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