Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Alternative/Indy Dayton

Going out to shows, I was noticing these urls for a bands MySpace page on CDs and flyers.

So that introduced me to the MySpace Music site, which is sort of a band/musician/venue network. And that opened a bit of a window on local alternative culture, something I wasn’t aware that was happening,..

Houses and a Performance Space

One thing I’ve noticed via MySpace is that the local music scene isn’t limited to bars. There are also these “house” venues, were people put on little live music shows in houses where they live, invite their friends and others. Some of the places have names, like The Birdbath (near Woodland Cemetery) and The Sandbox (someplace in South Park), and seem pretty ephemeral.

An example is the Acid Fever House, in a nondescript East Dayton neighborhood.



This house has been putting out those little microflyers every so often for their shows, so probably not that obscure

In a way this is a reminder that there was a very obscure punk scene in East Dayton back in the late '80s and very early '90s (there even was a punk club, "Building Loung" I think).

Then there is the Dayton Dirt Collective, which is trying to set up an all-ages peformance space of some sort…they list the famous Gilman Street space as an influence. They are doing house shows as benefits but also at places like Cornerstone:


Here are two non-music things. A MySpace presence, but not sure how active they are.

Food Not Bombs.

I’ve heard of them before, the national movement, probably via some left wing mags or ‘zines.. Though national it’s made up of local groups, very decentralized and DiY. Apparently a Dayton group is or was doing stuff, which means collecting food and feeding the homeless.

Really Really Free Market.

What it says. I think these folks hold the free market in vacant lots on the east side. There is a bit of an anarchist influence here, perhaps…wiki says this is also a national movement, too, like Food not Bomb, but concentrated in Carolina.

All we need now is some sort of indymedia thing or an infoshop.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Issues of the Dayton City Paper a couple of times in December and January had long, well-researched articles on the golden age of the Dayton music scene, approximately 1989 to 1999. Places like the defunct Newspace and stores like the torn-down Trader Vic's were absolutely where it was at. Open mic at the also now-torn-down Daily Grind coffeehouse were far cooler than Canal Street. It's fabulous to see a new generation taking up the torch.

Foreverglow said...

Very cool post, Jeff. I love the idea of house venues. Hopefully I can make it to one soon. My good friend is actually in Marijuana Johnson. At first I thought that white house was his. He lives in a similar nondescript East Dayton house.

Jefferey said...

Yeah, I've been reading those City Paper articles. They are by Meltones, who hosts the Bhudda Den blog, linked over in the blogroll.

I was around during those years but that whole scene was well below my radar at the time. I think I recall Daily Grind..wasnt it also called Front Street or was that another one?

Another thing I recall from that era was Criminal Records. It was a little record shop in a cinderblock factory building near Tals Corner, sold house and techno music and such. I dont think it was in buisiness but a year.

But yeah, there is a continuing underground in Dayton. I'd like to know what was up here in the late 60s and 70s. I know they had an underground newspaper..The RazzBerry Street Sheet..back then.

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To forevreglow, I plan on going to that show at Cornerstone, so y'all might see some snaps of the band either here or at UO.

Anonymous said...

No, Front Street and Daily Grind were two different coffeehouses. Front Street was on First Street (weirdly enough) near the corner of First and Main where there is now an Enterprise Rental Car place. It later became one of the Seattle East locations.

The Daily Grind was on Brown Street near UD, close to the old Jesse Phillips Center that's getting prepped for teardown soon. At one point after the coffeehouse closed, the property reverted back to ownership by UD and was used for office space, but the whole building has since been demolished for more student housing.

In Front Street's heyday, it was more of an artists' collective gallery space, though they did have some live music from time to time. Daily Grind, though, had a dedicated stage, albeit a small one, and was more about music.

Somebody ought to do a history of defunct Dayton indie coffeehouses. Another good one was EFX on Brown, which is now half a nail salon and half a tax prep service. They had a cigar lounge section and were the first to offer internet accessibility services (via a bank of computers in-house, though, no wi-fi... this was around '98, if memory serves).

Anonymous said...

Don't forget Plan B in the Oregon District. The only coffeeshop in Dayton in which you found needles on the restroom floor....

Anonymous said...

Jenny Mac's crew left the needles for sure.