HELMET LIVE AT THE OUTHUSE.........THIS PAGE IS FOR THE MEMORY OF THE OUTHOUSE Lawrence,KS & FOR THE PROMOTION OF LOCAL MUSIC & ARTS...page est. dec 2007.....During a decade typically associated with Madonna, makeup and mullets - the Outhouse was Lawrence's torchbearer of alternative culture. And in the ‘80s, alternative meant punk --GWAR, Bad Brains, Descendents,Klusterfux,Ultraman,slackjaw, 7 Seconds, Naked Raygun, Sonic Youth. Those bands played the Outhouse; Billy Idol didn't.And for the teens and young adults -- from Lawrence, Topeka, Kansas City and beyond -- who congregated in the mud-soaked parking lot every weekend, the Outhouse meant something more than music. It meant freedom - from parents, from authority and from the banality of attending high school and growing up."It opened my eyes as a 14-year-old walking out in that cornfield seeing things I never saw in school,the Outhouse closed for good in 1998.The Outhouse wasn't the first venue to bring alternative music to Lawrence. Between the years of 1979 and 1981, the Opera House (now Liberty Hall, 642 Mass. St.) played host to the Buzzcocks, Iggy Pop and Devo. Local bands -- like the Clean, Get Smart, and Wichita's The Embarrassment -- found a home at Off-the-Wall Hall (now The Bottleneck, 737 N.H. St.). These venues -- together with the support of Kansas University's student-run radio KJHK 90.7 FM and Exile Records -- had fostered a bona-fide rock scene.But live alternative music took a big hit in 1982 when the Opera House and Off-the-Wall-Hall closed their doors. Off-the-Wall-Hall reopened briefly in 1983 as the Dynamo Ballroom, but closed again later that year. The Opera House also reopened to scattered shows but closed down in 1984 for renovation."It seemed like there was about a year and a half when there wasn't any place to see punk rock shows besides houses," said Bob Cutler, who later became a sound engineer at the Outhouse.Bill Rich, one of the Outhouse's founding fathers, would later become a personal assistant for William S. Burroughs before the death of the author and Lawrence resident. Today Rich works with disabled adults at Community Living Opportunities.
In 1984, Phil Heying organized one of the first officially promoted shows at what would be called the Outhouse. The show was a benefit -- for himself.Phil rented the building from Donny Mellenbruch, a burley Harley-Davidson motorcycle enthusiast that bought the cinder-block shack as a place to work on his motorcycles and throw parties. Though he didn't identify himself with the punk rock crowd, Donny soon became a fixture at shows."Donny came out a lot in the beginning because he liked the crowds and he liked to party," Rich said. "He liked to ride his motorcycle around the building after shows. One day he sang some songs and -- in the middle of a song -- took out a pistol and shot a hole through the roof."Later that year, (the Lawrence punk band) The Micronotz painted the building, built a stage and burned the brush around the building. With the skeleton of a venue intact, the only challenge left was getting bands to come out to a cinder-block building in the middle of a cornfield.Bill Rich, a 25-year-old punk rock enthusiast who already had experience booking shows at the Opera House, stepped up to task. With the help of KJHK, Rich and his production company Redline Productions began doing shows at the Outhouse.It was a relief from how tired music had been. My whole focus changed to punk rock.""It was a whole new do-it-yourself world. We didn't need the support of the system in anything we did -- touring, selling records, getting on the radio." the outhouse was the melting pot for local & regional music i spent alot of weekends there.watching bands that would become legands,but hadnt "broke out" yet I remember seeing alot of bands that are signed now,playing off a porch at a house party.it was like we got to see the birth of so much talent,so many bands. although the mic stands have been replaced with a brass pole and strobe lights it will always be a huge part of the music history here and everywhere.oh how i miss hanging upside down on the rafters above the pit after a stagedive.thank you to who ever had a part in it.The 4.4 mile drive east on 15th Street hasn't changed since the Outhouse traded its drum kits for big tips. The road is still crappy and the horizon is still dotted with cows. The pavement still gives way to gravel and the Outhouse...still sneaks up on you like a ghost in your rearview mirror...
