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Every couple of weeks, Erik Himmelsbach sends in a Valley Boy column to CityBeat. In the paper out today, he hangs out on a rainy night at Paladino's in Reseda, a club he calls ground zero for rock tribute bands.
Like many of the dude persuasion milling about, Mike’s got that Valley rocker frozen-in-1979 appearance: A freak flag of hair, fu manchu above the lip, shades atop the head, faded jeans, leather jacket...Paladino’s does book original bands, but it’s the tributes that pay the rent. The club’s tucked into a funky L-shaped retail corner in a bleak pocket of Reseda that’s like an industrial-nightmare flashback from Repo Man. Its neighbors are body shops, a cigarette retailer, the Frisky Kitty strip club, and a coin laundry.
[snip]
Sandy Landis works the door at Paladino’s, and remembers a time when the Valley did support original bands. She’s the daughter-in-law of the late Chuck Landis, who opened the Country Club in Reseda in 1979. Back then, local and national bands were plentiful at clubs like the Palomino in North Hollywood and the Bla Bla Café in Studio City.
Himmselsbach meets a woman who plays Stevie Nicks in a Fleetwood Mac tribute band. In real life, she's a waitress at Dr. Hogly Wogly’s Tyler Texas Barbecue on Sepulveda.