Louisville Punk/Hardcore History
The Vagrants

The Vagrants

From Louisville Punk/Hardcore History
The Vagrants Stats
Vagrants logo
Record Labels: none
Started By: 1st lineup
Based In: Louisville
Largest show: 600+ people
Last show: August 13th, 1999 @ the First Unitarian Church
Reunion show(s): a few in 2000, one in August, 2002
Number of Members: 8

"Slop-Pop-Punk" from Louisville. Dominated the Primizee's scene in the 96-98 era.

As far as I remember, the Vagrants were born in 1996 in Sarah Neel's (Donnie's girlfriend at the time - they practiced in her house) basement around February. Their first show was like many of their future shows... sloppy as fucking hell, but with smiles on people's faces and fun in their hearts. The original lineup felt so energized by the reception they got by the 15 or so people in attendance that they immediately embarked upon the "Birthday Party Tour" - leaping forth from Sarah's birthday party to Squire Green's party, and 2 or three more.
After the party was over, the band stepped back to record on a borrowed 4 track (Kurt Ehnle's 4 track which Donnie left in a car that was destroyed in a junk yard) and practiced to clean up their sound and have some new songs ready. (The session where they tried to record ended up starting with Stevie mocking the Mark Brickey intro on the 1st BTGOG Cd).
In the coming months, the band debuted at Primizee's Pizza in Theatre Square downtown with The Revenants and Charisma Society, helping touch off a fury of activity that quickly started bringing punks out of the woodwork. Shows went from being quaint, intimate 20-40 person affairs to being so large that there would be literally 200+ people packed like sardines inside and 200 more stuck on the outside looking in! While Trane was reputedly the band to open Primizee's to shows, it was The Vagrants, Revenants, and CS that showed the place to glory. Everything went well until...
The Megalomaniacs.
Popping up mid '97, Steve quit the Vagrants to sing for the Megas, touching off a little bit of rivalry between the two bands. Much to the suprise of... a lot of people, Chitters took up the mic, and the Vagrants hardly missed a beat. Bringing his bulging eyes, bulging neck muscles, hilarious acoustic songs ("TrashMan"), and Dag Nasty shirts, he fit in pretty well for a couple of months until he also quit.. leaving the band in another predicament.

Lineup 2 @ Primizee's

Around this time (mid '97 - after Llamapalooza One), the Megalomaniacs were also breaking up, and Stevie seemed to want to sing again for the Vs.... but was cock blocked by Donnie jumping up to take the spot and leave the bass spot to Stevie. He took the position, but not too long after, tempers flared, and Stevie was out of the band. At this point, the band asked Bryan (who's house they had used for several practices, and Danny was in Bryan's other band at the time) to fill in on bass. While Stevie didn't have any anger towards Bryan, he had a bit especially towards Donnie, culminating in a near fight during a Vagrants set at Primizee's which was partially caught on videotape (if you ever see this tape, note the pure hilarity that is Bryan's scallycap, suspenders, and rainbow guitar strap, as well as the cups of ice that Stevie is throwing throughout the set).
For whatever reason, the band wanted to add a second guitarist around this time (very early '99 i think), and chose stoner dude Matt, whose only previous guitar experience was in metal bands (such as God's Regret).... he only played one show with The Vagrants, which was up in Cincinnati (see the "discussion" page for details). He left the band, and everyone was wondering if Will was leaving too, as he had flipped out and went from wearing Thommy Hilfiger pants and being at the '97 Earth Crisis show at Spark's to totally looking like a member of the Casualties and getting into drugs and alcohol while squatting in Cincy more and more. The band hardly saw him, and as he was mainly squatting in Cincy, couldn't reach him much. So.... Dan Peters stepped in on a part time basis to play drums.
The final set of shows were filled with constant doubt, as no one knew (usually) until the equipment was being set up if Will was going to show up to play or not. Bryan was also becoming somewhat unhappy with the way things were going, as he was pushing for T-shirts, recordings, and other things that cost money.. and face it, a band named the vagrants isn't going to have any. All of the problems were pretty much solved in August of 1999 however, as Bryan was leaving for college and Will was leaving because he knew he wouldn't be around at all for shows. A "last show" was held at the First Unitarian Church downtown (much to the chagrin of some other show-goers) with Skam Impaired, Bodyhammer, Blue Collar Revenge Theory, and more. The show was also a BRAT Magazine benefit. Unfortunantly due to poor planning and stress levels beyond the moon, the Vagrants only got to do about 7 songs of their set of 13, ending the night on a sour note for all (even more so because Will skipped out after getting a bunch of people in free after they promised to stay and clean up).
However, much to the dismay of some in town, The Vagrants saw the light of day again... and again and again... and again. With Bryan gone, Sean from Ants in an Argument stepped in for a couple of shows (with Dan on drums), and in 2002, there was a reunion show with Will, Bryan, Donnie, and Danny at Twice Told, with the band playing to an almost empty room, as Edgeland's army of pop-punk highschoolers left, unaware of the history that they were missing.

Members

First Lineup

Second Lineup

Third Lineup

Fourth Lineup (one show in Cincy)

Fifth Lineup

(some shows had Will on drums, some with Dan. Will lived/squatted in Cincy and was hard to get ahold of)

Sixth Lineup

Seventh Lineup/2002 Reunion Lineup

Releases

Compilations

  • None

Shirts/Merch

Song list

Video

  1. 'Punk Hurts' from a full set from July, 1998

  1. at Llamapalooza 1997

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