The Majestic Ventura Theater

First Times: Discovering what makes The Ventura Theater ‘majestic’ with DIIV closing their California tour in the wake of the Eaton Fire

February 28, 2025 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

DIIV with Kraus //
The Ventura Theater – Ventura, CA
February 24th, 2025 //

With the way the music industry has changed over the past two decades, it’s no secret that live music venues all around the world remain the lifeblood for most artists and musicians to survive in the ever-challenging streaming era.

Unfortunately the long-lasting economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to put many of these sacred spaces at risk, which is another reason, among others, why it’s essential to support live music when touring costs have spiked and so much of life is spent behind a screen now.

But for as many concerts as I attend due in large part to the “work” that ends up being published here on this website, it’s not very often I get to take in one at a music venue I have never been to before. Visiting different rooms — whether it’s a small club or large arena — has always been part of the fun that comes with going to shows and became even more of a personal interest when I took up writing about music.

More specifically, I have always been fascinated by historic theaters and growing up in an entertainment capital like Los Angeles certainly exposed me to a number of them — from Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA to the Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. — as well as the plethora of other options spread out across the Southland.

More than 65 miles north of LA though, The Ventura Theater is one that has been on my radar for quite a while. As the only luxury theater built in Ventura County to fit the style of the great movie palaces from the 1920s, you won’t find architecture like this anymore at a modern music venue. Designed back when architects such as Lewis Arthur Smith were influenced by the Spanish Colonial Revival movement while they developed these establishments for a burgeoning motion-picture business, its triple-arched balcony that’s recessed and divided by double Corinthian columns provides a strong indication the building was constructed a long time ago.

How long ago you ask? Well, don’t let the rather unassuming façade below the marquee fool you. At first glance you might not think the 1,200-person theater could be celebrating its centennial birthday in 2028, but once you walk past the main foyer, you can immediately understand why it proclaims to be “the best venue between LA and San Francisco” even if the Santa Barbara Bowl would rightfully have something to say about that.

What makes The Majestic Ventura Theater, as its more commonly referred to, so special is what stands out right away: the Spanish Mission style art, gilt-laden walls, intricate lighting fixtures and of course the handmade sunburst chandelier that burns bright during intermissions and accentuates the auditorium’s lavish opulence. Meanwhile, the funky, wide-reaching murals of rainbows, flowers, music and sunshine as you head upstairs to the balcony section transport you to the 60’s when the counterculture started to gain momentum. As one of the defining structures in Ventura’s downtown district, it’s no surprise nearly 50 years have passed since the elegant theater was declared a landmark by the city before later being added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Regardless of the fact that Ventura remains better known for its beaches and craft beer than any sort of live music scene at this point, there’s no question the Majestic has maintained a rich and vibrant history dedicated to showcasing all genres. And after almost 100 years, it continues to book shows throughout the calendar year featuring a wide variety of talent that don’t venture for the smaller Ventura Music Hall we checked out less than two months after officially opening its doors in 2022 to watch Royal Blood do their thing (read our show review here).

For us, it took an act that we just covered in June at one of LA’s most renowned theaters to convince us the moment had come for our initial trip to the Majestic. Seven months earlier DIIV made us feel hopeful at The Wiltern that there’s a future for indie rock (read our show review here), and something about The Ventura Theater’s tiered layout reminded us of the Art Deco beauty in Koreatown despite being finished three years prior. But sadly Zachary Cole Smith (lead vocals, guitar) and his sideways — one of which being the always animated, yet currently sedentary Andrew Bailey (guitar) due to a recent injury along with Colin Caulfield (bass, keyboards, guitar, vocals) and Ben Newman (drums) — have had more on their minds recently than solely music after the Eaton Fire destroyed Smith’s house in Altadena and a bunch of the band’s gear.

Somehow tragedy and trauma haven’t stopped the quartet from hitting the road this year in support of 2024’s Frog in Boiling Water however, with the Majestic serving as the fourth and final date of a brief California tour that began in Pomona where another shoegaze outfit captivated us last year thanks to their own brand of distorted guitars and dreamy vocals (read our First Times coverage here).

DIIV may lazily get lumped in with slowdive when you search online for popular shoegaze bands, but their performances have a distinct vibe and tone. On the surface, the crowd leans younger given that they have yet to reach the 15-year mark since Smith created the project as a solo endeavor, and on a deeper level, there’s a consistent stream of sociopolitical commentary that their UK counterparts have strayed away from. Because if you don’t come away with any sense of dystopian despair after seeing DIIV take the stage, then you weren’t paying close enough attention that night.

This also wasn’t the first time we have caught supporting act Kraus after witnessing their opening set at The Wiltern for Explosions in the Sky (read our show review here) and the trio led by Will Kraus (vocals, guitar) did their best to engage those of us who showed up by 8 p.m. with their noisy take on shoegaze. Had it not been a Monday, there might have been more than a few hundred people in attendance when the evening’s main act arrived onstage. In the grand scheme of things, none of that mattered for us. We were there to discover what exactly makes The Ventura Theater “majestic,” and by all accounts, we can say after this latest experience at one of Southern California’s most treasured and storied music venues that mission was accomplished.

Setlist:
In Amber
Like Before You Were Born
Brown Paper Bag
Under the Sun
Sometime
Soul-net
Frog in Boiling Water
Take Your Time
Taker
Everyone Out
Reflected
Somber the Drums
Between Tides
Blankenship
Acheron
Raining on Your Pillow

Encore:
Raining on Your Pillow
Horsehead
Doused

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, First Times, Show Experience Tagged With: DIIV, Eaton Fire, Explosions in the Sky, Hollywood Pantages Theatre, Kraus, Pantages Theatre, Royal Blood, Royce Hall, Santa Barbara Bowl, The Majestic Ventura Theater, The Mayan, The Pantages, The Regent Theater, The Regent Theater DTLA, The Ventura Theater, The Wiltern, Ventura Music Hall

First Times: Leaping head first into slowdive’s dreamy shoegaze at a sold-out Fox Theater Pomona

April 29, 2024 by Josh Herwitt 5 Comments

By Josh Herwitt //

slowdive with Drab Majesty //
Fox Theater Pomona – Pomona, CA
April 26th, 2024 //

When you live in a city as big as Los Angeles, it’s not everyday that you find yourself hopping on the 60 Freeway and embarking out to the county’s eastern edge for an evening of live music in Pomona.

But nearly 10 years after making the 45-mile trek on a weeknight to catch The Kills at The Glass House (read our show review here), I still found a good reason to do it again and endeavor trying to beat rush-hour traffic on a Friday in LA (pro tip: it takes a lot of patience).

P-Town, as the locals call it, is Goldenvoice CEO Paul Tollett’s backyard after all. It’s where he grew up and co-founded The Glass House with his brother Perry before teaming up with Goldenovice co-owner Rick Van Santen to conceive the $100 million idea that Coachella would eventually become almost two decades later.

But it was in 2007 when Tollett partnered with Ed and Jerry Tessier to purchase the historic Fox Theater Pomona, a fully restored Art Deco movie palace that remains one of the Pomona Arts Colony’s flagship attractions more than 90 years after opening. Constructed in the classic “Hollywood Style” and used by movie studios around Tinseltown to host sneak previews of their upcoming films, the building received $10 million’s worth of renovations when the Tessier family took control and restored it into a state-of-art music venue for audiences as large as 2,000.

With a capacity of that size, the Pomona Fox Theater can attract some top-notch acts every year and Tollett has seized the moment each April since 2012 by booking some big Coachella sideshows there, from Bon Iver and Modest Mouse to Blur and Jungle most recently. Yet, after all these years covering live music, it was English rockers slowdive who finally convinced me to head east again for my first trip to the Fox — and I’m glad that I didn’t miss it after being out of town during their two LA headline shows at The Bellwether in October.

slowdive, believe it or not, have been around for more than three decades at this point. The five-piece out of Reading was formed back in 1989 by primary songwriter Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell but has remained intact despite a hiatus that lasted almost 20 years.

And with the group’s label parting ways after its first three studio albums were released by the mid-90’s, it wasn’t until 2017 a few years after reuniting when slowdive dropped their self-titled LP that captivated a whole new swath of fans, who quickly jumped on the bandwagon upon hearing dreamy cuts “Slomo”, “Star Roving”, “Sugar for the Pill” and our personal favorite, “No Longer Making Time” toward the end of the eight-track effort.

I will be perfectly honest and admit that I have not always been the biggest fan of shoegaze. The alt/indie-rock sub-genre that had exploded out of Ireland and the UK in the late 80’s when I was a youngster had escaped me amidst the hair-metal scene and subsequent tidal wave of grunge rock during the early 90’s that my older brother turned me onto. I had completely missed the boat on My Bloody Valentine until much later on and never found myself diving into RIDE or Lush, which left me largely unaware of the movement that has paved the way for more recent acts, including DIIV, Hotline TNT, bdrmm and even Silversun Pickups (Pitchfork actually published a piece on shoegaze’s revival prior to the end of last year, citing slowdive’s “phoenix-like rise from the ashes in recent years” here).

Back inside the Fox where a capacity crowd eagerly awaited their arrival onstage, Goswell (vocals, guitar, keyboards, tambourine), Halstead (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Nick Chaplin (bass), Christian Savill (guitar) and Simon Scott (drums) made their presence known just after 9 p.m. with the opening track to their fifth full length Everything Is Alive that arrived in September via Dead Oceans. But it was older material such as the ensuing “She Calls” from the band’s 1992 compilation Blue Day that caught us by surprise as the constant wash of guitar distortion and echoing vocals put us in a trance-like state for the remainder of slowdive’s 90-minute performance.

If there was anything from the show we could nitpick, it was probably that we didn’t get to hear “Slomo” after it was played a day earlier at The Majestic Ventura Theater, and while we had considered heading north for that date instead, our first time seeing slowdive was far from underwhelming. “Souvlaki Space Station” followed by “kisses” served as one highlight, while an encore beginning with what has become their most popular hit “Sugar for the Pill” and a cover of Syd Barrett’s “Golden Hair” that understandably felt psychedelic in its nature provided a euphoric ending for the long drive home. slowdive might not be the loud rock ‘n’ roll concert you are looking for, but there’s no question — effects pedals and all — that they have carved out quite the following since their reformation. Because with the way things have been trending for them of late, we sure hope they don’t slow (no pun intended) down anytime soon.

Setlist:
shanty
She Calls (started, and abruptly stopped by Rachel, then played in its entirety)
Star Roving
Catch the Breeze
Avalyn
skin in the game
Crazy for You
chained to a cloud
Souvlaki Space Station
kisses
Alison
When the Sun Hits
40 Days

Encore:
Sugar for the Pill
Golden Hair (Syd Barrett cover)

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, First Times, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: bdrmm, Blur, Blushh, Bon Iver, Coachella, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella sideshows, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, DIIV, Drab Majesty, Fox Theater Pomona, Goldenvoice, Hotline TNT, Jungle, Modest Mouse, My Bloody Valentine, Pink Floyd, Ride, Silversun Pickups, Slowdive, Syd Barrett, The Bellwether, The Glass House, The Majestic Ventura Theater

Royal Blood make a pit stop at brand-new Ventura Music Hall on their ‘Typhoons’ tour to remind us rock ‘n’ roll is still alive & well

May 11, 2022 by Josh Herwitt 3 Comments

By Josh Herwitt //

Royal Blood with cleopatrick //
Ventura Music Hall – Ventura, CA
May 4th, 2022 //

If you’re one of those people who thinks rock ‘n’ roll is on its way out, then you probably haven’t heard of Royal Blood before.

The English alt-rock duo comprised of Mike Kerr (lead vocals, bass, keyboards, piano, guitar) and sidekick Ben Thatcher (drums, percussion, piano) has been growing its fan base far outside the UK since forming more than a decade ago, so much so the two Brits have found themselves headlining larger venues “in the states” with each passing tour.

But the smallest room on Royal Blood’s 26-date North American trek that included five shows up and down California is no doubt the brand-new Ventura Music Hall, which hopes to be a legitimate pit stop for bands traveling from the Bay Area to Los Angeles and vice versa.

Opening its doors for the first time less than two months ago, the 635-person club has already hosted several notable acts across a range of genres — from the world sounds of Thievery Corporation to the punk rock of Flogging Molly and Bob Mould to the synthpop of Gary Numan and Hot Chip — while the addition of Royal Blood should only help build its credibility as one of the few spots to catch live music along the Central Coast. At half the size of the Ventura Theater, it offers a more intimate setting despite being mostly standing room with food available via local pop-up Ruff House BBQ and a massive ceiling fan to create a strong ventilation system (because we’re still in the midst of a global pandemic).

Ventura, furthermore, has been primed to have a new space for a while now. Home to outdoor clothing retailer Patagonia as well as a handful of top-notch craft breweries an hour north of LA and 30 minutes south of Santa Barbara, the once-sleepy beach town is often overlooked and could be something more than its past as other entertainment and dining options are introduced and established over time.

Much of the same can be said for Royal Blood after they last performed stateside in 2018. Since then, they’ve managed to reinvent some of that big, bombastic sound we first heard them unleash on 2014’s self-titled debut LP and 2018’s How Did We Get So Dark? by churning out even catchier melodies and dance-forward backbeats for their third studio effort Typhoons, which dropped more than a year ago to predominantly favorable reviews.

There might be no better track on Typhoons that manifests the sonic evolution of Royal Blood than its disco-flavored lead single “Trouble’s Coming”, and considering that it was the first song written for the album based on what Kerr has said in interviews, I would be surprised if it doesn’t become a staple at the band’s shows in the future.

On this night and this tour, we were treated to a performance from Kerr and Thatcher that spanned all three of their full lengths and more. There was “Typhoons” fittingly to open and “Boilermaker” to follow, the latter of which being the Josh Homme-produced track that you could argue is one of Royal Blood’s most electrifying songs right now (I did after naming it my favorite song of 2021). It has a similar energy to “Lights Out” and that might be why the first single — and one of the real standouts — off HDWGSD? came right after in the setlist.

Multiple deep cuts such as “Hook, Line & Sinker”, “Blood Hands” and “Loose Change” were also played, but hearing Royal Blood’s newest single “Honeybrains” that they uncovered right before hitting the road this spring was particularly praiseworthy for a group that has moved beyond a bass guitar and drums to incorporate more keyboards in their latest studio material. If it wasn’t evident to the crowd quite yet, Kerr made it upon his return to the stage after a short set break, as he took a seat at the piano and belted out the Typhoons finale “All We Have Is Now” to kickstart a furious, three-song encore that ended with Royal Blood cuts “Ten Tonne Skeleton” and “Out of the Black” sending us home after 90 minutes of ear-rattling and headbanging euphoria.

What has always amazed me about Royal Blood is how full their music sounds despite only having two permanent members who would serve as most bands’ rhythm section. And although you would have to think that Kerr and Thatcher will eventually explore adding other instrumentation — if not more full-time staff with Darren James brought on last year to be their touring keyboardist — into the fold, the 11-track Typhoons has provided them with that step forward. Where they go from here remains anyone’s guess as they help carry the torch for rock ‘n’ roll in 2022, but with another album cycle under their belts soon, those prospects feel just as exciting as where they’ve already been.

Setlist:
Typhoons
Boilermaker
Lights Out
Come on Over
Trouble’s Coming
Hook, Line & Sinker
Honeybrains
Little Monster
How Did We Get So Dark?
Blood Hands
Million and One
Limbo
Loose Change
Figure It Out