Second Story- Bloomington, Indiana

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Permalink Reply by Danielle Urschel on June 26, 2008 at 10:55am

I see that there is a 'sale pending' sign outside of the second story building. Does anyone know who's going to buy it?

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Permalink Reply by Jeb Banner on June 26, 2008 at 12:55pm

I don't know, wish we had some millionaires on the site who wanted to buy a club (anyone out there rich and maybe a little stupid?)

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Permalink Reply by PJ Christie on June 26, 2008 at 4:45pm

My favorite shows there were playing keyboards for Stranded at the Drive In. We would just tear down with noises that could not be believed.

My first show in Bloomington was there, The Gerunds opening for Blake Babies. At least I think it was there, it might have been at the Bluebird.

Favorite shows

Red Red Meat
Yo La Tengo
Antietam
Luka Bloom
El Nino
Arson Garden
Modern Vending, the night we elected Bill Clinton
Er Nights
Velo Deluxe with John Hicks
The Japanese Heavy Metal Band "Night Dreams"
Squash Blossom String Pullers
Salsa Night, for the ladies
Speed Luxury

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Lee Canner on June 26, 2008 at 5:33pm

I've seen more shows at Second Story than I can ever count, throughout pretty much the whole of the 80s. Here are a few highlights:

- The lead singer of The Young Fresh Fellows leaping off the stage mid-set and attacking my friend Tim Thomas as he thought he was heckling the band. I tossed a beer bottle at him and then several of us pulled him off. The heckling was actually being done farther back in the room by Rat Rondell aka Jack Whitebread.

- My girlfriend of the time throwing a beer can at Phil Traicoff on stage for some comment he made that she didn't like. I assume this was a Virginia Scrapings show. Phil later told me it actually left a little crescent shaped mark on his forehead.

- Running the smoke machine during a Too Cool show at full blast, so much so that the folks downstairs at Bullwinkle's sent someone up to tell us to turn it off as the smoke was drifting down there. I always thought they would've appreciated it.

- Watching slackjawed during an ER night as a group of the "elf people" (anyone else remember them?) did some unchoreagraphed pagan hippie dance wearing deer antlers.

- I also first met the woman who would later become my wife at Second Story.

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Permalink Reply by Matt Speake on June 30, 2008 at 10:16pm

My first show with Right to Left was at Second Story 20 years ago.

My favorite show was the Gizmos, my second favorite was the Feelies.

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Permalink Reply by Jbarge on June 30, 2008 at 10:28pm

Ahhhhh, where to begin. First gig Toxic Reasons 1981 - I bought their single "War Hero". I was of course underage but nobody carded. I then found a way to climb up the wall and sneak into a window of the dressing room. I literally grabbed pieces of limestone like freaking Spiderman to do it. Well, sure enough, one night I did it and knocked over all of the Jetson's guitar neatly lined up in front of the window. Whooops - sorry! I loved that place - what a great stage to play on.

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Permalink Reply by John P. Strohm on June 30, 2008 at 10:45pm

P.J. - I can't remember which Blake Babies show that was, we played both venues. Our first set- as a trio - was Second Story. It must've been that one.

My favorite night was when I played the moog with Superchunk - anyone remember that? I'd played moog with them every night on tour in Germany the previous summer, but doing it at second story gave it some specialness.

I also have very fond memories of when I brought Guided by Voices to Bloomington to play with Velo Deluxe in late 1994. They brought a half-dozen cases of beer with them and they STILL broke the record for beer consumed by a band at the club (that is, beer provided by the club. They played an epic set, best of the ten or so sets by them that I saw.

My other favorite memory was when Hicks and I went there on a Tuesday night for "bluegrass night," in 1995. This waitress at The Spoon, a woman probably in her late thirties named Jan, I think, Jan Henshaw, did this bluegrass night. I was getting really into roots music at the time, and we felt like having some drinks, so we figured what the hell. There might've been a dozen people there tops. A really good bluegrass band played first - I mean REALLY good. I think some of the members were from Vince Gill's band - they drove up from Nashville. One of the guys, a guy with curly, reddish hair and a ruddy complexion, was from the Bloomington 1970s scene, if anyone knows who that might be. Anyway, that would've been plenty to make it a memorable night.

The next group tuning up seemed a little less promising but intriguing nonetheless - a man and a woman in their late 20s wearing depression-era garb with depression-era instruments. They started playing and my jaw dropped. It was an amazingly authentic, perfectly executed set of vintage country music, but with fantastic original songs. The woman looked and sounded angelic. The guy was a fantastic guitarist and sang perfect, perfectly transparent harmonies. I was rivited. It was Gillian Welsh and David Rawlings, around the time they signed their record deal. They performed the entire first album, Revival, which remains one of my favorite records. I've only had a few times when I've been totally blown away live by an artist I knew absolutely nothing about.

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Permalink Reply by Jeb Banner on June 30, 2008 at 10:53pm

I remember that GBV show, totally insanity. That was about as packed as Second Story got. My memory of the night is almost like I was sweating beer, it was all about beer. I think Robert Pollard spilled half the beer he had on the audience, everyone was sweaty and sticky. At least that is my recollection of the drunken night. And they played forever, right around Alien Lanes I think, no? They were huge then, everybody loved GBV for a few years.

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Permalink Reply by Jeb Banner on June 30, 2008 at 10:54pm

also, I remember the Superchunk show but don't recall you playing, must have missed that.

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Permalink Reply by John P. Strohm on June 30, 2008 at 10:58pm

The GBV show was pre-Alien Lanes, Bee Thousand was current. It was early enough so that I could call Bob at home and ask him to come play a show. That woudn't have worked a year later.

I only played on a couple of songs with Superchunk, not the whole set. I had my parts worked out from the tour. I assume they brought a friend up on stage every night to play moog, but for the German tour with the Lemonheads it was me. So I brought a reprise of my stylings for Bloomington.

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Permalink Reply by Jeb Banner on June 30, 2008 at 11:15pm

yeah, that was probably the height of their buzz right then, before they really broke big.

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Permalink Reply by Jeb Banner on June 30, 2008 at 11:43pm

one of my favorite 2nd Story memories was when we had Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 come play. They ended up playing twice in the course of a year but I think the first time they came Velo Deluxe and Red Red Meat opened for them. I had become a huge fan of TFUL 282 from their Strangers From The Universe album that was kicking around my house at Smith and Grant. Their music was weirder than what I normally listened to but there was enough melody to rope me in.

It was my first big show promoting a touring band with a guarantee (I think between the three bands I had about $1000 in guarantees to cover which was no small number at the time). The show was a success and everyone got paid. I think I made like $50 which was a victory in my mind. It was my first real show and I was psyched that people actually showed up! I gotta give props to Lee Williams for trusting me with that, he was either stupid or saw something in me. Hopefully the later.

This was also my first exposure to Red Red Meat, a band I came to appreciate after the show. When they first arrived I incorrectly assumed that Tim Rutili was the manager, he just looked like the manager somehow. They proceeded to hang out in Bullwinkles and drink until coming over to our house for dinner. The next day they called from the road thanking us for the hospitality, I was really surprised but happy they gave a shit and were cool enough to do that.

TFUL 282 stayed at our house that night, and the next trip as well about 6 months later. Everybody at the house were huge fans (Josh Seib, Simon Hanstad, Finn Swingley and me) so we gave them as close to royal treatment as a run down college house could muster. We stayed up talking with them about music, outer space and other cool stuff. The next day their van had a serious problem and it looked like they might get stuck in Bloomington. This was exciting news to us, TFUL 282 could be our willing hostages! But after spending most of the day getting their van repaired they were off. Still it was nice to have that extra time to wander around town with them. I think they fell in love with Bton and Second Story a little on the trips which made all of us happy.

I found this clip online by Anne from TFUL 282 recalling the first visit.

http://www.tful282.com/annediaries.htm#spring95
"Bloomington, IN
Pulled in late, too cold, soundman had just left since he was tired of waiting. Jeb Banner helped carry our stuff in, then we hung out with his roommates. When we entered the house, it was clean, smelled like for-real stir fry cooking and the roommates were lined up on 2 couches as if waiting for the relatives to come over for the holidays.
Amazingly perfect food filled our picky California gullets and we sank back, fatigued to the point of the young roommates commenting on it.
4 guys, 1 girl, 2 bands, basement full of equipment. Seniors in college, trying to decide what's important, fully swept up in music. Sounds familiar.
This will be a recurring theme. Us, as the old sages providing some sort of inspiration while desperately trying to hide our doubt and our less reverent view of being in a band--don't want to disillusion anyone (well, not the kids in the good bands, anyway)
during playing: chi power, "city slicker"

Chicago
Almost didn't make it to this one. The van had developed an interesting vibration on the way to Bloomington. We knew it had to be checked out, and were prepared to use vehicle repair as an excuse to blow off this last-minute warehouse show. Peter had set this up without asking us and without telling Lounge Ax, so we had a chip on our collective shoulder already, and why not just hang in Bloomington? Of course, we ended up doing the show.
First, we hid at a Vietnamese restaurant, trying to smash down the panic caused by increasingly serious snowfall.
Then we hid in the van outside the warehouse, drinking, doing the set list, laughing, and bemoaning the fact that

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