the flyers for The Olympic shows looked like. We had no slick computer generated flyers back then, just cut and pasted or hand drawn artwork. |
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For you Punkers out there that have heard about this place as you trace your old school Punk roots, this will give you a picture of the place to put with the story. As for you OG Punkers out there that saved your lunch money for the $6.00 tickets you would buy at Peer Records back in the day, I hope that we have satisfied all your requests for a look back at this place that we spent so many good times at. The good times are still rolling today, so get out to a show soon and dive off a stage for old times sake. |
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