Julie Rose and Zoë Bernard
What began as one open mic night has evolved into a budding 
promotions enterprise for these college students. In just six months they’ve staged some 20 Canvas Cafe, Rejavanate, Crown Electric Tattoo Company and house shows, and that sounds like just a start. “We’re trying to grow it and do bigger shows with more people involved,” Rose (above left) says. “We’re always looking for new venues.” Don’t count on them tackling the bars, though; they only do all-ages events. “A lot of times I can’t go to things depending where they are,” Rose explains. “So I figured, if it sucks for me there must be a lot of kids who can’t hear the music they like, either.”
–Spencer Patterson
Joe Garcia-Miranda
The Beauty Bar wasn’t designed for live performances, which means this ex-New Yorker—the club’s one-man sound team—faces a challenge every night. And that’s just how he likes it. “Due to lack of space, I have to take apart and put back together the sound system every day,” says Garcia-Miranda, who has presided over shows from the likes of Justice, Eagles of Death Metal and Supersuckers. “Our new PA makes my life so much easier. It used to be, how far can I push it before it explodes? But it never did.” –SP
Missy Gradel
Gradel spent her teenage years riding CAT buses down to the Huntridge Theatre. The Bunkhouse bartender doesn’t have to travel quite so far to hear live music these days. “I’ve been bartending for five years, and this is the first place I’ve worked with live music,” says the Downtown pub’s Friday, Saturday and Sunday night mainstay. “I love working here. It’s never boring, and I get into all the shows for free.” What impression has the local scene made? Gradel recently tapped the Yeller Bellies, A Crowd of Small Adventures and Holding on to Sound to play her 26th birthday party. –SP
Szandora LaVey
Szandora LaVey is multitalented. “I can drink and hula-hoop,” she says. “I can lasso the hula hoop over my head, and I can go on my knees like Elvis and hula-hoop.” Arriving on the scene as a stage performer for local surf-rock outfit Thee Swank Bastards, LaVey has expanded her reach to include Monday and Wednesday nights at the Double Down, where she gyrates to music with nothing more than pasties above her twirling hoopline. “I noticed if I took my top off, people kept throwing $20s at me, so I kept going with that.” –SP
Cameron White
Walk into Zia Record Exchange with a cardboard box and odds are good White—self-proclaimed “trade-counter guru”—can predict the outcome of your visit. “It’s a generational thing,” explains the youngish shift manager. “Somebody in their 20s or 30s comes in and their discs are all scratched, because they’ve pulled them out of Case Logic books. Whereas, the kids with iPods have great CDs, because they only took them out of the case once.” Of course, every rule has its exception. “We try hard to find ways to take things and help people out as much as possible, but there’s always that Ace of Base CD out there that we just can’t take.” –SP