SPORTS: The Kansas baseball team defeated Missouri Western 10-7. Page 9.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.102,NO.118
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1993
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS: 864-4810
Lawrence's musical underground
The Outhouse provides the pulse of alternative music's local vein
By James J. Reece Kansan staff writer
hey call it the pit.
hey call it the pit.
It's a dance floor like no other in Lawrence — a place where adrenaline is king,
where elbows pump, shoulders bump and bodies collide in a frenzy of shredded drumsticks and unraveled steel guitar strings. Where beer- and sweat-soaked dancers stumble away bleeding or are dragged away unconscious.
The pit is under the flat roof of The Outhouse, a 60-by-40-foot blue cinder block shell of a building four miles east of Lawrence.
Forget fraternity and sorority members bopping to a happy-faced disc jockey. Forget basketball players in snake-skin boots two-stepping in a cowboy bar. This is the Outhouse. This is the local vein of life, underground music. This is the bad side of town.
less of name, the music is what has given the secluded Outhouse a notoriety unmatched by other Lawrence venues.
"It's not the most cushy of accommodations," says Shelle Rosenfeld, assistant editor of *The Note*, a Lawrence-based music and entertainment periodical. "但它 serves a purpose as a home for alternative music."
She says the Outhouse is a testing ground for new bands in Lawrence. It also showcases older bands. It catches some, like Nirana, before their crusades into mainstream music. Others, like Fear, the early 1980s punk band that recently reunited, appear on reconstruction tours. The Outhouse catches still others, like ice T's Body Count, in mid-swing.
The recent Body Count and Fear concerts had both the music and the politics that fuel the fire and fights in the pit.
In January, the "Cop Killer" singer him self brought a taste of Los Angeles to the cornfields around the Curtsee. The
LAZERDAYSPRINGBREAKSAVINGS
835 Massachusetts in beautiful downtown Lawrence
Beer bill concerns merchants
beer.
That is what would happen, they said, if the House passed a bill that would allow grocery and convenience stores to sell "strong beer." Such stores now only can sell beer with 3.2 percent alcohol or less. Only liquor stores can sell beer with greater alcohol content, and liquor store owners are worried the legislation would rob them of much of that market.
Liquor store owners told the House federal and State Affairs Committeeiat as much as half of their sales gree beer sales.
By Ben Grove Kansan staff write
Kansas liquor store representatives yesterday asked state legislators not to take away a vital part of their livelihood — the sale of certain types of beer.
the beer sale.
"I am incensed as a sole proprietor if a retail store that the big chains she sell hundreds and thousands of ems feel that they must take 50 percent of my beer business to show a roff," said Patricia Oppitz, a Topeka quor store owner.
A Wichita liquor store owner pointed out that liquor stores are permitted to sell only alcoholic beverages and that beer was only a small part of other stores' total sales.
scking Webb, owner of Webb's Fine
Vine and Spirits, 800 W. 23rd St., was
he last of the 12 bill opponents to
break.
art of other stores.
"When they take our one item it would be devastating." Carl Mitchell said. "It's like asking us to run a race, cutting one of our legs off and saying we are competitive."
After the hearing, he said his business also would be hit hard by the legislation because beer made up about 40 percent of his total sales.
"I'm in a college town." Webb said.
"It's a young crowd. Young is beer."
Proponents of the bill spoke on Tuesday. No action was taken.
"The Pandora's box will be open," said Richard Ferguson, president of Kansas Retail Liquor Dealers Association.
"It was stated that the amount of drinking stronger beer would not increase—that it was simply a matter of where it was bought," said Francis Wood, a state and national Christian Temperance Union volunteer. "I disagree. Availability is the key here. If it's handy, you buy it."
Other bill opponents warned the representatives that if grocery and convenience stores got 5.0 beer, the Legislature would soon see a glut of convenience store requests to sell any types of liquor.
ections
It's a young crowd. Young is beer.
Discussion during the hearings also dealt with the social issue of making beer with higher alcohol content available at more locations.
The candidates
UNITE presidential candidate John Shoah-
maker. Teukoraji junior and liberal arts and
science sciences. Vice president candidate.
Tim Dawson, Teukoraji junior and Nunez
FOCUS: presidential candidate: Edward Austin, Oglate junior and engineer engineer. Vice presidential candidate: Jeff Russell, Oglate junior and president of the junior class.
UNIGANSAH; presidential candidate:
Bernard Cox, Pataline III, illi. Vice presi-
dental candidate: Charles Frey, Brockport,
N.Y., junior.
SPRING BREAK '93 * K-you * March 10, 1993
A.C.I.T.O.N.11: presidential candidate:
Jacinto McIntosh, Tulsa, Okla. and senior
literal arts and sciences senator. Vice pres-
idential candidate: Marisol Romero, Topeka
junior and off-campus senator.
Student Senate Elections Commission KAMBAN