AFI / Swingin' Utters - June 30th, 1995

During the 80's & 90's Seattle had a law called the Teen Dance Ordinance which made it almost impossible to have a small concert which was all-ages. The law required a bunch of red tape, expensive insurance & off duty cops which made it financially prohibitive for all but the largest venues to allow access to minors.  Sounds a bit like Footloose, doesn't it?

AFI - Getting RE/AL

Of course that never actually stopped all-ages shows, it just meant that Seattle had a thriving house show scene. Bands which normally would have played in small clubs or bars often ended up performing in someones basement or living room. 

The Radio House was a punk house on Capitol Hill which had a bunch of great shows in the mid 90's. It was named for it's proximity to a large radio tower, & between songs it was possible to hear the broadcast playing through the performing band's amps. A friend of mine who lived there was kind enough to loan me a few recordings of bands that performed at the house.

Swingin' Utters

(photo also by Dan Halligan)

Which brings us to this recording featuring, AFI & the Swingin' Utters at the Radio House in the summer of 1995. Each band played a few songs before switching off to the other band. I'm not really a fan of either of the bands, and the recording is kinda shitty, but I can't pass up the opportunity to post something by AFI before they became cartoon characters.

Thanks to Cameron for the tapes and to Dan Halligan/10 Things for the photos from the show. I'll be posting more tapes from Cameron in the future & Dan has a bunch of great photos on his flikr page

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P.S. I can't be bothered to separate this one into tracks and hunt down song titles.

His Hero Is Gone - August 2nd, 1997

Nothing fancy to say about this show. To be honest I don't even remember it, which is a shame, 'cos I played the shit out of their first two records.

This recording is from the soundboard at 924 Gilman St. Also playing were Brother Inferior, Black Army Jacket & Noothgrush.

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Karp - September 24th, 1997

There's been a lot of interest in Karp lately, which is rad, they deserve it. Heck, there's even a documentary in the works! So I'm not going to re-invent the wheel and try to write a bio. If you know Karp you should download this. If you don't, then that's something you'll just have to live with.

This is a recording from a show at the Chameleon in San Francisco. Also playing were the Young Pioneers. At the time I was pretty homesick for living in the Pacific Northwest and Karp really made my day. I also taped their show at 924 Gilman two days later. A year later I was living back in Seattle.

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