'It was by the kids, for the kids': Chain Reaction's former booker reflects on the O.C. club's legacy

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My name is Jon Halperin.I booked and managed Chain Reaction from 2000 to 2006.

It started by accident while I was running a one-person record label.I went to the club to see the band Melee perform and the prior talent buyer for the club had just quit that day.

I told owner Tim Hill I’d do it (having only booked three shows ever at a coffee shop).We slept on it, and I was hired the next day.I joined Ron Martinez (of Final Conflict).

He was booking the punk and hardcore shows.I booked the indie, ska, emo, screamo and pop punk stuff.

We made a great team.Best work-wife ever.Story time.

My friend Ikey Owens (RIP) hit me up and told me that he and the guys from At the Drive In were going to be starting a new band.I’d booked Defacto (their dub project) before, and we agreed to throw them on a show and just bill it as “Defacto.” There were maybe 200 people there to see the first show for a band that would soon be known as the Mars Volta.

That wasn’t out of the ordinary.Chain Reaction had many artists grace that stage that went on to bigger things: Death Cab for Cutie, Avenged Sevenfold, Maroon 5, Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco, Taking Back Sunday, Pierce the Veil, My Morning Jacket.

The list goes on and on.I used to make a deal with the kids.Buy a ticket to “X” show, and if you didn’t like the band, I’d refund you.

I never had to.I knew my audience and they trusted my curation of the room.

...It was by the kids, for the kids, except I was 30 at the time.

I had to think like a teenager.My friend Brian once called me “Peter Pan.”Halfway through my reign, social media became a thing.

There was Friendster and a bit later MySpace.YouTube stated just a few years after.

But those first few years of me at the venue, it was word of mouth.It was paper fliers dropped off at coffee shops and record stores.

It was the flier in the venue window.It was Mean St...