“Check, check one, check two.” The words echo within the empty café as sound technicians test the PA system at the Black Box Cabaret, the student-run pub at CSU Monterey Bay.

Its black walls, black ceiling, large, black stage and few windows make stepping inside during the day like experiencing a solar eclipse. But at nighttime, students put down their books and pile in from the dorms and apartments to step into what senior Keith Bruecker calls a “black pool, a space that you go in to test ideas and experiment. You never know what’s going to go on in there.”

The Black Box Cabaret, affectionately known as the BBC, hosts free, all-age shows throughout the academic year. It features campus and local bands, open mics, plays and lectures in the evening, and serves as a meeting place and hangout for students during the day.

A chain link fence surrounds the venue’s patio area, which has a concrete base and cast iron tables and chairs. “It’s a place for students to feel comfortable, relax, get a cup of coffee and have some entertainment,” says BBC Manager Pat Clausen. In addition to coffee, the BBC serves deli and pub-style food—mainly soups, salads and sandwiches—and, from 4pm, wine and beer.

Clausen is the only non-student employee of the BBC staff of 12; the students organize everything from menu items to event programming. After managing the BBC for close to three years, Clausen says, “it’s nice to see students take ownership in the business. They are really getting it off the ground.”

The building was there when students first stepped on campus in 1995, but it has taken years of experimenting and sacrifice to make it what it is today.

It was constructed in the 1940s and used as a cantina by the military stationed at what was then Fort Ord. After the soldiers left in 1993, the building was left empty until 1996, when World Theater Manager Phil Esparza discovered it. It had “paper towels for insulation,” recalled Esparza in a documentary directed by student Brent Mayers.

A handful of CSUMB students and faculty converted the place into a makeshift performance center, a virtual “black box.” In those early years, the World Theater was the only venue for students, who felt the need for another place where they could chill out and express themselves. That became the BBC, a place, Esparza says, where “you can do anything you want without too many hoops to jump over. There is no other place like that at this university.”

With open mic sessions and campus bands bringing in crowds of students, the BBC was the main factor that lured Bruecker, a film and music student, to CSUMB in 1999. “I had a place to perform at and try out new ideas and see if they worked,” he says.

Three years after it opened, even the BBC’s popularity could not keep it out of the red. Fire marshals shut it down due to several building violations in the spring of 2000: The venue had faulty wiring, no wheelchair access and the stage was about ready to collapse.

“If anything would have gone wrong in there, everyone would have died,” says Vito Triglia, chair of Events Workgroup, a branch of student government that funds and organizes music events.

About 350 students protested the closure by marching around campus beating drums, demanding that the BBC be reopened. A student coalition was formed to look into renovating the building, but they needed help from their peers. That came about when CSUMB students unanimously voted to increase their fees by $40 to fund the renovations, which ended up costing the student body close to $1 million.

With the CSUMB Foundation, the main auxiliary of the campus, agreeing to subsidize the BBC until it paid off the renovation loan, the pub finally reopened in February of 2001 and returned to student hands.

Clausen says they “started from ground zero” with no vendors, menus or staff. The Otter Student Union (OSU) was formed to implement programming and policies and cater to “whatever the students want,” says Derek Ford, OSU chair.

After the reopening rush passed, Ford says, things “slowed way down.” It has taken the formation of an underground music circuit to bring in the students and community.

“Other campuses are like, ‘well, let’s bring Smashmouth,’ and we can’t do that,” Triglia says. “The best thing we can do is bring in these bands from a unique and underground situation.”

In 2002, the BBC had several successful shows, including La Banda Skalavera, a ska band from Riverside, and Groundation, a Bay Area band that plays roots reggae. Last year the Black Box continued to grow, packing in 100 people weekend after weekend with a stream of diverse shows.

“One night it’s a hip-hop show, another night it’s a samba band, and we have plenty of rock,” Triglia says. “It’s been steadily getting bigger and bigger.”

LA-based Latin rock and hip-hop band Slowrider played a free show at BBC last semester on their way to play a gig in Berkeley, where tickets were going for $15. “Here it’s free because it’s our job to put on shows for this campus and the surrounding community,” Triglia says.

Now that the BBC has an upgraded sound system, Triglia is determined to bring in what he calls “next level bands” that are “still up and coming, but on their way.” He has already booked reggae legend Mikey Dread to play on Feb. 27, with more big names to come, and is determined to have “shows that are on pace with Santa Cruz.”

The best thing about it, he says, is that the shows will always be all-ages, making it ideal for bands and those who attend.

“Usually the bands play in a bar and no one is watching, or in a local community center with a bunch of 15-year-olds,” Triglia says. “The BBC combines the best of two worlds.”

For hours and upcoming events at the Black Box Cabaret call 582-3597 or visit http://csumb.org/bbc.