"Great Party, Who Lives Here?"
The houses of West Campus kept it going after hours from the '60s through the '90s
“You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here,” is the standard clear-the-house line of bouncers and bartenders eager to close up for the night. No problem, boss. We just moved the party to an array of ramshackle houses, most in the vicinity of the University of Texas campus, where last call was “we’re out of beer.”
To walk those streets today is to visit a different town. As the rent at these quintessential party houses has quadrupled over the past 15-20 years, there are no more couch carcasses on the front porch or Dino Lee props in the trees. Get ready for another article about how cool Austin used to be as we go back to the years that inspired Slacker, when it was all about finding something to do when there was nothing to do. Caution: you may become nauseous when you see what rent used to be.
In the early ‘60s, you had “The Ghetto,” an old WWII barracks across Nueces Street and down the alley from Dirty’s, where the Texas Rangers crew (the humor magazine) held court and the UT folkies like Powell St. John, Janis Joplin, Tary Owens, John Clay and Lanny Wiggins held guitars, banjos, harmonicas and autoharps. Not a lot of homework got done at 2812 1/2 Nueces, but Gilbert Shelton studied the cast of characters and eventually came up with The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.
In the ‘70s, there was always a something going on in the 600 block of W. 33rd Street, “Hippie Row,” where sometimes they’d block off a section with their cars and just party in the street. No permit needed. The hip crowd called Sixth Street west of Baylor “Oakland” because there was a big party scene around Oakland Street. Members of Beto y Los Fairlanes lived in one of those $250 a month four-bedroom houses. “We’d make enough money on one Thursday at Liberty Lunch to cover rent,” drummer Mambo John told me.
When I got to town in the ‘80s, there was the OAF House at 28th and San Pedro and the House of Many Women at 28th and San Gabriel, and of course there was the Colony at 2703 Rio Grande, where punk rockers would stay up all night every Saturday, so they could wake up the sorority girls with their racket in the parking lot Sunday morning. “Go ahead and complain. We’re legal,” read a banner facing the Contessa West next door. Colony “caretaker” David McDonald would get a sound permit for the bands every week.
There was a lot of acrimony in the late ‘70s between the Raul’s crowd and the Greeks, as exemplified by the meme, “I was punk rock when it was called ‘Hey, faggot!’” The Big Boys answered with the single “Frat Cars” in 1980.
In the later ’80s, a new “devil’s triangle” of party houses was created to serve the so-called “New Sincerity” scene of melodic guitar bands. There was the House of a Thousand Beers on West 30th across from Trudy’s, Big Yellow, which is now the Spider House coffeehouse, and the Lodge at 2827 Salado, all housing a bunch of guys who know that the best way to make sure you get the last beer at a party is to hide one in the toilet tank.
Jennings Crawford, his Wannabes bandmate Hunter Darby, Statesman music writer Peter Blackstock and three other guys rented the Lodge unseen. It had five bedrooms and rent figured out to $89 a man, so they took it. When Crawford unlocked the door for the first time, he found a dead rat on the floor. The kitchen was overrun by silverfish, and the back room, where the Wannabes practiced, creaked like it would soon fall off from the house (it eventually did). The place was trashed even before they moved in (a prerequisite for party houses), so they just added their own stamp. But for awhile, the Lodge was the most famous residence in town besides the Governor’s Mansion. Junior’s Beer & Wine store on 29th used to advertise that it was next door to the Lodge; second-term resident Ken Lieck would mention it often in his Austin Chronicle column.
Members of R.E.M,, the Replacements and Fishbone were some of the bands that stopped by after their shows, looking for the party. Once, when Crawford was home alone watching TV late at night, the mohawked members of the Exploited showed up, saying they heard there might be a party.
Indestructibility, in both tenants and dwelling, was the key to having a great party house. That and a loose schedule that allowed you to sleep until noon or a job you could perform hung over and exhausted.
Nazi skinheads, led by Bay Area pus stain Mark Dagger, ruined the after-hours party scene for about a year. We’d be on the front porch arguing about the new Glass Eye lineup vs. the first one, and these amped-up bullies would show up for free beer and Doc Martin meat. Dagger’s drug of choice was punching somebody in the face and laughing. That guy terrorized so many punk shows that a collection was taken up to hire a hitman. That’s what I heard. Today he’s on Facebook and seems like a nice guy.
The era of the walking-distance party house and its open door policy has gone the way of the Ark Co-op Coke machine, which stocked beer for 75 cents a can, so you could mellow your tweak 24 hours a day. Those days are left to the memory, because very few photos exist. Why take pictures when it’s just going to happen again the next night?
Remember these party houses?
THE TWIST-OFF HOUSE (1972-78) 2106 Pearl St.
Former residents: Big Boy Medlin (now with the E! network) , lobbyist Dean Rindy, Mike Bellamy, Warner Brothers VP Bill Bentley, Ike Ritter
Rent in 1973: $400 a month. Rent today: N/A; subdivided into six condos.
Infamous party: Some folks are still talking about the wrap party for Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but the bash Rindy remembers best was a big New Year’s Eve party in either ’73 or ’74 where hundreds of people, almost all in costume, were dancing to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and the building shook to its foundation. The next day, the gang tried to clean and ended up just hosing the entire apartment.
THE OAF HOUSE (1979-85) 28th and San Pedro
Former residents: Jukebox, Steve Anderson, David Yow, Byron Scott, Lisa Smith, Shannon Smith, Pat from the Dicks
Rent in 1985: $725 for a six-bedroom house
Celeb note: Among the touring punk bands who crashed at the OAF (One-Armed Farmers) House in the early ’80s were the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction.
Infamous party: Every Sunday, the OAF-ers would have a big barbecue in the back yard, even inviting the hobos who lived in the bamboo forest out back. Having the cops show up because of noise complaints was a common occurrence, especially when Scratch Acid played.
HOUSE OF MANY WOMEN (1984-87) 2827 San Gabriel St.
Former residents: Debbie Pastor, Liz Belile, Leslie Bonnell and Garine Boyajian
Rent in 1985: $650
Infamous party: After R.E.M.’s sold-out concert at City Coliseum in 1985, the band and seemingly half the audience showed up at the big white house with the heavily-graffiti-ed walls. “Goddamn your confusion!” was written in black spray paint, which must’ve been, for R.E.M., like walking in while your song is playing. But Steve Collier made sure the new Doctors’ Mob album was the music they heard.
THE OAF-ette HOUSE (1982-85) Salado and 28th streets
Former residents: Melissa Merryman and Laurie Greenwell from Inner Sanctum, musician Harry Wilson (he slept in the closet), Tempy, Tomas
Rent in 1984: $295
Infamous party: The Butthole Surfers played on the porch at the same time a huge fraternity party was going on across the street. The volatile mix of punks and frats overrunning the streets drew a legion of squad cars. Police made the Surfers stop playing, while allowing the frat party to continue. Angry punks set fire to a Dumpster and tried to push it toward the sanctioned party, but when the fiery refuse started heading toward the OAF House, it was intercepted.
HOUSE OF A THOUSAND BEERS (1986-90) 406 W. 30th St.
Original hosts: Michael Hall, Brent Grulke, Michael Corcoran, John Ratliff. Later residents: Scott Anderson, photo-journalist Pat Blashill, Joey Shuffield (Fastball), art critic Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, musician Jean Caffeine, Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), author Jim Lewis
Rent in 1986: $550
Infamous night: After the final night of the MTV Cutting Edge taping, everybody headed to the big gray house that was hard to miss because there was a 7-foot phallus hanging from a tree in the front yard. (It “mysteriously” disappeared the day before Ratliff’s parents came to visit). The festivities turned ugly, however, when a group of skinheads showed up and commandeered the keg, charging party-goers a dollar a cup for beer. The hosts ended up calling the cops on their own party.
THE GATES MOTEL (1982-85) W. 32nd St. behind Weed-Corley
Rent in 1982: $185 for three bedrooms. Raised to $300 in ’85
Former residents: Chris Gates, Steve Anderson, Mike Carroll
Gates and Carroll were members of Poison-13 and Anderson was the original singer of Scratch Acid, so alot of the pre-grunge bands stayed here when playing in town, including Tales of Terror, Tex and the Horseheads, Black Flag, Husker Du.
Garage rock: Gates built a floor out of stolen pallets in the garage and the Big Boys, Poison 13, Criminal Crew, The Cry Babies, Scratch Acid and the Butthole Surfers all rehearsed there at some point. While the Big Boys were on tour in ’84, the Butthole Surfers sublet the house.
THE LODGE (1988-mid-’90s) 2827 Salado St.
Former residents: Peter Blackstock, Hunter Darby, Jennings Crawford, Silky, Wes Lane, Ken Lieck, members of Johnny Law, Greg Wilson
Rent in 1988: $534
Infamous party: The night the Replacements played at the Austin Opera House in 1990, Paul Westerberg announced a party at the Lodge after the show. Besides hundreds of concertgoers and ‘Mats Tommy Stinson and Slim Dunlap, the bash attracted the members of Fishbone and Thelonius Monster, who had played at the Texas Union Ballroom that night. The bassist of Fishbone was among the last to leave and he was eventually arrested for entering the wrong motel room. Actually, he had the right room number, but the wrong motel. Leaving his wallet at the Lodge didn’t help his case. When Fishbone played Dallas the next night, it was with a roadie playing bass.
CHAPA’S (1964-78) 1508 San Antonio Street
Rent: $65 a month
The original slacker, Peter Chapa was an undergraduate student at UT for 17 years, majoring in throwing massive, upscale house parties, where the champagne flowed and the stereo played Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf and Louis Armstrong. This late-night hang was more for the professors than the students, with guests including author Tom Wolfe, directors John Waters and Jean-Luc Godard. And you were impressed by Fishbone.
House of a Thousand Beers -- good one.