I’d heard about an actual fully active underground Juke Joint in Compton, and I wanted to see it for myself for months. What I really wanted to do was to go find this place and bring my camera along to grab some shots of it. It just seemed like too much effort, and it took me months to do it, but I think the honest reason was that I felt a little stressed about it. I didn’t want to be some asshole white guy who appeared like he didn’t give a shit about the music and what was really going on there, and just wanted to grab some shots for his fucking Instagram account.
Los Angeles stands to drain my batteries, and I need to either get out into nature once in a while, or I need to go to church to recharge my soul… usually meaning a double feature by myself at The New Beverly Cinema or maybe look at some of my favorite paintings at the Getty. A fucking full-on genuine Juke Joint that I thought I’d need to be somewhere in Mississippi to see more than fit the bill.
I got into Compton at night, and parked my car in a residential neighborhood with maybe one street light. I was at the right place, but you’d never know it. I’ll admit, I was a little nervous walking around there at night with my camera in my hand. There really are areas in every major city where you shouldn’t be at night, but I think my anxiety was mostly just a matter of a combination of my unfamiliarity with it all and my own full-speed imagination. I likely saw Menace 2 Society one too many times.
I got there, and I shit you not… it looked like the set of Sanford and Son. I had to walk through what was essentially a junkyard while some old school guys nursing drinks in raggedy lawn chairs stared me down wondering who the fuck I was and what I was doing there.
I got inside and a couple of people asked me what I was doing with my camera. I just told them in complete innocence and honesty that I wanted to see the show and take some photos. I was immediately welcomed into the fold, and even more so when I asked where the bar was. I was pointed to a side room which looked like it was a kitchen and now functioned as sort of the sound room and bar. It had an old glass sliding door refrigerator like you see in convenience stores full of a few different kinds of canned beer, and a woman handed me one when I gave her a few dollar bills, That was it. That was the bar. Fucking glorious.
I went and hung out ands talked with a couple of old guys shooting pool on a table with the felt held together with duct tape while the music kicked in, and was fucking amazing. I had another beer. I snapped off a few shots, and everyone was nothing but cool about it. The best. Here are of few of them too share with you.
My batteries are full.