Fri 9/24 – Sat 9/25
Forget the band getting back together… A whole damn scene is reuniting for two days at the Kent Stage for the Debacle Concert. Dive into the music that ignited generations of late Boomers and Gen X’ers. Sixteen of the era’s most influential bands are joining together to form a musical time capsule.
Background:
In the northeast corner of Ohio during the late 1970ʼs and 80ʼs an original music scene was thriving in the Akron and Kent area that came to influence the rest of the musical world. Bands like The Bizarros, Zero Defex, The Nelsons, Joy Circuit, The Attitude, Germ Free Adolescents, and In Fear of Roses took the stage to deliver their musical manifestations of new, underground music hosted at clubs like The Bank, JBʼs Down, and Motherʼs Junction. It was a time before “alternative” was even a term used to describe this influential emergence of culture and music. If it wasnʼt Top 40, it was either New Wave or Punk. And if you heard it on the radio, you must have been tuned to the far left on the dial to college radio.
It was an era of socio-political uncertainty (Reagan, communism, Star Wars, Iran-Contra-Gate and Wall Street greed) that added fuel to the creative fire in Kent and Akron. The area was a hotbed for independent thought and political activism grasping at the throat of the status quo, and it developed a pervasive music scene consisting of underground and alternative bands with ideas ranging from political anti-establishment rants to alternative pop meanderings for pure pleasure kicks and release. It was amazing to witness a convergence of vibrant and original music in the area.
Just like in 1982, tix are only $5!
The Kent Stage – 175 E. Main St. – Kent