Andres N.
Yelp
Extremely disappointed with my experience here. Last night was my first time at this bar to see popularly known 80s band "The English Beat". My girlfriend and I are both 21 yrs of age, and she had surprised me with tickets to this show/venue to see one of my favorite bands as a late birthday gift.
To paint the scene, this venue attracts quite a crowd and not much elbow room to go around with only standing space to surround the stage. No assigned seats or areas. In our area of standing we were surrounded by much older people and quite possibly the youngest in the venue. A couple songs into the bands set we were beginning to be harassed by an older white woman who was much taller than my girlfriend and I. She began by yelling at us and poking my back for me move. Her reasoning was she was there first, accompanied by a crowd of people known to her. This venue is quite packed and not much room to go around or even dance. She escalated things by elbowing us aggressively to move and ended up hitting my girlfriend in the face.
To this, nobody did anything to help us, they seemed rather annoyed by our presence there and expected us to move, even after her becoming aggressive, flaring her elbows violently into our backs and sides. We dont tolerate to be treated this way. We all paid for this show. My girlfriend and I were not aggressive at all but assertive the woman for her to "Be nice and calm down". "Lady, its a concert people are squished, its packed in here, Calm down". As things were heating up, many people turned to us only to bat an eye and not assistance. It was very discriminating to us we were most likely the youngest in the crowd and having not being from this general area we felt very singled out. My girlfriend began crying due to the feeling so violated with our space and catching an elbow to her face, being called a "B*tch" by and older drunken woman surrounded by her friends. It was unexpected to me people of her age (40s-50s) to be acting so childish in a drunken rage because her space was diminished due to our area of standing. Grow up. The elbow to my girlfriends face was the last straw, she is much shorter than me standing at 5'1". The lady knew what she was doing, she's not incompetent or unaware of her actions, but rather smelled of liquor and entitlement. We immediately left to reach out to security who accommodated our issue/complaints instantly by offering us to get the police involved. I don't condone violence ever, but I definitely do not believe its okay to put your hands on people ever especially since this woman was unprovoked and acted out on her own accord.
The police arrived only to get both sides of the story, this lady had the audacity to say we made threats to her, even though she was the aggressor coming to us for her problems. We only asked to her to politely back off, be nice, and consider the crowd space being already so dense. We were there to enjoy our time together and to see this wonderful band, we have no interest in getting involved in any altercations, if anything we'd rather avoid it but she brought it to us by acting the way I explained above. The police were only able to offer a report to be made but upon having a in depth conversation with the officer he made offered a choice for us to return to the venue and have her escorted out. We did not want to spend the rest of the night in a station making a report that would probably become just an inconvenience to our time, all over an immature and ill-mannered woman. By this time the band was finished and the night was getting late. We took this as our opportunity to end the night and return home. I understand shows and concerts have their share of sardine packed venues and other ill-mannered people like we encountered. Instead of getting security involved this lady really wanted to hurt us and harass us, and ultimately ruined our night. I wish I had better things to say about my experience at this venue. But this accurately depicts our time spent here at this bar in Hermosa. I would expect the venue to be a little more "crowd-aware". People like this woman who ruined our night do not any repercussions and get to continue as they were. It was saddening to see how we were treated by the on-looking older crowd and the lack of empathy from them.
We would like to thank a very nice lady Myko, a friend of the general manger at the bar. She was extremely attentive to my girlfriend who was emotionally distraught by the whole situation especially after being purposefully elbowed by a lady she did not know. She was very kind and comforting and offered emotional wisdom we won't forget. She saved our night by reminding us to stick together and not let this one experience taint the rest of our young lives. If she's reading this, she is a very special woman who felt like an angel on our shoulders, being there with us as the police allowed us to give us our statements, even ice-ing my girlfriends cheek. Bless her!