I live in a somewhat small town (Lancaster, Ohio), with last estimates about our population numbering about 36,000. Since about my 9th or 10th grade year, I have noticed the proliferation of a local music scene. I don’t think that the scene just materialized in 1997 or 1998, but that I actually was shown a few bands that I liked about that period, so it makes sense to start the narrative at about that period. After doing some research (with the always-useful cache of http://www.archive.org), I’ve traced the alternative/metal/punk scene back to 1994, where Anthony, Dan, and Shaun (from the metal band Pawn) were in a band called Troubador. The first local show I went to (if my swiss-cheese memory is actually working tonight), was the October, 31st 1998 show at the local campgrounds. We got in for a reduced price because we told the ticket-taker that our leather jackets and punk paraphernalia were actually a costume, and we listened to Johnson and Mr. Tornado Head, which were both incredibly talented in their own right, and have both been defunct since early 2000.

I really am kicking myself now, because of the spotty history I left myself with some of these earliest shows. Just looking through what I currently have in my Concert archive, I’ve noticed that I didn’t review four or five shows that I went to in 1998-2000. I’m just hoping that that aforementioned concert was actually my first, otherwise I’ll have Shayne calling me out on it when this actually makes it to print. However, this piece is more about the city of Lancaster than it is necessarily about me, and more specifically it is about the Lancaster music scene, and its proliferation from the late nineties to 2004 and the prospects it has for the future.

Perhaps my view on the last days before the Lancaster music scene exploded were tempered by my sheer lack of knowledge about the bands themselves, but punk in Lancaster really did not start in my opinion until bands like Jerkwater Jive, Last Tears , and Psychobabble took to the stage (in 1998 and early 1999). Perhaps I’ve got my head stuck up my ass, but I would say that the Jerkwater Jive show (December 13th, 1998 @ the St. Mary’s Parrish) was one of the key catalysts for the explosion of punk to follow. From here, bands like Mo 6, The Transformers, Tax Dodge, The Dependents, and No Tag Backs would take the scene into and slightly past the new millennium. Bands would break up and reform fairly regularly, the incestuousness of the scene allowing for quick turnover of different acts. Some bands would break up before even playing a show, and by the current age, any of the veterans of the punk scene can be found in upwards of ten different Lancaster bands in the space of 5 years.

1999 to 2001 saw two major bands take the stage: White Trash and S.B.C./The Freedumb Fries. What really started changing in Lancaster was the duration of some of these acts, as well as the first blips of commercial recordings. “We Don’t Stand Alone”, by White Trash, came out December 28th, 1999. The Transformers released their 9 song CD even earlier, in March or April of 1999. S.B.C. came slightly later, with their Dicktad EP being released sometime in the summer of 2001. Where there had been numerous cassette tapes and four-track recordings, bands were finally getting their shit together enough to release things on semi-professional CDs, with a band like White Trash actually getting noticed by Joe Queer before they broke up.

What really makes it hard for me to provide an accurate account of the Lancaster scene is the fact that I had involved myself so heavily with the petty hatreds and stupid fights that are endemic to a number of smalltown scenes. In the earliest days of my website and Amish Drive-By, I had used my status as a reviewer to really go and bash bands based on the style of music they played or whoever they had in their band, instead of picking out a more objective tack. This further alienated me from the scene, and really makes certain times and bands blurry in my recollection.

The popularity issue is something that was not ever uncommon to Lancaster. Jerk Water Jive was able to amass enough of a following in the earliest days of the scene to play the Columbus, Ohio date of the Warped Tour, just as The Charlestons, which were founded after Evan left White Trash, gained a lot of popularity due to widespread insinuation of their EPs to individuals outside of Lancaster. Where some Lancaster bands gain large amounts of popularity, there has always been a problem trying to find shows. A good month may have two local shows, but the last place to have a semi-regular band schedule, Cool & Phat, closed down in 1999. Gooddog Music tried to fill that void the last few years by stocking local music and holding a number of local shows, but their facilities, for whatever reason, just were always underutilized.

So, aside from a few private parties by local bands, most often The Fat Tones, Of Exile, and From the Cinders, the scene has been silent in the terms of shows since the Levi/Tripping Linda/Charlestons/Cause For Diversion show that happened in December. There are more bands now than there have ever been in the scene, and some individuals have already seemed eager at the chance to go and try to revitalize the live scene here in town. The Lancaster Vs. Greencastle compilation will give the Lancaster kids a chance to actually have a pretty complete listing of what is being created in town, instead of trying to piece it together slowly through a web of friends and through whatever concerts happen to come up. Here’s to another half-decade of vitality in the scene, despite what naysayers may foresee! If anyone has any information of any Lancaster, Ohio band that existed from 1990 to the present, feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] .