Musician Finds He Needs to Read the Large Print

Checklist for starting your next underground rock music club:

* Central location to both suburban and metro musicians.

* Warehouse-size space with room for plenty of music fans.

* Isolation from neighbors who might grumble about noise.

* An out-of-the-way place that authorities won’t notice.

Oh well, three out of four isn’t bad.

Unless you’re a struggling punk-rock entrepreneur who has spent your young life’s savings setting up an underground club in what turns out to be the middle of the LAPD’s most closely patrolled block.

That is where thrash band guitarist Damien Talmadge found himself when he tried to discreetly open a performance hall for heavy metal enthusiasts in the center of the San Fernando Valley.

By accident, he rented part of an industrial building on Blythe Street in Panorama City.

For those who don’t know, Blythe Street is the site of the most intensive crackdown on gangs and drug dealing in city history.

Talmadge didn’t know.

Nor did the music fans who flocked by the score to his hall--never realizing that they were in violation of a restrictive 8 p.m. police curfew.

“I had no idea about the police activity around here,” said Talmadge, 22, of Chatsworth.

Blythe Street has been a police magnet since the early 1980s. That is when gang members began openly selling rock cocaine from its sidewalks and terrorizing residents of apartments that line the block west of Van Nuys Boulevard.

By the early 1990s, things were so bad that a platoon of burly private security guards hired by Blythe Street property owners lasted about a month before being chased off by gun-wielding hoodlums. Gunfire on the street became so common that the city installed bullet-resistant shields on the block’s 30 street lights to keep them from being shot out nightly.

The slaying of a well-liked Blythe Street landlord by gang members in 1992 helped spark the street’s turnaround.

Police added a pair of two-officer foot patrols to the neighborhood, and the city attorney’s office filed Superior Court injunctions that banned gang members’ use of such things as cellular phones and tools that could be used for car-stripping. A $7.5-million affordable housing project financed in part by the city was built; it included space for a police drop-in substation.

The injunctions also created an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew along Blythe Street for nonresidents.

But Talmadge never noticed the curfew signs posted at the entrance to the block when he leased the former machine shop space in January for $575 a month.

His plan was to turn it into a Valley-area venue for bands that play so-called “grind core”--an ear-splitting, high-speed blend of heavy metal and punk rock. Such bands often have difficulty getting booked in established Los Angeles music clubs.

The Blythe Street shows were free to bands and music fans--although audiences were encouraged to donate a few dollars or canned food or used clothing that could be distributed to the poor.

Musicians helped install sound-proofing insulation to muffle noise. Signs announcing the club’s “no alcohol, no drugs, no egos” policy were posted.

So Talmadge was surprised when crowds arriving for the club’s weekend evening shows were followed closely by police.

“The cops made the remark that they would never have known we were here if they hadn’t seen all the people,” Talmadge said.

“They said if everybody stayed inside and didn’t drink, it was OK. I thought they were implying that, well, we should just stay out of sight. I didn’t know there was any legality behind it.”

Talmadge said he tried to keep audiences inside during the shows. But on May 1 members of one band lingered outside the industrial building chatting with fans after their music set ended.

Police arrived with a fire inspector in tow, according to several of the 75 people who were present that night. The fire official informed Talmadge that the building could only be occupied by 13 people at a time.

So now Talmadge is looking for a new place to rent.

And this time he’s got a checklist.