Punk Rock Articles | From Rockford to House O' Voodew and Back again: I became a Carbondale Punk

From Rockford to House O' Voodew and Back again: I became a Carbondale Punk

I arrived in Carbondale in the Fall Semester of 1986. I come from a very boring Mid-sized city called Rockford, Illinois. During most of my first school year, I really did not do much besides study, ride my bike, and was “under the influence” quite often. That was about the extent of my life. As I wandered, or rode my bike, around the SIU campus, I kept seeing this white, stenciled skull in various places."Hmmm, Satanists!" was my first thought.. I wondered what kind of cretins would spray paint a skull all over the place. It wouldn't be too long before I would find out. Near the end of my first year, I met a couple of sisters that were involved in the punk scene, "involved" by one of the sisters being obsessed with Mikey Snot. Through those two, I met a hippie/punk type named Brian Hettinger. Brian and I would go to Lost Cross House to hang out. There, in various places, was “THE SKULL”(the Misfits logo, I was informed), stenciled on a few things, and on a jacket! THIS must be the cretin that did that on the SIU campus!

Not very long after meeting Mikey at Lost Cross, I attended my first punk show, at the infamous House O' Voodew. There were many kinds of punk hairstyles, different types of people. There were, of course, a few guys with Mohawks, and many other punk styles of clothes. Most notably, black leather jackets. Tattoos, multi-ear piercing's and boots. Damn cool looking bunch. So, anyway, I was standing right up front, close to a mic stand, and the lead singer grabs the microphone and yells "Broken Glass!” and with that, the crowd started "dancing'", I was caught totally unaware of what it meant to be that close to the "stage" at a punk show!! I was bumped into, kicked, an arm or two in the face, moved to the back of the Voodew basement as fast as I could, and then I discovered how low the ceiling was, especially the heating ducts! Smacked right into one during my hasty retreat from the "dancing"! Anyway, once I was settled in a safe area, I could listen to the band, Generation Waste, and I got into this stuff right away! Sorry to say, I did miss the opening band, Diet Christ that night. I arrived too late, but the rest of the bands that night had me hooked! My niche was found, and it was in the punk rock crowd!

A few weeks later, during a visit to Mikey's place, I heard about the Halloween night party, with bands, at House O' Voodew. Snot said his band would be playing again ( they were a hard working band, playing out almost weekly, as I would soon discover ), this time I would see them. The Halloween fest at Voodew was fuckin' awesome! All the bands were enjoyable, but for some reason, Hasenloch Totengraber grabbed my attention! I had NEVER heard this kind of spooky, grungy, grinding, screaming chaotic style of music before! After the Halloween bash, I was definitely converted to punk. Wearing my usual Tie dies and long hair, I was at every show, often arriving early to help set up, lug amps, just doing whatever to contribute to the scene.

James B. Ricks III, now there was a character to remember! The first time I saw him, he was toting a huge boom box around the SIU student center, punk tunes blasting, wearing a black leather jacket, boots, and a dew-rag. I thought he was a mean motherfucker, someone to be feared! I was wrong; he ended up being on of my strongest allies in the scene, along with Mikey Snot. After seeing James’ band, Diet Christ, I talked to him a few times on campus. Mikey Snot, the lead screamer for DC, was also totally cool, and accepted my hippie-like self (I have to say this, I was not a hippie, just sort of looked like one!) around his house, anytime I felt like dropping by. I would party with James and Mikey very often during the next few years.

This newfound scene, the Carbondale/SIU punk scene, had the best parties I've ever attended. In fact, I've never attended parties that had such a diverse collection of people. Not all were punks. I met pretty much every sort of person going to SIU at those parties. However, the kings of all parties were the Nights in Hell I&II. These were so fuckin' fantastic, in MY opinion! The setting was this: Out away from Carbondale, lies the little town of Cobden, nestled in a forested area. James B. Ricks parents house was near a valley, which was accessible by one path from James' back yard. It was wide enough for a car or Pick Up truck. Down in this valley, we set up a stage, with a gas generator for power. Lot of space for tents. James invited several bands, like No Empathy, Hasenloch Totengraber, his band, Diet Christ, and several others. I even got to make noise in a group known as Swimming Pool Full Of Dead People. There were barrels of beer, and lots of mind-altering substances for those who were inclined to such things. It was like a Punk style Woodstock! Bands played into the early morning hours, fireworks aplenty, laughing, drinking, smoking and joking! It was so damn cool! Yes, it was cold, especially Hell Night I, I believe the temps hit about 50 or less degrees! As James said that night “They say you're supposed to drink beer to stay warm, it doesn't work, the beer is cold!", or something to that effect. Night in Hell II was just as much fun, and Diet Christ had all three of their guitarists there that night: R.J. Sussman, the original guitarist; James (returning from Texas), and their (at the time) current guitarist, Bill Hartley. I recall they each played in a song, maybe more; I was really quite wasted, so I do not remember all of it!

Late in the spring semester of '88, Steve Ziegler, of the House O' Voodew, was moving out, and Mark Groble (bassist/vocalist Diet Christ, Apostles On Strike, etc.) was moving in. He needed one more person to rent a room in the house, and I was looking to move to a different house the next school year, so I told I would rent the house with him. This was another great part of my years in Carbonhell. Voodew had achieved legendary status among punks and others. Along with Lost Cross House and Club Romex (formerly Cafe Flesh), Voodew was a big part of the live basement show triad. (Oh, ya, I can’t leave out 611 Pizza!! Many great shows there, too!!!) If you lived in Voodew, you were NOT looking for quiet surroundings. My first year there, we had at least one show per week, sometimes two. It was also the practice place for Diet Christ. DC also practiced at Lost Cross. A few jam sessions for forming bands, like Mortimer's Morbid Death band. It was also a hangout place, as was Lost Cross, for the local punk scene. I had a bass guitar, and all I could do was make noise, which I did quite well, thank you very much! Because of this desire to make noise, Mikey and James invited me to join in Swimming Pool Full Of Dead People (SPFODP). It was a loose collection of Carbondale punk musicians that had a desire, like myself, to just make noise. Ambient Noise Core. Mikey, James and Taz (also of Diet Christ, drummer extraordinaire) were the original members, but I latched on to this and was involved in most every session of SPFODP between 1987-1992. During that time at least a dozen other locals and SIU students, some musicians, some wanna-bes, like me, joined in the noise fest. Most of these sessions took place at Lost Cross, we would set up amps, drums, piano "guts"(the frame from inside a piano, that has the strings) with mic, saxophone, many guitars, basses, shit loads of guitar effects, Mikeys’ synthesizer, even a violin appeared at least one session. This was a blast to do, get wasted and just make a psychedelic punk noise into the wee hours of the next day! Amazingly, while I was around no cops ever came to tell us to stop! Amazing, because the noise we kicked up would easily wake the dead, or summon up the master of the underground; Satan! If you ever have the "pleasure" of hearing any of the hundreds of hours of recordings, you can pick me out, I was the one playing the cliché-type rock riffs. Arrgh! But, it was all good 'n' fun!

I have so much more I wanted to write about, but I do not believe Mikey wanted a Novel, so I'll wrap it up with a few rambling thoughts. A lot of the folks I mentioned down play the fun in the years at SIU/Carbondale, but I won't. If you came from Rockford, you'd know why! There was so much more to do in Carbondale than Rockfuck, Il. I'll remember those days as the most exciting of my adult life. Now, the often-asked question, "what is punk?" And, am I punk? Hmm, I've seen many different opinions on what is punk, who is punk, and what it means to be punk, that I have NO answer to what is punk. Is it a life-style, a hairstyle (the so-called punks in Rockfuck think hair and clothes make the punk, but they worship Green Day/Blink/Mest/Good Charlotte, so what do they know?). I do know this: Hanging out with the punks in Carbondale changed me in many ways, like being more open minded. It also drastically changed my taste in music. The Beatles once said, in the middle of “Revolution #9”, "as he got a little bit older, he got a little bit slower", I am the opposite, my music gets louder, faster, snottier, each year. I still attend punk shows in Chicago, Madison, and sometimes Milwaukee and other places. I still buy punk CD's. I still do NOT have a mohawk or other punk style hair, though my hair is MUCH shorter than in the Carbondale days. Now I AM a teacher, (reading, for Kindergarten- 4th grades) mountain bike racer/rider, punk rock fan. But, am I "punk", am I punk enough? I'll let you decide. Maybe Mikey will let me, or ask me, to write more, I don't know. I hope I haven't bored you. It is hard to put all I experienced in Carbondale into a few paragraphs. I just gave you the highlights!!

Long Live Punk!!!

Jeff K. 4/26/06