'I Do a Mixed Bag'

Distaste for metal and wuss rock aside, Zepeda's track record of booking variety speaks for itself. During his five-and-a-half-year run as a talent buyer for Bogart's, he brought a huge spread of disparate acts to the area: roots rockers such as the Blasters, Lone Justice, the Paladins and the Stray Cats; classic rockers like Johnny and Edgar Winter, Hot Tuna, Eric Burdon, and Robin Trower; punk acts like Johnny Thunders, Wendy O. Williams, Social D and UK Subs; alterna-rockers like Wall of Voodoo, the Pixies, Primus, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Lemonheads; blues and jazz acts such as Buddy Guy, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Dr. John, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band; and even such cool speakers as John Waters, Hunter S. Thompson, Timothy Leary and my personal fave, G. Gordon Liddy. Zepeda misses the days when diversity was a booker's stock in trade and he wasn't limited by the whims of a narrow-minded fan base. But he's still determined to do whatever he can to help nurture the scene and play whatever role he can to advance local talent.

"I feel a sense of responsibility to those people," he says. "As in all places, you have to have a local scene. You have to develop it. You take the scenes that are going and try to pull the quality out of it. I'm giving people an opportunity to build their bands and go as far as they can go.

"But one thing people fail to see is that music-no matter what it is-is rock & roll. That's what it is, and I feel that people don't recognize that. Whatever it is, wherever it comes from, if it's good rock & roll, I'll book it."