Hull House Benefit

I don't remember many of the specifics that lead to this night because I never really knew them. There was a worn out old mansion on Hull Street, and someone decided to hold a pay-fer party to help fund its renovation. Somehow the Babylon Dance Band got the gig, and they asked The Dickbrains to open. Members of Malignant Growth were on hand, acting as roadies, and by the end of the night serving as bodyguards--it was a big dumb jock crowd, as keggers often are, and back then the Irish Hill neighborhood was a pretty seriously scary skag enclave. The night was memorable for me because I got to watch a guy trashed on Quaaludes walk off a second story balcony, absolutely plummet, hit the ground with a godawful thud, and then just when everyone thought he surely had to be dead he just sort of stood up, brushed himself off, muttered, "Damn, what happened?" The night is worthy of inclusion here because it was central to Tom Carson's famous 1980 Village Voice cover article on the Louisville scene "Stop 'n' Rock; Music from the 'Burbs".

For photos of The Dickbrains performance that night, and an excerpt of Carson's reportage on it (further down the page), go to: [1]