I first became interested in punk and indie music when I was in eighth grade, circa 1993 or so. At that time, commercialized "alternative" rock and (a little bit later) grunge were beginning to become popular all around the country, but these trends failed to take hold in Cleveland until the end of my freshman year at St. Ignatius High School in 1994. Prior to that, the punk/indie scene was extremely small and insular, being comprised chiefly of a few older, 'legendary' bands from the early-mid 80s and a handful of newer hardcore bands. I was fortunate enough to have experienced the 'last hurrah' of this version of the scene during the summer before I started high school. Although I was barely 14 years old at the time, I somehow managed to sneak into a few shows (including one with the late, great Drill Kitty) at the Phantasy Nite Club as well as Peabody's in the Flats.

Throughout my freshman year at Ignatius, I spent my time combing local record stores and building up a nascent punk discography. By the beginning of the summer, grunge had hit Cleveland in a *big* way. Suddenly everyone I knew was wearing flannel, ripping up their Levi's, and listening to Nirvana. By the middle of sophomore year, c. 1995, the so-called "punk renaissance" was in full swing, and all the kids had abandoned Nirvana and Pearl Jam in favor of Green Day and The Offspring. As far as I can tell, this was when the mid-90s scene really began to take on its distinctive shape.

To begin with, almost all of the local venues began promoting all-ages shows on Friday and Saturday nights, the only real exception being the Euclid Tavern. As a result, the punk scene literally exploded; all of a sudden thousands of suburban high school kids were going punk, forming bands, and hanging out at the Phantasy, Peabody's, and the Grog Shop. It was a very large, very young, and very incestuous scene. Fashions changed with stunning speed, new factions were always springing up, and punker-than-thou scenesterism spread like plague. Still, in spite of all the bullshit, it was a lot of fun - a great thing for a young kid from the burbs to experience.

By the time I went off to college in late 1997, the scene seemed to be changing again. Punk was on the wane, and new metal/grindcore was on the rise. It's been many years since I've been to a Cleveland show, so I really have no idea what's going on anymore. However, I do remember a lot about the mid-90s scene, and I have outlined some of my memories below.

VENUES

First, a word about the venues. Around 1996, before the appearance of the Beachland Ballroom and the Blind Lemon, the scene was dominated by four main clubs: the Phantasy in Lakewood, Peabody's in the Flats, the Euclid Tavern in Cleveland, and the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights.

Because they didn't promote as many all-ages shows, the latter two tended to attract a somewhat older crowd. The Phantasy, in contrast, was *the* place for kids to see local punk and hard-core bands. On Friday and Saturday nights they would put on cheap all-ages shows which were always a lot of fun. If you were underage, they'd mark your hands with a rubber stamp - of course, this seldom prevented us from getting our hands on beer! Rhe slam dancing was always out of control - people would get really crazy and start throwing chairs around. But here's the coolest thing; no matter how insane the situation became, shows were never canceled, people were seldom thrown out, and the bouncers/proprietors never acted like assholes toward the kids.

In those days there were basically two factions in the scene. One was comprised of the poppier bands and their fans (mostly skater kids); the other was comprised mostly of the down-and-dirty '77/hardcore guys. Although these factions generally managed to coexist peacefully, tensions would occasionally arise. For example, I remember going to one show at the Phantasy, circa 1996 or so, which had 3 or 4 bands on the schedule - the Nimrods, a pop-punk band from Kent; Scuzzmonkey, a Cleveland-based oi band; some ska band from Pittsburgh; and some other band who name I can't remember. During the Nimrods' set, all of the mohawk guys were spitting beer at the stage, flipping off the band, etc. The lead singer/guitarist became really mouthy and indignant, which made the mohawk guys even more pissed off. I honestly believed that a fight would break out; fortunately this didn't happen. Anyway, the real highlight of the show was scuzzmonkey, a band consisting of two mohawks and a teenage drummer who had apparently been recruited just a few days before the show. The lead singer kept hurling invective at the poor drummer for messing up the parts!

The other principal all-ages venue was Peabody's in the Flats. Shows there were seldom as heavily attended as the ones at the Phantasy, owing to the location, but they still tended to get pretty packed. Peabody's mostly booked touring bands; practically every band on Lookout records and Fat Wreck Chords played there between '95 and '97. One of the best shows I attended there was TKOs/Humpers/No Use For a Name in March of '96. This was one of the few times I had an opportunity to see the TKOs, who were undoubtedly one of the top 5 or 6 bands in the scene at the time. I have no idea what became of them, but their one and only 7" is a true punk classic and a must have for any serious collector of obscure clevo punk. The lead-singer (Brandon?) looked and acted a lot like Sid Vicious, which conduced very well to the band's '77 style.

There are a few other venues worth mentioning. One is Difiore's Music on Lorain Road in Westpark, a mom-and-pop operation which used to put on punk and hardcore shows in a tiny room in the back of the store. I saw some *amazing* shows there c. 1995, one of which included the Mormons, Steve Peffer's (of 9 Shocks Terror) old band. Prior to that point, Steve was just this weird guy I'd always see at shows; I had no idea he was in a band, let alone a band as good as the Mormons. Among other things, they did a hardcore version of Paula Abdul's "Straight Up" (-- straight up now tell me is it gonna be you and me forever - OI OI OI!!)! Difiore's was also a great place to hear pop-punk bands like the Unknown, Dreyfus, etc. From what I recall, they had stopped booking shows by the time I was a senior (c. 1997), and I have no idea whether they ever resumed this practice.

Another venue was Riot 101, a tiny, dingy record store on Lorain near West Boulevard. In addition to boasting an excellent selection of punk vinyl, Riot also held a number of shows in their basement c. 1996, a few of which I attended. I have no idea how long this place was around, but it seemed to have disappeared by 1997.

The Rhythm Room in Cleveland Heights used to book a lot of ska shows c. 1996 or so. This practice had pretty much ceased by the time I graduated, and from what I understand it never resumed.

Finally, there's the old Viking Saloon near Cleveland State, where WCSB put on a few really great benefit shows in the mid-90s. The very best, which must have been in 1996 or so, featured the Aggravators, Anti-Flag, the Spudmonsters, and countless other bands. At one point, I remember one guy was sliding around the floor on a table bodyboard-style. Also, one of the bands (the Aggravators?) ended their set by completely destroying their instruments - very, very punk rock.

BANDS

Many - if not most - of the bands in the mid-90s scene were short-lived outfits organized by high school students and out-of-work twenty-somethings. The very best among them tended to be "one 7" wonders" who played a handful of legendary shows, cut a single, and then vanished.

In my opinion, the top band from this period was the TKOs, a snotty, irreverent '77-style band who only released one or two singles during their all-too-brief existence. Other bands I remember include the H-100s, Whatever..., the Mormons, L.I.G.H.T, the Aggravators, the Unknown, Dreyfus, Scuzzmonkey, and the Nimrods. With a few exceptions (e.g., the Unknown), I have no idea what became of most of these bands, or if they released any material. The Aggravators in particular were really fantastic; they had a song called "Pissed Again" which remains one of my favorite punk anthems of all time.

There were a number of bands active at St. Ignatius high school during my four years there. I was in a band called 'Ephis Pitch' which never recorded anything, only played two shows, and ended up fizzling out rather quickly. Our drummer, a really talented kid named Kris Monroe, ended up joining another more established Ignatius band called the Lisps, who I believe released a split 7" with the Hysterics (if anyone knows anything about this, please let me know!). Kris later went on to join the Signoffs, one of the most accomplished ClePunk bands of the early 21st century. Two other really excellent bands from this milieu were Martha Dumptruck and Tender Blindspot. The former was around for at least three years, I think, and played a number of really great shows (one of which was with the Mormons at Difiore's). They may have recorded something but I'm not sure. The latter wasn't quite a punk band, per se, but they were definitely very talented and may very well still be around. They released at least one album that I know of (entitled "Saturnine"), but I actually haven't heard it.

RADIO

All throughout high school I was a devoted listener of WCSB 89.3 FM and - to a lesser extent - WRUW. At that time, Steve Wainstead was still the king of local radio, and it was through him that I became familiar with most of the seminal Cleveland bands (e.g., Easter Monkeys, Knifedance, etc.). For awhile Steve had a music show on CSB that was on VERY early in the morning - possibly on Thursdays - but gradually started devoting most of his attention to his 31337, his computer underground show. Somewhere along the line he also hosted a new version of 'Wainstead All Night' on WERE 1300 AM, but I don't remember this lasting very long.

There were a few really good punk shows on CSB, some of which evolved into crazy, no-holds-barred late night talk shows with massive local followings. One of these - 669 - became ridiculously popular in the years following my graduation. The best show of all (the name of which eludes me) was on Sunday nights, followed by the "Hour of Slack." It was hosted by some guy named Mark, I think, who was the music director of the station at the time.

RECORD STORES AND HANG-OUTS

From what I remember, there weren't many places to buy decent punk rock and indie stuff in Cleveland when I was in high school. Early on, long before I developed a political conscience, I used to shop at the Camelot at Parmatown Mall. By 1995 I had a record player and a driver's license, so I was buying most of my stuff from Quonset Hut in Parma, Riot 101 in Cleveland, Record Revolution in Cleveland Heights, and Chris' Warped Records in Lakewood. With the exception of Riot 101, all three are still around, but from what I hear only Chris' continues to have a really good vinyl selection. Both Quonset Hut and Record Revolution seem to have drastically scaled back their vinyl offerings, and neither are particularly good for finding local music anymore.

As far as hang-outs go, the most popular spot was always the Coventry strip. At the time, it was still a haven for punk rockers, artists, and various other bohemians. On weekend nights, the little plaza outside the Arabica coffee shop would be filled with skaters, gutterpunks, drug dealers, and assorted ne'er-do-wells. Kids used to loiter around there for hours, either in the Arabica or outside; others would walk up and down the strip between the Centrum Theater and the Grog Shop, stopping once and awhile to browse at Record Revolution or Big Fun. When I visited Coventry in September '01, I was surprised by how much it had changed. The punks were all gone, having been replaced by middle-aged yuppies and gap-clad college assholes from JCU and CWRU. To make matters worse, both Arabica AND the Centrum Theater were closed down (they might have been reopened since then).

Coffee shops - especially the Phoenix in Lakewood, the Red Star, Coventry Arabica, University Circle Arabica, etc. - used to be major hang-outs. This was in the days before the proliferation of Starbucks and Carribou, so there were hardly any yuppies to be found anywhere. The Arabicas were especially cool because they had smoking sections and also because they allowed you to loiter around for hours without giving you a hard time.

The Big Egg Restaurant in Cleveland used to be *the* place to go after weekend shows. The place was dingy and the food was crap, but it was cheap and it was open all-night. I heard a rumor that they were shut down awhile ago due to health code violations - which wouldn't surprise me, frankly.

Madison Village was pretty much nonexistent back then. I used to drive out there to shop at Chainlink Addication and Chris' Warped Records, but for the most part the strip was undeveloped and no one really hung around. As far as the West Side goes, a lot of kids loitered around Kamm's Corners, or else near the Phantasy/Chamber/Symposium complex, but neither site was ever as popular as Coventry Village.

The Flats was a really hot destination for all sorts of people back then, especially in the wake of the burgeoning urban renaissance (or burgeoning gentrification, depending on how you look at it). For the most part, however, punks were few and far between on Old River Road. This makes sense, since the Flats at that time was mostly dominated by places like Shooters as well as big dance clubs like Trilogy. I recall being frequently harassed by frat-boy assholes during my occasional visits to Peabody's.

Tremont hadn't yet grown into the up-and-coming hotspot it supposedly is today. Still, a lot of punks used to hang out at Edison's Pub (which had the best jukebox in the city) and eat greasy Polish food at Sokolowski's University Inn.

THE END

By the time I was about to leave for college c. 1997, the scene - indeed, the entire city - seemed to be changing. Cleveland in the mid-90s was in a transitional state. On the one hand, it was slowly transforming into a cleaner and safer place to live (thanks to various urban renewal projects) as well as an increasingly sought-after tourist destination (thanks to new attractions like the Rock Hall and Jacobs Field). On the other hand, it retained many of the dirty, gritty aspects which had earned it the infamous title of "mistake on the lake. For a time the scene reflected this transition, I think, being as it was a curious blend of old and new, young and not-so-young, etc. But by 1997, the transition was more or less coming to fruition, and the scene as I knew it was beginning to dry up.

I have no idea what things are like these days. Some people have told me that there is no punk scene in Cleveland any more - that, with the exception of a few experimental and indie rock bands, local music is pretty much dominated by new metal and grindcore. Most of the bands I listened to and watched have vanished; many of my hangouts have disappeared or else become yuppified; a few the venues have even closed, I think.

Still, I can't help but feel hopeful when I learn of the growing popularity of newer venues (e.g., Blind Lemon, Beachland Ballroom, etc.), the proliferation of new scenes (e.g., the noise rock collective centered around Speak in Tongues), the development of new hangouts (e.g., Madison Village), and renewed interest in the legendary punk bands of old (as witnessed by the slew of reunion shows in the summer of '01). Perhaps the Cleveland punk scene will survive after all.

If anyone has any information about the current scene, I'd be very interested in learning more about it. Also, if anyone reading this belonged to/participated in the mid-90s clevo scene and would like to share stories, memories, etc., please feel free to contact me at
njun@sas.upenn.edu

Nathan Jun, 8 April 2002