A look at the 70s/80s Chicago, Illinois, punk scene

This is an article that gives a quick view of Chicago punk and alternative music in the 70s and 80s.

Remembering Chicago the 70s and the 80s: Punk

Credit: Psycho Cindy

Chicago was home to a number of underground music scenes in the ’70s and ’80s, but none perhaps more unruly than the emerging punk and hardcore scene in 1977. Inspiration came from the New York artists then playing Chicago, including Patti Smith, television, Lou Reed, and mostly, the Ramones. Its earliest hotspots were dance clubs, not concert venues. La Mere Vipere on Halsted Street was a gay bar that morphed into Chicago’s first great punk bar with an edge that would be reflected in some of the bands that eventually came out of Chicago – a mixture of British-influenced punk, art school vibe, New York new wave feel, and definitely not hippie contrariness with an antistyle style and plenty of attitude. La Mere was located on a stretch of Halsted Street south of Fullerton and it burned down under mysterious circumstances in April, 1978, only to be replaced by a liquor store. When saddened fans complained publicly to Patti Smith at her Park West show that “they burned it down,” she said, “So your club burned down. Start another one!” The punk/new wave DJ/dance clubs O’Banion’s, Lucky Number, Neo, and the Smart Bar followed. 

Everyone was waiting for the Sex Pistols to hit town, and tickets to their 1977 New Year’s Eve show at the Ivanhoe Theater on Clark Street were printed and sold ($4 general admission). The band was famously falling to pieces in front of audiences across the country before they finally imploded on stage in San Francisco at the Winterland Ballroom. They never played Chicago.

The early Chicago punk/new wave bands were a mixture of inspirations and styles. Jim Skafish’s band Skafish was notable for its inventive musicality and the absolute eccentricity and unabashed ugliness of its lead singer/songwriter/musical genius, Skafish.  Tutu and the Pirates were like crazed, fun-loving misfits from the ’70s basement rec room run amuck. The Immune System sported art school cool and minimalist aesthetics and Desmond carried working-class blues influences, but musically and theatrically it was dominated by the raging, roaming, intense vibe of its lead man, Jim Desmond. Plus there were The Dadistics. They could be heard at such places as Tuts, Gaspars, the Cabaret Metro (with the Smart Bar, Waves, and Stages all in the same space at different times), Misfit’s, Ruts, Medusa’s, C.O.D’s (which also burned down), and Exit.

Records could be found at Wax Trax on Lincoln north of Fullerton, and at Sounds Good on Ashland north of Belmont, which had a huge inventory of 45s, including Patti Smith’s “Hey Joe” backed with “Piss Factory.”

The shows were unpredictable and potentially explosive, even cathartic. They skirted the edges of chaos and good taste, and yes, they held a mirror up to society’s ugly underbelly, but mostly they were good, bratty fun, with city and suburban kids behaving badly and loving it. Stuffy, it wasn't; it was down and dirty. Dye your hair some shocking color and rip your stockings, honey. We’ll pogo til dawn.

Review of a book on the Rockford, Illinois, punk rock scene

A review on the book, Out of the Basement: From Cheap Trick to DIY Punk in Rockford, Illinois, 1973-2005, by David Ensminger.

Review: Out of the Basement Describes the Birth of the Punk Scene in Rockford

by Kate Scott

Out of the Basement: From Cheap Trick to DIY Punk in Rockford, Illinois, 1973-2005 is an autobiographical look at how the punk music scene started in David Ensminger’s hometown of Rockford, Illinois. It’s published by Microcosm Publishing, a Portland based co-operative press.

In the 1980s, Reaganomics ruled America. Taxes were raised 11 times during Reagan’s administration, and a chasm divided the wealthy and working class. Suburban families nestled comfortably on the outskirts of ‘dangerous’ cities, hoping to shield their children from the perils of crack cocaine and rampant violence. The political and cultural divide helped to bring punk rock, one of the most passionate and powerful genres of music, to the front of millions of conflicted teens’ minds and mouths. In Out of the Basement, author David A. Ensminger takes readers to the Illinois town of Rockford (home of the quintessential rock band Cheap Trick) and captures how important punk can be for those who are lost, awkward and pissed off.

Rockford, Illinois, is not a small town. Home to more than 150,000 people, and less than 100 miles west of Chicago, Rockford was designed to be an industrial hub and boasted huge economic development. However, as employment and production in the Rust Belt declined, the unemployment rate for blue collar workers in Rockford skyrocketed to nearly 26% in the 1980s. Segregation in the town prompted additional discord between residents. Those who made money and considered themselves above the working class attempted to keep their family on the “rich” side of town. Ensminger paints a portrait of the ‘80s in Rockford from his teen years playing punk music there: “Rockford was not just another bummed out Midwest town; it became one of the worst, replete with a withering economy and a moral austerity as well.”

For bored and disillusioned adolescents confronted by the sharp and sudden dilapidation of their city, a fierce rebellion arose in Rockford. Dozens of small punk bands formed and played wherever they could. On any given weekend, teens could go to the skating rink, 4H club, or almost any open garage and find a group of sweaty, awkward kids playing three chords with every ounce of energy they had. As punk became the blood that pumped through his veins, Ensminger spent nearly every waking moment devoted to music and his first band, Vital Signs.

Ensminger doesn’t assume his readers are punk philistines. He references some of the genre’s key members (Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Plasmatics) without sitting the reader down and explaining who these bands are. A bit of punk knowledge is required for this book, but for the local (often unsuccessful) Rockford bands, he interviews musicians and friends and accompanies these stories with old photos and concert flyers. Consider looking these bands up and listening to their music while reading, because these stories are only further amplified with song.

Not just a love note to punk music, Ensminger’s book is also an autobiography of how growing up in a dying town shaped his future. He discusses the conundrum of living in a town that’s close to two of the midwest’s biggest cities: Milwaukee and Chicago. Punks who stayed in Rockford either resent those for leaving or were jealous because they couldn’t find the resources to leave themselves. Because of this, the noise coming out of Rockford became louder and more aggressive, pushing against the mainstream bands of the ’80s ( Journey, Foreigner and Duran Duran). But with this uprising came a blend of genres. Punk became rock, rock became metal, metal became punk.

“This meant crowds became more inclusive, democratic, and youthful, less geared towards booze-fueled tirades and more fueled towards slam dancing and skate-til-death/skate-and-destroy mentalities. Soon, gigs were attracting hundreds of kids zooming in from every direction. The punk nucleus widened considerably.”

Without Ensminger’s collective narrative, it’s safe to say many of these stories of garage bands and punk-rock debauchery would never have reached an audience wider than Rockford itself. The book covers four decades of music and politics, yet the core of the punk movement remains firmly in the 1980s. After Ensminger left Rockford to see what the world had to offer him, he found other cities to call his home. He never tries to dig up those Rust Belt roots, and his age reflects the pride he finally feels in his town. “I left, went West in 1993…Still, I always know that others lived just as boldly, just as creatively, purposefully, and witty, back in Rockford…” And, while his story may mostly take place in this distant exurb of Chicago, its communal tales and universal sound will resonate with everyone.

Read the review here.

Reviewer description of the midwest's punk scene

An edited version of a review I found where the guy gives some good description of music and the scene in the midwest...

The Inarguable -  Cornfields and Black Lace: The Midwest Post-Punk Resurgence

When one thinks about the Midwest, only two things come to mind: Chicago...and endless cornfields, because apparently that's all that happens to be out here. If that isn't bad enough, the general consensus about music out here runs the gamut from Nachtmystium to Slipknot. Yes sir, we Midwesterners sure have an outstanding reputation. Deep beneath the wallet chains, Tripp pants, and drug addictions, something much more glorious (and legitimately downtrodden) in seedy late bars and warehouses throughout our fair land. Call it post-punk, peacepunk, goth rock, or one of its many other names, it is impossible to deny the presence of such new greats as Cemetery, Anatomy of Habit, Population, and Kam Kama (more on the last two later), among many others, in this burgeoning Midwest scene.

In post-punk's early '80s heyday, the Midwest United States proved to be one of the most reserved regions in the country. With the no wave scene to the East, deathrock to the West, and darkwave's earliest beginnings with San Antonio's Lung Overcoat to the South, Middle America found itself in the position of the middle child: appreciated, but only in passing. Though success found itself by way of notable Lincoln, Nebraska act For Against, the first to blur the line between post-punk and "dreampop," many groups like Chicago's short-lived DA! ended up swept under the proverbial rug...

Kam Kama's scope strays from post-punk's usual "doom and gloom" outlook for something much more...nostalgic, which is exceptionally fitting for Middle America. I don't know if many of you have ventured outside the Chicago area, but most of the Midwest hasn't been able to keep up with its concentrated metropolitan areas, leaving most places somewhere in the mid-to-late 1980s, complete with bright, albeit fading, neon clothing, boom boxes, and headbands. Sounds straight out of a John Hughes movie? Well...it kind of is, and Kam Kama's The Tiled House carries that sort of happy, albeit faded feeling which accompanies those sorts of memories. The Tiled House's ethereal, subdued guitars and nasally, endearing vocals (courtesy of bassist and Fosdyk Well member Scott Ferguson) echo the sort of nostalgia one feels when flipping through their high school yearbook's yellowed pages or watching a dusted VHS of home movies. It's a happy sort of sensation, but with a longing for times past.

Read the complete review here.

Site with a bunch of photos from the 80s American punk scene

This is just a site I found doing research that features a bunch of black and white photos from the 80s American punk scene. I've included the introductory paragraph here with a few of the photos.

Portraits Of…North American Punk Culture From The 80′S & 90’S

When I look at old photos of the punk scene, a really good feeling comes over me. Maybe because I know I’m looking at my roots – the people that helped make me who I am. One of my regrets is that I did not pick up a camera, but being 12, taking pictures was a lot harder back in 1981 (this was way before even the first disposable camera). With the internet, we now have the power to see the global impact of the punk scene during the 80’s and early 90’s. Now places like the American Punk/Hardcore Archive (78-91) exist, where people can share photos and more from their past. I can spend hours on this site going through images that take me back in time; especially the flyers for shows that I went to as a youth. The energy that I see in these flicks is the vibe that drives me to do what we do here at CVLT Nation every day. The amount of creativity and passion in these images is unavoidable! I want to salute all of the photographers that captured our history…When you are done here, head over to American Punk/Hardcore Archive (78-91)!

Photo by Patrick Houdek Lost Cross House 1987 Lost Cross House Carbondale, IL

Photo by Bill Daniel Big Boys, Chris Gates and Mr. Biscuit at Club Foot, Austin.

Photo by Bill Daniel Black Flag, Henry Rollins, Austin 11/28/81 ALA Club

Labels: 1981, 70s, 80s, 80s punk, 90s, American punk, Austin, Carbondale, Illinois, live music, Lost Cross House, photography, photos, pics, research, shows, Texas