Hades Nyasani, contributor
I started going to house shows when I was 14… I’ve seen the lifespan of tons of venues, sat half passed out on too many basement couches and spent hundreds of mornings after with sore feet and a lingering hurt in my cheeks from smiling. What unifies local shows and separates them from big concerts is largely rooted in place. Some may notice that recently we have had less physical spaces. This year marked the end of Como Backdoor and gave us our last Pink Place summer.
House venues exist in a transient space, but there is still a natural knee-jerk reaction when a venue you love is shutting down.
I sat down with my dear friend DJ Ladybug (Jo), who ran sound for Como Backdoor at one point. We chatted about the culture surrounding closing venues; “These places closing is always a bummer. I feel like all the venues I loved have closed, but these are rentals, and they can’t last forever.” Two years ago, houses like the now-defunct Laundry Room or garages like Cemetery Ridge were, according to Jo, “the coolest thing at the time.”
The undeniable “cool” venue this year was Como Backdoor, where my friends played and DJ’d, threw birthday parties, and went just for a place to hang out. Its closing hit close to home for lots of people because in Jo’s words, Como Backdoor was “baby’s first house show venue.” Como Backdoor isn’t the first victim of the cruel landlord treatment, however. Jo calls it the “millennium management issue” where houses in college towns share a small group of highly abrasive landlords who don’t want shows to happen in their rentals.
Even though venues’ closing is just a fact of DIY culture, it doesn’t erase the reality that people need places to be. House venues give people who have never really fit in a place they can be totally themselves. They give local bands and DJs places to play, and it is undeniable that the best shows you ever hear will be in someone’s dingy basement.
House venues give people who have never really fit in a place they can be totally themselves. They give local bands and DJs places to play, and it is undeniable that the best shows you ever hear will be in someone’s dingy basement.
Hades nyasani
But DIY culture is indomitable; six months from now a new swath of venues will pop up to be the next “coolest” thing. So while it sucks to wait, or feels scary to lose the first place you’ve felt like you can be yourself, remember that this is only a temporary loss. In reality, cool shows are constantly happening at awesome venues all over, you just have to know where to look.