Teen bands hoping city will reconsider letting them perform at Manhattan Beach’s Concerts in the Park

By TYLER SHAUN EVAINS | tevains@scng.com

PUBLISHED: January 24, 2020 at 1:48 p.m. | UPDATED: January 24, 2020 at 2:03 p.m.

Good Vibe and Chroma Haze, two bands whose members are teenagers, played their second sets for Manhattan Beach’s Concerts in the Park last summer — and it may have been their last.

The city has plans to no longer allow teen bands to open for headliners at the annual Polliwog Park event after feedback from an end-of-series survey in September showed little interest in the youth music. But supporters of teen bands will urge Manhattan Beach to reconsider at the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission meeting on Monday evening, Jan. 27.

“I was disappointed that they took away the best opportunity for teen bands to get their name out and play in front of a lot of people,” said Slater Heidrich, bass player and vocalist for Good Vibe.

Mark Leyman, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said the city won’t entirely stop giving teens a platform — but wants to ensure audiences enjoy themselves.

Manhattan Beach’s annual Concert in the Park series, like many others throughout Southern California, typically rely on cover bands of popular groups or singers to headline the shows. Last year, for example, bands that play hits from Tom Petty and Queen headlined the weekly concerts. But Manhattan Beach also used the teen bands to kick things off.

The September survey, however, asked folks if they agreed with the statement, “Opening acts added value to the overall concert experience.” Out of 103 responses, 69 disagreed or strongly disagreed — 67% — while 18 people agreed or strongly agreed, according to the results; 16 reported no opinion.

Leyman said it was important to listen to the majority. Most respondents, according to Leyman, said they prefer socializing with friends and family before the headliner comes on.

“We don’t want to continue to do something that doesn’t work with that crowd,” Leyman said.

“It’s not that we were going to discontinue youth bands completely, but there needs to be balance in programming,” he added. “Each year, we try to enhance events and try different things.”

But Kimberly Koffler, the mother of Chroma Haze drummer Ethan Makauskas and the organizer for Concerts in the Park’s teen openers, said there’s value to allowing the performances.

“It’s great to have things that are geared toward our teenagers,” she said, “giving them positive experiences (in positive) environments.”

Koffler, who noted she and the teen bands don’t get paid, also questioned the survey’s sample size, 103 people — in a city of 35,500 people.

“It was very disappointing to me,” she said. “The city was listening to the few instead of the many.”

Heidrich and Makauskas, juniors at Mira Costa High School, said the crowds visibly seemed to enjoy their performances.

“Most people were dancing,” Makauskas said. “Everybody seemed like they were having a good time.”

Kat Monk, Heidrich’s mother, suggested that instead of killing the teens’ gigs, the city could reduce the set times, only allow Manhattan Beach native bands to perform or only have teen groups play only some weeks.

During an initial meeting between Leyman and Monk, the Parks and Recreation director offered other venues — such as the Joslyn Community Center — where teen bands could perform rather than at the summer concerts, Monk said. But, Monk said, that defeats the point of them getting bigger audiences.

Leyman, for his part, said that during a second meeting, he mentioned allowing teen bands to perform at two concerts spread throughout the series and survey those attendees afterwards.

The parents of the teen bands, meanwhile, have garnered nearly 500 signatures on an online petition, Koffler said, which they plan to present at the Monday commission meeting.