Music Scene Finds a Way

“I’m outside a strip mall in Stockton, Calif. It’s got a big Asian grocery store, a pet shop, and a secondhand store, called D. Thrift. There are about 50 kids my age — all in their late teens and early 20s — talking and smoking in front of an empty storefront. It used to be a cellphone shop and before that a place that sold diet pills, but tonight it’s the best underground rock show in town.”