Living in Long Beach California, we try to use Long Beach as our base for most of our photo shoots. Long Beach seems to have it all; an ocean waterfront, lagoons, wooded parks, cool bars, the Queen Mary, infamous past filming locations from TV series and movies....Wondering where we were going to shoot some fun pics for our "A Knockout!" retro t-shirt design, we knew it shouldn't be at the beach, or in a park, or anywhere else except the newly opened Long Beach United Boxing Club located on 4th Street's Retro Row.Audrey DeLux & Rockwell DeVil duking it out at the Long Beach United Boxing Club.So, how does one go about asking a bunch of muscly tough looking guys if you could kindly inconvenience them by taking up their business space during business hours for photo shoot shenanigans? At first I was timid and worried they'd say no, but it was the exact opposite.We talked with one of the co-owners, Doug, and he was totally down to earth and an all around nice guy. Doug let us come in, use his Long Beach United boxing gloves, play around in the boxing ring, and do silly poses with the speed bag (um, we think that's what it's called, a speed bag?).When we finished up the shoot and thanked Doug for letting us shoot at his boxing club, we found out that Doug used to play in The Vandals, and his co-owner is the current drummer for NOFX. Both are very cool facts. If you haven't been to check out the Long Beach United Boxing Club on 4th Street's Retro Row - go check it out. The club has an old school vibe to it, they play awesome background music and they're really rad people!So, who won the fight that night between Audry DeLuxe vs. Rockwell DeVille? Winner: Rockwell DeVile!!! Don't worry friends! They made up later after the fight at our favorite local neighborhood bar, EJ Maloys in Long Beach. A big "Thank you!" to Doug at the Long Beach United Boxing Club for letting us shoot there!
