Night club offers safe hangout, good music

All JJ Holden was looking for was a place to DJ.

Holden had taken his disc jockey skills to wedding receptions and clubs throughout the Flathead Valley and beyond, to Missoula and as far as Seattle. But he wanted a place where he could consistently DJ, as well as a stage he could use to attract high-quality bands in genres not typically seen in Northwest Montana.

So this winter, Holden — aka DJ J-ster Jazz — opened Scandal’s All Ages Night Club and Amusement Center.

The Kalispell club has a little bit of everything, from a dance floor to sodas and snacks to pool and video games for those not inclined to dance. It’s open to youths 13 and older and is intended, Holden said, as “a place for the kids to hang out.”

That’s about the age Holden got started in music. He has been a DJ since he was 13, back when “we had turntables, not computers.”

A friend took him to an all-ages club in Spokane, and Holden was fascinated by the work the DJ did. He started mixing his own beats and learned through trial and error and with help from older, experienced DJs.

In 1997, Holden answered a classified advertisement in the paper and joined the Spokane-based metal band Five Foot Thick. He later took his skills to ska band Civilized Animal.

But Holden had other experience, too, including a disc jockey stint at a club in Moses Lake, Wash. That club did well, he said.

“I’d linked up with Susan Silver management [who managed bands including Soundgarden and Alice in Chains] — just a huge record producer,” Holden said. “She was sending me three bands a night.”

He also had cooking experience, which ultimately led him to the Flathead. The family moved to the valley in 2002 when Holden took a job as executive chef at the Grill at Eagle Bend in Bigfork. For his wife, Tonya, it was a homecoming; she’d grown up in the Flathead.

But Holden’s first love was music, not food, so he continued to DJ whenever the opportunity arose. In October 2010, his new band, Monkey and a Roast Beef Sandwich, formed. Then, when the chance came for Holden to open a club in late 2011, he took it.

He opted to create an all-ages venue, which would give teenagers a safe place to hang out and hear good music.

Some parents have called, concerned about what might be happening at a place called Scandal’s, but Holden is quick to assure them that they take the kids’ safety seriously. No alcohol is allowed at Scandal’s, and there is security staff at the front and back doors who also make the rounds through the club.

So far, parents have been “real supportive,” he said.

Holden — as DJ J-ster Jazz — handles the music, mixing everything from dubstep to electronica to hip hop to top 40. He is also trying to book live shows; already, local bands such as Marshall Catch and Holden’s own Monkey and a Roast Beef Sandwich have played at Scandal’s. The club also has hosted Spokane hip-hop artist Young Jay and Missoula-based hard-rockers the Red Carpet Devils.

In May, Scandal’s will host Spokane-based rock band The Fail Safe Project, which has been popular since it formed in fall 2010 and recently landed a spot in the 2011 Rock Star Uproar Festival. The band has played with groups such as Three Days Grace and Seether.

“This will be a great hard-rock show,” Holden said.

In addition to hosting bands on the rise locally and regionally, Holden said he hopes Scandal’s will be a place for local DJs to play. He has never forgotten the help he received when he was learning to mix beats, and he wants to help other would-be disc jockeys improve their skills.

Ultimately, Holden wants Scandal’s to be a haven of good music. His long history in music has generated relationships with artists across the Northwest, and he hopes to bring some of them to Kalispell.

“I want to put my connections to use and bring good music here,” he said.

This Week in the Flathead editor Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.