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  • From: "Colin Booy" <cbooy AT yahoo.com>
  • To: ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: On Durham and identity
  • Date: 12 Apr 2007 12:01:45 -0700

When I first moved to town I noticed/thought a fair bit about the
absence of house shows, at least in Durham. My speculation is that
some of it at least has to do with the actual houses themselves:

1) At least as far as I've seen there seem to be hardly any houses
with basements. And of course a basement (= dirt in all directions but
up) is the best possible soundproofing. Growing up in Seattle and also
in college in Ohio, almost all viable punk/show houses put the noise
in the basement. I guess here it being so hot (and also, I think,
there are sediment/water table issues -- Durham seems to be built on
hard clay w/just the thinnest layer of soil, as I discovered trying to
grow tomatos last summer) that it's not feasible or desirable
economically to build basements.

2) Even if you do decide to get serious about soundproofing, these
damn houses have zero insulation, making it almost impossible (also
infuriating ecologically: insulation keeps the cool in, as well as the
hot). I remember when Chaz, Ten, and I were living together, making
dur-rock plugs for the windows, stacking matresses in front of them,
etc. and it didn't really make a jot of difference. The cops still
came, we got pretty spooked, and that was that for house shows at Ft.
Awkward (of course it didn't help that the bill somehow grew to 4-5
bands, and the amps seemed to keep getting louder/the cabinets even
bigger as the night progressed).

I mean, probably there's always going to be a bit of a limited run for
this sort of house (Raleigh gets the props for persistence in this
regard), but still the deck seems a little stacked against us in the
Triangle. I think the hope for a space like BCHQ is that it can retain
much of that kind of informal atmosphere (witness: everyone moshing to
Red Collar, of all things, with a silly grin platered on each face),
while avoiding some of the downfalls.

best,
Colin Booy.



On Apr 9, 3:13 pm, "trekky records" <willhac... AT gmail.com> wrote:
> man i really wish we could get more house shows together.
> unfortunately, finding a good house has been harder and harder. all
> the places we used to do house shows in Greensboro and the Triangle
> are not options anymore, as people have moved out. there is one that
> does a show every 6 months in CH, but that's so rare.
>
> we're hoping to have small acoustic shows in our new trekky
> headquarters house in CH, but there's always neighbors that hate
> music...






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