A thumping bass vibrated through the sidewalk just outside a house March 22 on Washington Street. A drum beat steadily echoed through the seemingly placid street. The first floor contained a few guests, who were found mingling with one another. But the real party was downstairs.
Hidden in the basements of Bloomington residences lies an alternative venue for music: the house show. While Bloomington’s vast music scene is dominated by venues such as the Bluebird, Rhino’s and the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, the house show is an intimate alternative for performers and attendees.
The crowd of about 40 consisted of women in print dresses and Chuck Taylor All-Stars and men in flannel shirts and Buddy Holly glasses, socializing with one another while bobbing their heads in unison to the poppy tunes of Everything Now! This band could have played at any other Bloomington venue, but they chose an unadvertised, impromptu house show.
The intimacy and lack of age restraints is what makes house shows appealing for the The Impossible Shapes, said band member Chris Barth.
The Impossible Shapes were the second band that performed March 22. They are 10-year veterans of the underground music scene, have released eight albums and played gigs everywhere from Bloomington to Los Angeles. Barth said he prefers house shows to bigger venues because they are a new and novel experience every time his band plays. He likes the idea of playing for different groups of close-knit friends who want to enjoy music together. Barth added that he is not exclusive about his audience.
“I’ll play for anyone – even for your grandma,” Barth said.
The band said fame is not what they are after and that he and his band mates are happy with their current amount of recognition, which consists of fans of underground music.
This was the first time Barth and his band mates played at this particular house. The Impossible Shapes were asked to play this house show by a close friend, Eric Alexander, a member of the band Hot Fighter No. 1, which also performed at the show.
Teeth Mountain Live at the Statehouse
Alexander will soon be leaving Bloomington to take a job in upstate New York.
“I wanted to throw a going-away party before I left,” Alexander said. “This isn’t even my house.”
Alexander said the general crowd consists of “mid-20s rock ’n’ rollers,” most of whom are a close group of friends that travel the house-show circuit.
The party started at about 8 p.m., although the live music didn’t commence until almost two hours later. With four bands performing that night, the show didn’t end until the early hours of morning.
Totally Michael
This particular house is, of course, not the only underground music haven located in Bloomington. And there is no set type of people who perform at, attend or host these events. House shows are a common weekend activity throughout Bloomington, as well as the world. The Web site www.concertsinyourhome.com, for example, is dedicated to promoting house shows throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe for various artists. It currently has about 300 concert presenters and 460 artists.
Other places, like “the Statehouse,” a house on the south side of town, are interested in showcasing bands such as local favorites Prizzy Prizzy Please and Austin-based traveling band Brownout.
Prizzy Prizzy Please - Shorgasm! LIVE
Prizzy Prizzy Please - Too Many T-shirts
Prizzy Prizzy Please - Cow Eat Cow
Dustin Laurenzi, lead guitarist and backup vocalist for Brownout, said the Statehouse’s shows are popularized through word of mouth. The main focus of the band is just to have fun.
“Once we played a show in our saxophonist and singer’s apartment and the crowd was apparently jumping around and ended up breaking the floor, so that was pretty intense.”
On Being Neighborly - Live at the Statehouse
Sixty percent of house-show attendees are there to drink, while 40 percent go to enjoy the music, said Michael Squeri, a freshman and the guitarist for The Elegant Bachelors.
He also said that every party tends to have a common equation: “Band in the basement huddled in the corner, keg in the kitchen.”
IU seniors Tim Zawada and Braydon Thompson, the two DJs known collectively as Counts of Bounce, play house shows for everyone from fraternity live-outs to hipsters. While they aren’t exclusive about where they play, Zawada said there are certain don’ts for house shows. He said the three most common mistakes for any house show are incorporating drinking games, having too much lighting and playing the wrong music.
“Beer pong or other lame drinking games isn’t for shows because it takes away the from the real focus, which is the dancing and the music,” he said.
Zawada then added that the more dimly lit a show is, the more comfortable both performers and attendees are.
The house show exists in Bloomington as a venue for under-the-radar bands and as a get together for close groups of friends. The scene is an all-ages party showcasing some of Bloomington’s most talented undiscovered future legends of music.
