Overview
The Cattle Club was a 250-capacity all-ages music club at 7042 Folsom Boulevard in Sacramento that, from 1989 through roughly 1995, served as the region's single most important incubator for the 1990s alternative-rock boom. Booked by Brian McKenna and promoter Jerry Perry under their New View Productions banner, the club shared a building with the LGBT nightclub Bojangles. It hosted early pre-fame shows by Nirvana, Green Day, Alice in Chains, Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, Primus, No Doubt, and Hole, and nurtured the hometown rise of Deftones, Cake, and Far before each signed major-label deals. [1][2][3]
History (1989–mid-1990s)
The Cattle Club opened in 1989. McKenna and Perry — Perry coming off his 1980s Sacramento venue the Vortex — booked the room as one of the only all-ages rooms in the region that could land nationally touring indie and alternative acts. [3][4]
The club's most-cited show is Nirvana, February 12, 1990, which drew roughly 60 people — the band's first Sacramento appearance, 18 months before Nevermind. The show was professionally recorded and survives in full in the Sacramento Music Archive. [5][6]
Through the early '90s the room booked an era-defining list of acts that would break nationally within 12–36 months of their Cattle Club dates: Green Day, Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, Primus, Tool, No Doubt. A recurring mixed bill of local acts — Cake, Korn, Deftones — is one of the most-cited cultural moments from the room. [1][2]
Bojangles — shared building, separate identity
The same address operated on alternating nights as Bojangles, which Jerry Perry has publicly described as Sacramento's first openly gay nightclub. The two identities — all-ages alt-rock venue by night, LGBT nightclub by night — coexisted under one roof from the mid-1980s into the 2000s and are frequently conflated in retrospective reporting. The Cattle Club booking brand was primarily the McKenna/Perry 1989–1995 era; the building's Bojangles identity outlasted that window and kept running intermittent "Cattle Club Christmas" and similar reunion nights as late as 1996. [1][7]
After the club (2000–present)
Bojangles suffered a kitchen fire in December 2000. [8] McKenna and Perry had long since moved on to other projects — McKenna to a booking career that still continues as of 2025, Perry to other Sacramento venues. The space was later rebranded The Library Eats and Drinks under operators Bob Simpson and Trevor Shults (who now run El Rey Theatre and Malt & Mash). After a second fire, the property was rebuilt and reopened as Fahrenheit 250, a barbecue restaurant that still operates there. [1]
Key people
- Brian McKenna — co-founder and booker. Continues booking Sacramento shows; profiled by CapRadio in 2025 for a 35-year career that began at the Cattle Club. [3]
- Jerry Perry — promoter, New View Productions. Previously operated the Vortex in the 1980s; continued promoting Sacramento music events for decades after the Cattle Club closed. [4]
- Bob Simpson & Trevor Shults — later operators of the space (post-Cattle Club); now own El Rey Theatre and Malt & Mash. [1]
Why it matters for Sacramento music
The Cattle Club is the proximate reason Sacramento was on the touring routing for early-90s alt-rock at all. Its 250-cap all-ages model put local bands on the same stage as Nirvana and Green Day before they broke — which is how Deftones, Cake, and Far built the regional followings that translated into their major-label careers. More broadly, Brian McKenna's 35-year booking career, El Rey Theatre (via Simpson & Shults), and the current all-ages infrastructure in Sacramento (Holy Diver, Goldfield, Harlow's side-rooms) all trace organizational lineage back to the Cattle Club and the New View Productions era.
Sources
- Tim Wheeler, The Cattle Club: Heavily Modified, NOT Hormone Free, Medium / Riverfront. https://medium.com/riverfront/the-cattle-club-heavily-modified-not-hormone-free-8977f44d0f9b
- Another roundup at the Cattle Club, Sacramento News & Review. https://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content/another-roundup-at-the-cattle-club/28106663/
- Behind the mic: Brian McKenna on 35 years of booking local shows, CapRadio, April 7, 2025. https://www.capradio.org/articles/2025/04/07/behind-the-mic-brian-mckenna-on-35-years-of-booking-local-shows/
- Jerry Perry, Sacramento365. https://sacramento365.com/organization/jerry-perry/
- Live Nirvana — Concert Chronology, February 12, 1990 — Cattle Club, Sacramento, CA. https://www.livenirvana.com/concerts/90/90-02-12.php
- Sacramento Music Archive — Nirvana, Cattle Club, Sacramento, 2/12/90, xfer from master tapes. https://sacramentomusicarchive.com/1990/02/12/nirvana-cattle-club-sacramento-ca-2-12-90-xfer-from-master-tapes/
- Sacramento Music Archive — Cattle Club Christmas Part 1, 12/22/96. https://sacramentomusicarchive.com/1996/12/22/cattle-club-christmas-part-1/
- Fire shuts down popular nightclub, State Hornet (Sac State), December 2000. https://statehornet.com/2000/12/fire-shuts-down-popular-nightclub/