Turnstile at Oxnard Elks Lodge & VCHC: The Importance of Remaining DIY

words by Isabelle Prittie / photos by Evan (@emphotos98)

On Saturday, May 16th, me and a car full of punk rockers rolled up to the Elks Lodge in Oxnard, California, eager to see Turnstile’s first Oxnard show in years. Everyone in the car is excitedly murmuring about the show – Turnstile, perhaps the closest modern-age hardcore band to being arena-level, hasn’t performed in Oxnard since 2021, much less in such an intimate setting as the Elks Lodge, a venue that holds merely 300 people. As our car pulled into the parking lot just before doors opened, our conversation dwindled out as we saw the line snake outside of the venue, through the parking lot, and eventually wrap all the way around the back of the building. We glance at each other and silently say, ‘This show is going to be good.’ 

The line moves quickly, and soon after we enter the venue we find our spot in the crowd. The crowd looks just like any other hardcore show in the area – lots and lots of people with stretched septums and tattoos, and even more wearing shirts from local 805 hardcore bands. We talk and catch up with our friends in the scene for a few brief minutes, and then the opener, Ceramik (a three-piece hardcore band from Simi Valley), takes the stage. The crowd knows exactly what to do. A gap as wide as the stage itself opens up and the floor is suddenly filled with people two-stepping, crowd-killing, and hardcore dancing. As a spry 19 year old who is not yet afraid of a little bit of mosh action, I make a few rounds myself, stomping around and getting run into by the die-hard hardcore men. The conglomeration of people clustered around the front of the stage hold it down and catch the folks who choose to stage dive. 

Ceramik’s stage presence is dynamic and unforgiving. The vocalist never wavers and strides back and forth across the stage with pride. The snare is absolutely killer and rings out above the stolid bassline. The crowd seems to always know exactly what to do. Ceramik is fast and they are heavy – trademarks of the best kind of hardcore to see live. And then, just as soon as the set begins, it is over. I hear from my Oxnard friends that this is Ceramik’s gimmick – they have perfected the art of the 10 minute set. 

The break between the two sets gives me time to think about the hardcore scene, and why Turnstile chose to play such an intimate show in the 805. Oxnard is famous for its hardcore scene – in fact, there’s a whole genre of hardcore named after the area. Nardcore (Oxnard hardcore), got its start in the area in the 80s, and gave way to a hardcore scene that still proliferates. These days, many hardcore shows in the Oxnard/Ventura areas are booked by Ventura County Hardcore, a DIY all ages hardcore booking company (partially run by one of KCSB’s own DJs – Dillon Grove, host of Your Life In America). Ventura County Hardcore (or VCHC for short) got its start after the pandemic crushed local scenes – Dillon Grove states, “After Covid no one was booking hardcore shows so we just did it.” VCHC has grown over the years to become an incredibly prolific DIY and all ages booking company, and runs nearly every hardcore show in the 805 area, from smaller shows full of local bands to shows with headliners as popular as Stalag 13 or Sunami. 

The Turnstile show is no exception – about booking the show, Dillon says, “…when the Turnstile thing came up it was exciting, but stressful in some ways. It was bigger than anything we’d done and Turnstile fit their entire big production/staging/sound setup into our smaller DIY setup. Their whole team was so nice and fun to work with, which is not always the case with bands like that.” Although Turnstile (a Grammy-winning band) has the capacity to headline festivals and sell out stadiums at this point in their career, it is heartening to see that they are remaining connected to their DIY roots and playing smaller shows, and even free shows – recently they played a free benefit show at Wyman Park in their hometown, Baltimore, which turned out thousands of fans. Turnstile playing an intimate show at a venue in the 805 was historic for VCHC – “We hadn’t dealt with resell tickets, fake tickets, something selling out in 5 minutes, so that was all new and kind of hectic. One thing that’s really important to us for bigger shows is always having a local support on the bill. Turnstile management had no issue with Ceramik opening the show which again just speaks to how great their whole team is.”

Turnstile’s set was, naturally, incredible. The second that they took the stage the crowd turned dynamic – jumping and singing along to every word of every song. While much of their recent album (NEVER ENOUGH) is more inspired by indie music than traditional hardcore, with synths and a-traditional audio mixing, Turnstile definitely reads as a hardcore band live. The stage was open territory to the members of the audience. Burly hardcore guys stood along the steps up to the stage shepherding people up to stage dive. People were flipping into the crowd left and right. The air in the room was hot and sticky – multiple times I had to step out of the room to get some air due to the pure amount of bodies packed into the room. I stage dove for the first time in my life (lol), stepping over microphone cables and cords to launch myself into the crowd. Only once did I hit the ground, and I was immediately launched back up in the air by the surrounding concert-goers. You could feel the love in the room the same way that you do with every other hardcore show – one mother led her young son up onto the stage where they got to sing along with the band. Most of Turnstile’s setlist came off of NEVER ENOUGH, but they played some of their classics like T.L.C (Turnstile Love Connection) and Pushing Me Away as well. Their songs ebbed and flowed, with transient instrumental openings gliding seamlessly into breakdowns. Their encore, NEVER ENOUGH off the album of the same name, lent itself to a perfect close to the night. Singer Brendan Yates floated his microphone down into the crowd to allow concert-goers an opportunity to participate in a way that can only happen at DIY shows. I walked away from the show that night soaked in sweat and completely covered in bruises from stage diving – a reminder that DIY does it best.