This weekend, Xalos Bar in Anaheim will be packed with late-night revelers as the establishment marks ten years in business. On Friday, there will be no cover charge as banda music blares and Spanish-language television station Univision will have its cameras on location. The following night, everybody will be admitted free before 10 p.m. as Super Estrella 107.1 FM DJs spin the night away. The radio station will be transmitiendo en vivo–which, for all you non-wabs, means a live broadcast from inside the bar.
Now while this weekend promises puro pinche pari, us Weekly nerds are celebrating on a different tip. Xalos Bar's location–a low-slung building on North Kraemer Boulevard, near La Palma Avenue–used to be home to The Shack, a dubious dive that allowed neo-Nazi white power bands to host clandestine shows at the venue.
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As Rich Kane's OC Weekly feature story “Springboard for Hitler” recounted back in 2001, The Shack had become “Nuremberg-rally central for OC racists.” I can remember distributing flyers at every record store in the northern regions of la naranja promising a protest for a planned August fundraiser White Power show slated to occur, but ultimately canceled amidst public pressure.
Given that sordid backdrop, it's fitting–nay, HILARIOUS–that the venue, for the past ten years, has been rechristened as 'Xalos Bar' under new owners and turned into a de facto nightclub reconquista!
Its tag line has always been “Un Poco de Jalisco en el Corazón de Anaheim” reflecting the influx of gente into the city from the municipality of Jalostotitlán (hence Xalos) in the Mexican state.
Better there be banda booming with AnaHynas on the dance floor wearing tight dresses that come right out of the wardrobe room of Spanish news magazine television show Primer Impacto than some pendejo rock group spewing hate.
To this, we raise a glass of Bukanas and toast to 10 years of Xalos Bar!
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!
Hey pendejo don’t say rock group
You can’t stigmatize one kind of music just to gain a couple of readers .
However there’s more banda music talking about violence and drugs why don’t you write about it