The Brief

Since last fall, I’ve been attending Sean Carnage’s music showcases whenever possible. The events, which usually happen on the second Friday of the month at Chinatown venue Oracle Tavern, are pure joy. They’ve turned me onto artists that streaming platforms and social networks probably wouldn’t recommend to me, acts such as Dizparity, Acidtrain and Dildox. At the shows, I’ve reconnected with old pals and become acquainted with new groups of people.

The bonus is these shows only cost $10.

“I still think underground and small shows are your best entertainment value,” says Carnage, who has been promoting shows in L.A. since 2005.

I’m inclined to agree with him. For all the talk about skyrocketing ticket prices, once you venture outside the duopoly of Live Nation and AEG, live music still runs in the same price range as it has for many years. Scroll through Dice, the ticket app used by venues like Zebulon in Frogtown, Alex’s Bar in Long Beach, The Paramount in Boyle Heights and other local haunts, and you’ll find a good amount of shows for $20 or less. This summer at Highland Park venue LodgeRoom, you can catch Arizona-based synth group Body of Light for under $30, which includes the service fee you’ll see before you check out. At Corbin Bowl in Tarzana, shows come with a price tag of $0 to $10 at the door. And, outside of Carnage’s events, Oracle Tavern offers other shows with varying low covers.

Let the music play

In the past few months, my live music experiences have included a $5 show at Corbin Bowl, a free one at Zebulon and one of Carnage’s events. Yet, I’m disappointed in myself for only going to three shows in nearly two months. Over the span of decades that passed between my first concert and the COVID-19 shutdown, I had been to more shows than I can remember. Deep into lockdown, live music was one of the things I missed most but making it a regular part of my post-pandemic life was more difficult than I imagined.

Andy Poncherello, who books at Corbin Bowl, remembers the pandemic days when people vowed to go to every show possible once venues reopened. “That’s what people said,” he recalls. “That lasted 10 days.”

Corbin Bowl, a venue in Tarzana with affordable shows.

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Veronica Lechuga

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LAist

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His remark resonated with me. Personally, the lack of shows on my calendar wasn’t due to a fear of getting sick. It wasn’t because of money either. In theory, I know where the shows I can afford are. In practice, though, I no longer had any idea when they were happening.

“People will come and say, I wish I knew about this earlier,” says Nicholas Guy Aguilar, a talent buyer for Alex’s Bar in Long Beach. “We book shows out so far in advance and we have so much to promote and there’s so much that the algorithm can handle and that the human mind can handle as well.”

Certainly, most of us who are glued to our phones are inundated with so much information on a daily basis that it’s hard to take note of anything that hasn’t gone viral. But there’s another factor too. Often, flyers for events pop up in my feed after they’ve happened. I’ve heard friends complain of the same thing. In fact, it’s a problem that people who organize shows have seen themselves.

“I’ll see stuff that we paid to get promoted come up after it’s already gone on,” says Jose Galvan, talent buyer for The Paramount.

No connection

Across platforms, social media has become virtually useless at keeping up with live events. Even while writing this story and actively tracking concerts, the one post that repeatedly appeared was an ad for the touring Re:SET festival with LCD Soundsystem in early June, an AEG event with starting ticket prices that fell far beyond the parameters for both this story and my personal budget. I have to dig to find anything about the bands, promoters and venues I choose to follow. Those ads for high-priced events are all over my feeds, though, trying to give me a case of FOMO for shows I didn’t want to attend in the first place.

I can’t help but think that the only concert announcements that are guaranteed to be seen on socials are the ones with the biggest advertising budgets.

“I think that’s the world that we’re in,” says Cory Doctorow, the novelist, activist and co-author of the essential read Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We’ll Win Them Back.

Suburban John takes the stage at Corbin Bowl in Tarzana.

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Veronica Lechuga

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LAist

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“That’s the world where you vote with your wallet and the people with the thickest wallets get the most votes,” he adds. “We have an election every day to decide what’s in your social media feed and the way that you vote is by giving dollars to social media and everything in your social media feed sucks.”

Are there other ways to keep up on live shows? Sure, but if you, like me, subscribe to mailing lists from venues across town, plus event-heavy newsletters like Restless Nites, you might notice how often they either end up in your junk folder or are buried under the pile of spam and scam messages that slither into your inbox.

You may have also noticed that, after decades of lax antitrust regulation and the rise of Big Tech with virtually no oversight, both local and national media has been eviscerated. The little space that remains open for music coverage goes to the same big stories that dominate social media.

Some have returned to old-school means of promotion. Carnage is blogging, posting interviews with the bands who play his shows. He’s also back to printing flyers and personally inviting people.

“It’s so funny that we’re full circle back to that, but that’s where we are,” he says. And he’s clearly not the only one. Walk down streets in club-heavy neighborhoods, like Sunset Boulevard through Echo Park and Silver Lake or Figueroa Avenue in Highland Park, and you might spot show flyers taped to light posts or hanging in store windows.

But, these actions won’t completely solve the problem. That’s because this seemingly insignificant gripe is actually a symptom of something much bigger. Doctorow notes that the issue I describe — not getting notifications of the events I logged in to see — is the same one that faces loads of groups who have been relying on social media to connect with each other and share information.

Rip it up and start again

It’s a situation that will require big actions and groups from all backgrounds coming together to make them happen. Doctorow talks about the end-to-end principle that guides utility companies as a possible basis for regulation.

“One idea for social media would be a regulation that says, the duty of an intermediary, of a platform that sits between two groups of people, is to connect willing senders with willing receivers,” he says. “So, if I subscribe to what you post, then, when you post it, I should see it.”

Additionally, Doctorow notes that legislation that helps local, indie and niche media like the AMERICA Act, which intends to break up digital ad monopolies and currently has bipartisan support in Senate, could benefit music fans. So could privacy laws that would end surveillance advertising. After all, if you want a healthy music scene, you need a healthy music press.

We need L.A.’s indie music scene to thrive.

“I think they really are a dying breed,” says Eli Flasher, talent buyer for the LodgeRoom, of independent venues. Historically and to this day, indie venues play a big role in the city’s music scene. In the cases of the LodgeRoom, as well as Corbin Bowl and The Paramount, the emphasis is on all-ages shows and the price points are also pretty accessible for younger music fans. That’s essential for encouraging the next generation to get involved in the scene.

Zebulon showcases live acts in Frogtown.

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Veronica Lechuga

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LAist

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For the 21+ set, price matters too and venues seem mindful of the impact of rising cost of living on L.A. fans. At Zebulon, there is a significant amount of free shows on the calendar.

“To have anybody be able to come see live music is very important,” says talent buyer Emily Rose Epstein.

Sophie Alieninova of the synth-punk duo Dildox has taken affordability into consideration when organizing her own shows. She mentions recently debating over whether to charge $5 or $10 for a recent show at Redwood Bar x Grill. Ultimately, Dildox went with $5. That lower price, Alieninova says, could make a difference for someone who wanted to buy a drink or the band’s cassette. “I know money is tight right now,” she adds.

Mirror Tree performs at Zebulon in Los Angeles.

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Veronica Lechuga

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LAist

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Ultimately, shows are about more than a good time. They’re about connecting with people who have similar interests in person while watching new bands grow and supporting both local and touring artists. Carnage says that, during a hiatus from show promotion, he learned the value of being part of the audience. “People counted on me to show up. The few bucks that I paid at the door was a big deal to the performers, the promoters, that I supported. It made me feel really good,” he says.

“Concert going is the original crowdfunding,” Carnage adds. “It’s not branded that way, but that’s what it is. If you go there, you are a patron. You are directly supporting an artist and or an artistic endeavor. You are lifting that up.”

This story is no longer being actively updated. For the most up-to-date information about the fire you can check:

• LAFD incident page
• Latest evacuation map

Firefighters appeared to make quick progress against a brush fire the broke out Wednesday near the Getty Center.

As of 5 p.m., evacuation warnings had been issued for zones LFD-0895 and LF-0967, although the LAFD said no structures were immediately threatened as the water-dropping helicopters attacked the fire from above. Forward progress of the fire was reported stopped shortly after 6 p.m. at a little over 20 acres.

The fire broke out as Southern California endures high heat and record-breaking humidity.

The basics

• Acreage: 20+ acres as of Wednesday evening
• Containment: Forward progress stopped
• Structures destroyed: None reported
• Deaths: None
• Injuries: Unknown
• Personnel working on fire: Unknown

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A prominent attorney working on a low-level criminal case in Long Beach is alleging the Police Department there concealed an officer’s assault conviction for years — potentially calling into question the legitimacy of hundreds of cases.

Scott Sanders, who exposed the Orange County jailhouse snitch scandal, made the allegations in a series of motions filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court to force disclosure of police records and dismiss charges against Lonnie Jacobs, 47, his court-appointed client.

Jacobs is facing felony charges after Long Beach police said they found a small bag of cocaine tucked inside his sock while he was held at a jail following an arrest in March 2025. Jacobs has pleaded not guilty to the charge of bringing a controlled substance into a jail, which could carry a sentence of up to four years in prison.

At issue is the arrest that landed Jacobs in that cell in the first place — which Sanders argues in court filings was based on misrepresentations of now-former Long Beach police Officer Erik Suarez.

According to the defendant’s motion to dismiss, Suarez resigned from the Long Beach Police Department in June.

In a filing made Sept. 8, the defense attorney said an investigator discovered that Suarez had been convicted of a misdemeanor in the beating of a man outside a Waffle House in Marietta, Georgia in 2019. He had initially been charged with felony assault.

At that time, Suarez had served on the Long Beach force for two years.

LAist attempted to contact Suarez by calling a phone number connected to him in public records. A man who answered said he was not Suarez, but asked what the story was about and said he would check with Suarez about contacting LAist.

In a recent court filing seeking more information about Suarez’s conduct, Jacobs’ defense asserts that the Long Beach Police Department knew about the conviction, but never disclosed this information to defendants or the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

That’s information Jacobs’ attorney argues was potentially exculpatory, and that withholding it amounts to a major violation of criminal defense laws. In the landmark 1963 case Brady v. Maryland, the U.S. Supreme Court established that law enforcement has a legal responsibility to disclose such information to defendants. In Jacobs’ case, for example, the Sept. 8 filing said information about Suarez’s arrest and subsequent conviction could have been used to impeach him as a witness, as well as in other cases Suarez touched as a police officer.

The Long Beach Police Department has not yet responded to LAist’s emailed questions.

“The actions of the LBPD demonstrate a complete disregard to the danger Officer Suarez presented to the community and to the due process rights of defendants,” according to the motion to force disclosure. “The concealment of Officer Suarez's arrest and prosecution enabled [LBPD] to hide mandated discovery related to Officer Suarez’s conduct from what have likely been hundreds of defendants during the nearly seven-year period between the time of Officer Suarez’s August 2019 arrest and June 2026.”

Jacobs’ attorney alleges in the filing that Long Beach has an “unwritten policy” to keep information that could be used to impeach its officers in personnel files protected from public disclosure.

“The potential systemic consequences are enormous,” the filing argues.

Summer Lacey, the criminal justice and police practices director at the ACLU of Southern California, called the circumstances outlined in the case “very problematic.”

“Not just to the individual,” she said, “but to the entire community.”

Lacey said the information about Suarez’s conviction should have been known to the prosecutors, so they could vet the reliability of the evidence presented by law enforcement, and turned over to the defense at the outset of the case.

A spokesperson for L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in an emailed response to questions that they could not comment on what information they disclosed to Jacobs’ defense.

The District Attorney’s Office said it has a “collaborative relationship with the Long Beach Police Department,” and that the department does disclose material to prosecutors that is allowed under California law.

“Generally speaking, if our office had any such Brady material regarding an officer, we would have been legally obligated to turn that over to the defense.”

Lacey said if prosecutors did not have access to Suarez’s criminal record, the scope of people affected could be wide.

“We don't know how many cases are impacted by the potential unreliability of statements from the arresting law enforcement officer,” Lacey said. “This could impact people who have already pled guilty, who maybe are currently incarcerated, who are awaiting sentencing, or who are, like I said, incarcerated pretrial on other cases.”

In an interview with LAist, Sanders said the case raises three troubling issues: There’s the concealment of evidence leading to Jacobs' initial arrest, Suarez’s 2019 assault that was never disclosed, and the question of whether the Long Beach Police Department has concealed Brady material in other cases.

“If that's your modus operandi, we've got an enormous problem here,” Sanders said.

The underlying arrest that led to allegations about concealing an assault 

Long Beach police responded to the intersection of 52nd Street and Atlantic Boulevard after a man reported being held at gunpoint, with the robber driving away in the van he was repossessing.

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Megan Garvey

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LAist

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Just after 7:45 p.m. on March 18, 2025, Suarez and his partner Dylan Kelley responded to a call reporting a person with a gun at the intersection of 52nd Street and Atlantic Boulevard in Long Beach.

The alleged victim, identified in the filing by his last name, Ochoa, told the officers that he was attempting to repossess a black Dodge Sprinter van when someone threatened him with a gun, took the keys and drove off with the van.

Police later tracked down the van and detained Lonnie Jacobs and his brother, Lamar Jacobs.

According to court records, at the scene officers only presented Lonnie Jacobs to Ochoa.

Before seeing him, Ochoa stated that the suspect had braids, and body camera footage detailed in the court filing shows him gesturing to show long hair around his shoulders.

While looking at photos of the suspects in the van, Ochoa identified Lamar Jacobs. “That’s him! With the dreads!,” Ochoa is recorded saying on body camera footage.

Body camera footage shows Suarez confirming this description. “You said he had dreads? Can you remember if he has dreads?,” Suarez asks. The footage shows Ochoa nodding to confirm.

But Ochoa then identified Lonnie Jacobs in person, telling officers he recognized Lonnie Jacobs’ chain and ripped jeans as matching the person who pulled a gun on him earlier that night.

Jacobs’ court filings state that body camera footage shows both he and his brother wore the exact same chain, and they both wore ripped jeans that night.

In an interview with a detective for the District Attorney’s Office in August 2026 that is included in court filings, Ochoa said he was positive he identified a man with braids during the show-up.

Lonnie Jacobs is bald.

Lonnie Jacobs in a still from a police body cam on the night of his arrest.

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Long Beach Police Department

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L.A. County Superior Court filing

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Lamar Jacobs in a still from the night his brother was arrested. An officer is handing him a chain identical to one around his neck.

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Long Beach Police Department

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L.A. County Superior Court filing

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His attorney argued this fact is inconsistent with the description and should have disqualified Jacobs as a suspect, or at least warranted more questioning. Furthermore, he alleges Suarez failed to correct another officer at the scene who questioned why Ochoa didn’t see the hairstyle of the man who allegedly pulled a gun on him.

By this point, Ochoa had already described the suspect as having braids to Suarez and Kelley, according to the body cam footage, but Suarez did not correct the other officer.

“He couldn’t tell by the haircut,” Suarez said, adding he said “everything happened too fast.”

Jacobs’ defense alleges Suarez’s response was “actively misleading his fellow officers.”

Furthermore, body camera footage also shows Suarez agreeing with another officer who expressed doubts that Lonnie Jacobs was the one who brandished the firearm.

A still of officers discussing the potential suspects on the night of Lonnie Jacobs' arrest. A court filing by his defense said officers, including Erik Suarez, expressed doubts that he was the correct person.

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Long Beach Police Department

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L.A. County Superior Court

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“Yeah I think it was him, too,” Suarez said, referring to Lonnie’s brother Lamar. Lamar Jacobs was never charged in connection with the case.

In filings to the court, the District Attorney’s Office said the officers had probable cause to arrest Jacobs because he was in the van described by the witness and matched at least some of the characteristics of the suspect.

How that led to the Georgia case coming to light

Once Jacobs’ defense reviewed the body cam footage, they began attempting to depose Suarez in the case. Although Lonnie Jacobs was never charged with threatening Ochoa, the arrest led to the charges of bringing drugs into a jail. If the initial arrest was illegitimate, the drug case would go away.

The court scheduled a hearing earlier this year to discuss the evidence, but the Long Beach Police Department told Jacobs’ defense that Suarez was out of the country.

The defense subpoenaed Suarez through the Police Department again and on June 15, the department told the team that Suarez had resigned.

An investigator for Jacobs’ defense searched for his address to subpoena him at home. That search, according to the court filing, uncovered the assault charges in Georgia in 2019, two years after he joined the police force in Long Beach.

In the motion to dismiss the charges against Jacobs, his defense argues it is “plausible” that Suarez resigned from the police force out of concern he may have been questioned about his alleged misconduct that led to Jacobs’ arrest.

“However, it is also now apparent that Officer Suarez has been living with another secret that may also have propelled a decision to abandon his police officer position,” the defense wrote.

Through discovery, Jacobs’ attorney said in court filings they learned that Suarez had traveled to Georgia where he watched the Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3 on Aug. 17, 2019.

According to an incident report attached to court filings, a witness saw Suarez wearing a Dodgers jersey in a Waffle House, “talking shit” and arguing with the victim.

“Suarez then walked up to the table where the victim was seated and began punching him in the face until the victim was left unconscious on the ground,” the filing describes. According to the incident report and other filings from that case, Suarez continued to punch the victim while he was unconscious.

The most recent filing from Jacobs’ defense says Suarez was arrested walking away from the restaurant.

According to a description of the crime by Barry Morgan, a Cobb County assistant solicitor general, Suarez “caused the victim significant injuries, including orbital fracture, fracture of the maxillary sinus, traumatic orbital hematoma, and concussion.”

A memo details injuries caused by Erik Suarez in a 2019 assault. A grand jury indicted him on two felony counts. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and served a year of probation.

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Cobb County Superior Court

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via L.A. County Superior Court filing

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“Defendant beat the victim while the victim was on the ground, apparently unconscious,” the description explains. “This should be aggravated battery.”

On April 1, 2021, a grand jury indicted Suarez on two felony counts of aggravated battery, accusing him of “seriously disfiguring” the victim and rendering his right eye useless.

Right before trial, Suarez pleaded guilty in November 2022 to reduced misdemeanor charges of battery, was ordered to stay away from the victim and Cobb County, and was ordered to take anger management classes. He was sentenced to 12 months, which he was allowed to serve on probation.

According to Jacobs’ defense, “Suarez’s actions in Georgia triggered immediate reporting responsibilities related to his employment” with the Long Beach Police Department.

The court filing explains that the Long Beach police manual requires officers to inform their watch commander when they are arrested by another department or under a criminal investigation.

It’s not yet clear when the department learned about Suarez’s arrest. But Jacobs' defense argues that if the department learned of the arrest between 2019 and 2026, “this would have clearly triggered Brady responsibilities in this case and numerous others.”

That information is relevant to the case against Jacobs, the filing argues, because “it is entirely logical that the same officer who beat a victim into unconsciousness and then cavalierly walked from the scene would just as thoughtlessly arrest a man for whom no probable cause existed — concealing that the victim previously identified another suspect who possessed features irreconcilable with the defendant’s culpability.”

When does law enforcement need to disclose misconduct? 

While law enforcement has a legal requirement to proactively disclose Brady material that could help defendants build their case, California law exempts most police personnel records from disclosure, except under certain circumstances including findings of unnecessary use of force and misconduct while on the job.

Jacobs’ defense attorney, in the Sept. 8 filing, alleges Long Beach police purposefully placed evidence related to Suarez’s conviction in his personnel file, where it could be protected from disclosure.

He wrote this “enabled the agency to hide mandated discovery related to Officer Suarez’s conduct from what have likely been hundreds of defendants during the nearly seven-year period between the time of Officer Suarez’s August 2019 arrest and June 2026.”

Furthermore, the filing argues “there is every reason to believe that the hiding of Brady evidence extends far beyond Officer Suarez’s conduct and is the product of a long-established undisclosed policy designed to conceal Brady evidence.”

The filing points to a June 2021 news article wherein a spokesperson for the LBPD told reporters that it does not maintain a formal list of officers whose case involvement triggers Brady disclosures, but that it “continues to comply with its obligations to share such information.”

By that time, Suarez’s assault case was nearly two years old and, according to Jacobs’ defense, had never been disclosed.