One day in 1981, Gary Tovar was standing on a veranda in Santa Barbara's Riviera neighborhood and had a thought that changed his life, as well as the trajectory of the punk rock scene in California.
“I said, ‘I’m gonna shake this town up,'" Tovar tells L.A. TACO over the phone. "'This town needs a good shaking up. This town needs some action.'"
Tovar had been itching to do something with punk rock after watching the Sex Pistols in 1978, but the idea eluded him for years. Then, on December 4, 1981, the Huntington Beach native shook the town of Santa Barbara—where he lived at the time—by throwing a punk rock show at Casa de la Raza featuring T.S.O.L., Shattered Faith, and Rhino 39.
Tovar organized this gig under his then DIY booking company, named “Golden Voice”—the same live events and promotion company behind the biggest concerts and festivals in the country today, including Coachella, Stagecoach, Cruel World, Cali Vibes, and countless others.
The inspiration for the name "Golden Voice" came to Tovar after he tried a weed strain from Thailand with the same name.
"When you smoked it, it felt like the angels sang to you in a golden voice,” he says.