By Julia Kalüsjin
For years, the San Jose DIY music community has spoken out about the resources and opportunities to help the scene flourish. Critical voices contend that the city has prioritized corporate growth while the alternative art scene struggles just to survive.
The biggest hurdle to overcome: the lack of a permanent location for a DIY, all-ages, nonprofit, volunteer-run music venue. The call for a safe haven has grown louder as access to San Jose and South Bay venues continues to shrink.
Crossthread, a San Jose punk collective, is heeding the call. The founders envision a space modeled after Berkeley’s 924 Gilman (known simply as “Gilman”), an alternative-music collective and performance venue that has helped foster the punk scene since 1986. Crossthread’s goal is to have a safe, all-ages, alcohol-and-drug-free venue that prioritizes the needs of San Jose’s youth with community and harm reduction at its core.
Danny Coggins, 26, is a San Jose native and a prominent hardcore-music promoter in the Bay Area, operating as R’N’RG Presents. He struggles with finding reliable venues in San Jose and the South Bay. “I’m constantly trying to find a new venue and constantly let down by places that don’t care about the scene and don’t care about the kids.”
As a teenager, Coggins frequented local punk shows at “illegitimate venues like backyards, basements, generator shows under bridges, and places like that.” He recalls Johnny V’s, a now-defunct downtown San Jose bar where he and his friends would throw shows every weekend. “I’d watch my friends’ bands play from the side door that the bouncer would keep open for me. I had nowhere else to go. I was there for the music.”
Inspired by his love of the DIY scene and frustrations with its inaccessibility to young people, he helped found Crossthread in late 2023.
“Crossthread is a group that me and five of my friends [Morgan Adams, Violet Daly, Sherrise Gutierrez, and Haley Bayuga Graff] started. We’re working on becoming a nonprofit, and when we do, our goal is to create an all-ages music venue in San Jose. We were all waiting for someone to open up a venue and then we realized that, ‘Oh! It’s not happening because we’re not doing it.’ It’s the whole ‘DIY thing’: we have to just do it ourselves.”
Accustomed to doing things himself as a career tradesman, Coggins saw Crossthread as a perfect name for the project. Cross-threading occurs when the threads of a bolt or screw are misaligned with the threads of the nut or fastener, getting stuck and damaging the parts. He adopted this as a “metaphor for people who get involved in punk rock and hardcore. This is ultimately geared for the people who feel like they just don’t fit in.”
For Coggins, creating a space that fosters creativity, acceptance and community for everyone has always been a dream of his. “My first show was at Gilman when I was 14 or 15 years old. I was immediately sucked in. I really needed a community, and I was lucky enough to find one. It was a community that didn’t discourage me from being young. No one told me, ‘You’re too young to do this,’ or ‘You don’t know enough.’ It was open to everybody. I felt accepted and included and that my voice mattered. I want other kids to have the same opportunities and the same inspiration that I had. It’s kind of like passing the torch.”
The group envisions many ways Crossthread can benefit the community. Priorities are getting kids off the street, substance-abuse prevention, harm reduction and building a community. Coggins holds up Gilman as a model: “They don’t allow alcohol inside, they don’t allow drugs inside. When you’re inside, it’s about the music, and it’s about being involved, volunteering, and true DIY ethics.”
Like Gilman, Crossthread will be a place for anyone to get involved and learn skills like live sound production, booking and running shows, and community organizing. The founders also want Crossthread to be for more than just local punk bands and music. They envision a community space that welcomes all local artists (regardless of their medium) to hold art shows as well as other events.
“If kids wanted to do a rave or an art show or a skate premiere or something like that, I want it to be accessible.” Coggins says. “Gilman does regular AA and NA meetings, and I think that’s rad. Having a space that is available for the community for multi-use purposes and not just a music venue, it just benefits everybody.”
The DIY ethos is all about inclusion and collaboration. The heart of the scene is the music, but there are many causes that the people involved feel passionately about and can pursue on a grassroots level. Crossthread is committed to keeping kids sober and safe while doing so.
A major focus, Coggins explains, is on “the harm-reduction aspect of a community-run venue. Creating a supervised venue that is legit where we don’t allow drugs and alcohol inside curbs some of the harmful aspects of shows. [We are] creating a space that is geared toward the music itself rather than the party aspect of being at a punk show.”
Crossthread has already begun its community outreach at the shows that Coggins books. “Right now, we table with harm-reduction resources at shows. We have condoms, fentanyl test strips, earplugs, information on city resources like the Downtown Youth Wellness Center, and this is all stuff that is going to be available in the venue when we do have a permanent space.”
Becoming a nonprofit is imperative for Crossthread’s goal. “501(c)(3) status is like the golden ticket. With that, we can apply for grants from the city to get funding,” Coggins explains.
Nonprofit status would not only help secure a building in one of the most expensive U.S. cities but also ensure that the profits from the shows go back to the artists. Coggins explains that San Jose companies who own real estate would rather have a reputable nonprofit occupying their vacant buildings than have the buildings remain vacant and susceptible to vandalism: “The goal itself is to work with the city on having a venue that’s completely legit, can’t get shut down like all of the other venues have, and is run by the community for the community.”
While the Crossthread crew waits for nonprofit status, they are raising money through raffles and direct donations on their website, crossthreadsj.org. Coggins says Crossthread wants to have more raffles as well as some benefit shows to not only raise money but also give the community something to enjoy in the meantime.
Working to make the vision a reality is arduous, but Crossthread’s six founders are encouraged by the community’s response thus far. “I’m glad that the city is kind of catching on, because [the scene] has always been here,” Coggins says. “Different organizations and city officials have been spreading word about Crossthread, and that’s led to involvement with CreatTV, Viva Calle, and other future opportunities centered in the downtown area. They appreciate and like what we are doing.
“We have even had some city officials come out to the events where tons of kids showed up, and they could really see the need for a venue,” Coggins says, expressing hope that others now understand Crossthread’s mission is broader than just promoting DIY music. “We’ve all been talking about it for so long. Finally, we’re doing it!”
Crossthread intends to fill a significant cultural void in San Jose. “I think that the power of kids doing their own thing when it comes to music is really underestimated,” he says. “Creating a space that has some longevity to it is the ultimate goal.”
