Monday, February 18, 2008

Off-Site: Dayton Punkhouse Documentary (1987)

One great thing about doing this blog is that through it I've discovered that I'm not the only person infected with the obsession to catalog the history of this town's bizarre musical subcultures. Witness:








Found this through Buckwheat's blog over at MySpace. For those who don't know (and I didn't until a couple of weeks ago), Mister Wheat (and 10,000 potato points to anyone who gets the "Mister Wheat" allusion) was a regular Dayton music hanger-outer type in the late '80s. In that time he took a lot of photos and has been posting many on his MySpace and Flickr sites -- great stuff if you're at all interested in what was going on in Dayton twenty years ago.

I'm pretty sure the house featured in this footage is the old punkhouse next door to the building lounge on third street. The guy mainly featured is Scott Childress (apologies if I spelled his name wrong). I'm sure I met him a few times, but I can't say I knew him well -- same goes for most of the other people in the video. This is just slightly before my time. I recognize faces, but for most, I don't remember names. The only one I was closely associated with was Jason Himes. If you recognize any of these people, please add your observations to the comments section.

Anyway, the video has degraded quite a bit, but it nonetheless remains a great document of what the hardcore crusties were up to back in '87. I find it especially interesting because, although I would sometimes go hang out among this little subculture (I have a vivid recollection of watching the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in this very house on the same night I also went next door and saw THE MEMBRANES), I was never close to being a part of it. It's kind of fun to see now what I missed then (even if it's on 20 year old, degraded VHS). All in all, this sort of has a Decline of Western Civilization flavor -- but it's decidedly Dayton.

take care

---Jones()

14 comments:

Maime said...

I believe that sleeping Amy was Amy Lane (Sharon's daughter). God, I feel old now. Thanks.

Oh, a quick peruse of Myspace will give you a ton of Dayton oldies including Mr. Childress himself. Who, looks frighteningly like my father now.

Anonymous said...

Ha! I was at that Membranes show too! Admittedly I was somewhat disappointed with that show; hype? Anyways, for y'alls that read this blog and had been hangin' out in Dayton during the late 80s and early 90's, especially you punk asses, please contribute fotos to this Flickr site.

mite said...

I believe one of the people in the video is schaef, who did something with an anarchist group. (Grog knows him a bit better than I do). The girl with the Mohawk, Andi, I believe dated Scott for awhile and they were like Mr. & Mrs. punk rock of Dayton. They are even in a small part of the movie "Emma & Elvis" (written and directed by local Emmy Award winner Julia Reichert). Emma approaches them wanting to know more about their lifestyle. The scene in the movie was shot at the old 1470 West.

The last time I talked to Schaef he said that Andi had moved to Germany. I remember her mostly by seeing her at the Ratt at WSU on Alternative Tuesdays. I was taking a poetry class and teaching myself guitar and I wrote my first song about her called "The Mohawk Chick".

Shafe said...

Yo,

Yeah, the sleeping woman is amy lane... She was actually a lot younger in the video but there was some issue as to whether or not it was good to disclose how young she really was.

The mohawk lady is andi, she is living in hamburg, germany she was in dayton for a month around the holidays this past year, unfortunately I couldn't make it there to see here, she is teaching business english over there and is still the same andi.

Emma in Elvis, that was a horrible movie but a lot of folks in the punk scene got to be in there as extras, I remember filming at the front street warehouse and at 1470.. 1470 was fully catered, and we where mostly excited about the free food hehehe.. Scott somehow got himself a line or two in that scene, kinda on the fly.

I have a couple of other videos from that era, including some show videos which are equally in bad shape that I'll eventually get around to digitizing, just will be some time.

Cheers,
Shafe

Unknown said...

OK A friend sent this link to me. Yep I feel kinda old now. I am the 15yr old blond kid in the end watching the news. Not much has changed I am watching the news right now... Funny enough I just live a few blocks away from Sergio's old house next to the building lounge. Lucky me! I am gregg miller & those were the days. I miss andi. Someone give her my Email: dealignment@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

I remember seeing Scott at 1470's in the early 90's. I thought he was so cool.

I remember reading an article in the Dayton Daily News about Scott having some of his tattoo's removed. I searched the Dayton Daily News website and found the story. The story was called TATTOO it was published 2/27/1998

Here is the link.

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=0F51B72D1A643603&p_docnum=12

Anonymous said...

I'm sitting on my couch, bored, fucking around on my computer. I decided to google names of some old friends. I didn't expect to come across anything when I searched Scott's name. I was very surprised to see this video. I spent many a day and night in that house, in various states of mind. What a trip! Hello, to all my old friends.
- Audra

Anonymous said...

I'm sitting on my couch, bored, fucking around on my computer. I decided to google names of some old friends. I didn't expect to come across anything when I searched Scott's name. I was very surprised to see this video. I spent many a day and night in that house, in various states of mind. What a trip! Hello, to all my old friends.
- Audra

Anonymous said...

What an amazing video! I was a part of this scene in my mid to late teens and truly enjoyed watching this. In addition to Scott Childers, Andy White, Jason Himes, Brian Schaeffer, and Amy Lane... the 'other' sleeping girl is Sara Ryan. Wow! Thanks for the blast from my past.

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah, Amy Lane was 15 or 16 in this video, and Brian, you couldn't have been much more than that yourself???

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Roko Jon said...

Me and my friend came through Dayton (from Michigan) in 1987 on a road trip out West. We ran into Sergio skating downtown. He was on his way to work or something, so he drew us a MAP of skate spots in and around Dayton. River banks, benbow railslide, sadlands type spot in front of a business park, and some other stuff. Oh, and he put HIS HOUSE on the map, too. Said come on over when you're done.

We stopped by and he put us up for the night in the basement. As I recall it was him, his friend Chris, and two Dykes living there. They were all totally cool. In the morning, they offered to take us out to breakfast. To a soup kitchen!! Best free food I've ever had. (Well, Teen Feed in Seattle came close.)

It was a lesson in hospitality and just plain being cool that stuck with me. I have tried my best to pass it along. And I still have that map!

RoKoJon said...

What a trip! Me and a friend rolled through Dayton in 1987, fresh out of high school on a road trip out west, originating from Michigan. We ran into Sergio skating on the street. He stopped, rapped with us, and DREW US A MAP of skate spots. River banks, Benbow railslide, Fountainlands (?), some other spots, and he also PUT HIS HOUSE ON IT. Said come on by later, and let us crash there that night.

If I remember right it was him, a guy named Chris, and two girls who were living in that house. Can't tell if it was the house in the vid, or a different one.

The next morning, they offered to take us out to breakfast ... To a soup kitchen! Best free food I've ever enjoyed. (Well, teen feed in Seattle came close.)

It was a lesson in hospitality and just plain bein' cool that I did not forget. I've tried my best to pass it on.

Thanks, Sergio. We skated all those spots in Dayton, skated a ton of shit on our road trip, and I still have that map. srsly.

blair said...

Hi,

I'm an artist from Dayton who now lives in DC. I found this video completely inspiring. I'd love to use it for art, if there's any chance you'd be willing to share it or send it to me. If not, thanks for posting. It's a great piece.

Blair