Anarcho Grunge Crusties Noise Spectacular stays one step ahead of Minneapolis Police Department

One cool facet of life in Minneapolis that I've checked out since moving here last October are the underground venues sprinkled around the city, in basements, apartments and the backs of shops. I hesitate to write very much about this, because the police play a bit of cat-and-mouse with these venues. Some have names, some don't. Some have MySpace pages, some don't. Just after my first visit to one venue, (either just minutes or the day after I left), the police busted them up and reportedly said that they couldn't have any more shows. Ironically, it's located about four doors down from the police station, and it only took them about two or three years to notice all the loud anarcho-punk music playing just off their alley.

According to rumor, some young teenager emailed their friend that they were going to get wasted there, which in turn was intercepted by their evil mother, who consequently called the cops, who trumped up the situation and claimed everything was out of control. For the record I have not seen anything illegal happening at any of these places, and it seems that the folks running them are responsible and law-abiding. Really.

Last night I was at a show featuring Harlequin, Faggot and some other noisy rock in an apartment at an undisclosed location somewhere in the middle of South Minneapolis, a show which would have been done at the first place, had Evil Mom not ruined everything. This venue had no discernible name, therefore it should remain anonymous. The show went late, well after midnight. I threw in a few bucks for the bands and everyone had a really good time. The shows are often free, people don't hassle you. Sometimes the groups there are kind of cliquish but the people-watching is usually pretty good. There were triple mohawks three feet in diameter and punkish kids wearing 3-D glasses. I'd never seen moshing in an apartment before. These locales are a great place for bands just starting out to get a gig and figure out how to make it work. Basically, it's your authentic twin cities youth culture at its most granular level.

The Alamo House is one that does have its own MySpace site. It is worth noting that a lot of shows are organized using MySpace.

Also the Playhouse Studios are more of a slack hip-hop-oriented venue/recording studio that keep a MySpace site as well (formerly known as the Wookiefoot Mansion). The Kremlin is another venue that is apparently doomed to evaporate at the end of May, as the landlord didn't want to let them keep the lease. Their last show will be on May 28, I'll let you try to Google that for details. Here's a video on YouTube from the Kremlin.

(We have added the category "Kulturny" to the site, which is the Russian term for culture. In the new version of Hongpong.com, Kulturny is going to be one of the main top-level categories)