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Chris Vandalay's avatar

Oh man - there were many rehearsal studio/spaces!

Here are 3 "stand-outs":

1) the basement of an old machine shop on the north side of Chicago. We had to cover our gear in between rehearsals, because when the shop was operating, metal grindings and some sort of oil would drip through the ceiling.

Here's my favorite part, though. There was one stairway in and out and the windows were blacked out and had immoveable steel bars on them! I got so paranoid about dying horribly in a fire, that I went out and bought and installed my own smoke detector! Cause- ya know - then we'd know when we were right about to perish in a fire!

2) The "Space Place" on the dicey west side of Chicago. It was an old fish processing plant that had since become an officially condemned build that the punk/new wave band, (The Jetsons), I was in rehearsed at with, like - 20 other bands! But, man - it was THE happening place to be at that time!

3) Another multi-band rehearsal building in Chicago that we rehearsed in was, right across the street from the (then), infamous gang-infested Cabrini Green projects. And yes - you could hear gun fire on occasion! But, we shared that place with Urge Overkill, so it was cool!

Though all 3 had some, um - "traits" in common, the main thing was: all were my "happy place"!

And that's the thing. If you're lucky enough to create, play with and vibe well enough with a group of musicians/friends in a band - WHERE you did it - really didn't matter!

It just adds to experience and (mostly), great memories!

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Matt Thompson's avatar

I have great memories from when our band had a lockout in Lawrence, MA. We had a blast decorating it, and it was a relief to be able to leave our gear set up. You're right about it being part-clubhouse.

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