A Hidden Gem for Music, Dance, and Community in Ojai

There is a door on an unassuming ochre-colored stucco building with a terracotta tile roof situated on the border between Ojai’s residential and commercial zones. Taped to this door is an 8.5-by-11-inch flier that quietly announces current and upcoming events — the only sign that anything of note happens inside.

Founded by musician and LA music scene veteran Bernie Larsen and his wife, dancer, and educator Cassidy Linder, The Ojai Underground has been operating since January 2017 and is currently in the third iteration of the venue. 

As you pass into the reception/box office/bar, lively illustrations decorate the walls, and you may be greeted and cheerfully checked in by Cassidy, who will cross your name off a handwritten list of advance ticket buyers for that evening’s event.

Inside the long, rectangular, lofty listening space is seating for 80 people and a cozy stage at the far end. Three cameras are mounted and focused on the stage to capture the performances, which are streamed on YouTube for a discounted ticket. Just off stage right is the nerve center of the operation: Bernie’s music and video production studio. Gold records, guitars, amps, keyboards, and percussion are neatly arranged on and along the walls that frame the production desk where each show is recorded and streamed.

This is a venue for appreciating music and movement. Wonderful artists from all over the world come through, and they’re right there in the room; you can even say hi to them after the show.

I’ve been hosting a monthly music listening event for over two years at The Ojai Underground called Ojai-Fi, where everyone in attendance has two songs in mind that they love and want to share on either streaming or vinyl. There are no screens. No progress bars. No visualizers. Just focus on listening. It’s the best. You will love it.

Bernie Larsen grew up in Simi Valley and started playing guitar at nine. After winning a battle of the bands in 1976, Bernie and his bandmates went to a party his friends were hosting, and five hundred of their friends showed up. It was called the Lemon Drive Party, and when the police showed up, they started brutally assaulting the guests with billy clubs and mace. T-shirts with the slogan “I Survived Lemon Drive” with a cartoon of a policeman beating a bruised and battered lemon were made to raise awareness about the police brutality.

Bernie fled unharmed and, within a few years, moved to an apartment in Laurel Canyon behind The Canyon Store, a hub of countercultural energy and creativity since the 1960s. He found himself in demand as a session guitar player and producer. He met guitarist David Lindley and began a fruitful seven-year run of recording and touring with Lindley’s band, El Rayo-X.

Larsen worked with countless legendary musicians like Jackson Browne, Melissa Etheridge, and Lucinda Williams.

In the mid-1990s, Bernie moved his recording studio to Houghton, MI, to spend time with his ailing father, also named Bernie, and escape the growing intensity of the LA scene. He opened a venue called Suburban Exchange, where, for the next four years, he hosted punk and hardcore shows, a film festival, poetry slams, dance and fashion shows, and recorded scores of local bands.

After bouncing back and forth between LA and Houghton, Larsen visited Ojai with a friend and, while seated in an empty Libbey Bowl on a perfect sunny afternoon, fell in love with the town and decided to move. He rented a room in Meiners Oaks, installed his recording equipment, and produced a compilation of Ojai-based artists called “The Ojai Sessions.”

Cassidy Linder, born in Orange County, California, started dancing at three-and-a-half years old. Dance was everything. When not in school, she would spend nearly every waking moment training and practicing. Her family moved to the suburbs of Chicago when she was eight, where she continued to study, train, and compete locally.

Linder, a driven performer, started to “out-dance” the local studios while simultaneously discovering her facility and fondness for tap dancing. In High School, her mother would drive her to Chicago to study not just tap, but jazz, hip-hop, and ballet. Cassidy, gifted and hardworking, caught the eye of dance instructor Mark Yonally, who was putting together a tap show called “The Blue Show” and wanted Linder to be the lead dancer’s understudy.

After joining that production, Yonally started a new dance company called Chicago Tap Theatre (CTT) and asked Cassidy to join. The company’s youngest member, Linder, seventeen, was still in high school yet found the time and energy to make it all work. In addition to traditional tap, CTT developed shows that used the music of David Bowie or stories by Edgar Allen Poe and a show featuring all the tap companies in town called The Chicago Tap All-Stars. Linder was actively learning the history of tap and jazz, as well as improvisation, and developing her skills as a musician who plays with her feet.

Four years into her time with CTT, Cassidy suffered a back injury that sidelined her dance career. The healing process of her injury required her to refrain from dancing for two years. A determined Linder enrolled in cosmetology school and became a hairdresser. She spent a year in New York and then wound up in Santa Paula with her father. Dancing resumed, beginning with some appearances with Rubén Salinas’ LA-based band “Noble Creatures.”

Linder became manager of the local Ojai wine bar, “The Vine” (RIP), and one night Bernie walked into the bar and played guitar with Ojai’s TD Lind, and they all hung out after the bar closed. Rumor has it that David Crosby was in attendance while everyone enjoyed their last glass of wine. Vibes were vibing, and a romance developed between Bernie and Cassidy.

Linder received a call several days later from Bernie, who was at a home improvement store, to ask what kind and size board she would need to tap dance with him. They worked up some material, and then, for one song, Cassidy would emerge from the bar and tap a song with Bernie on electric guitar on the piece of wood Bernie got for her. Linder moved in with Bernie and decided she wanted to teach, and they made a committment to start a business together.

On the way home from a trip to Sedona, Bernie and Cassidy hatched a plan to stop drinking and open a venue for music and dance instruction. The Ojai Underground Arts Exchange was born, and they found a space in a building near the intersection of the 33 and Ojai Avenue, behind what is now Summer Camp. It was slow-going at first, but in the fall of 2017, Cassidy started the dance department at Oak Grove School. The school didn’t have space for a dance program, and it was agreed that the classes would be held at The Underground Arts Exchange.

Since 2017, the physical space has changed a couple of times, and with each move, the audience experience and amenities have improved. Within those seven years, Bernie and Cassidy hosted seven hundred performances from local, national, and international artists. After dropping the “Arts Exchange” from the name, they are simply called “The Ojai Underground.”

Smaller venues like these are gradually disappearing, yet they remain vital spaces for artists to experiment, develop their craft, and foster a sense of community.