4D= THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OFFTHEHILL
MONDAY,AUG.20,2001
House offers punk and politics
Santos Gold band members Kelsey Richardson, left, and Dalin Horner perform in the living room of the Pirate House, 400 W. 14th St. This was the band's first time playing at the house, which is a regular venue for local and national acts.
By Luke Wetzel
Kansan staff writer
AARON SHOWALTER/KANSAN
For the last two years, passersby at 14th and Kentucky streets may have noticed curious things at the house on the southwest corner. On any given night, one might see people running around in costume, learning to ride a unicycle or playing a game of dodgeball in the street. On the porch, anywhere from two to a dozen people may be gathered in a discussion beneath the giant Christmas-light anarchy and equality signs. However, the most defining feature of what the residents call the Pirate House, 30 W. 14th St., is the consistent presence of punk rock.
When the Locusts, a San Diego punk band, played on the front porch one Monday evening in July, about 400 people mostly teenagers in black T-shirts
spilled out of the front yard into the sidewalk and across the street. Although the show was the biggest ever at the Pirate House, it was in most ways a routine summer evening at the house.
"By the end of the summer, this house will have done 30 shows," said Dave Strano, who at six months in the house, is the senior resident. "It gets so crazy. This summer this place has turned into more of a venue than a house. It's hard to get a lot of sleep here."
Whether it be an all-ages show, a vegan potluck dinner or a meeting to plan a caravan to protest the IMF World Bank Meeting in Washington D.C., the Pirate House is a hotbed of activity. It is an unmistakable landmark in the heart of the so-called Student Ghetto.
"That's my favorite thing in the world, all the kids who come over and play music," said Dylan Desmond, Overland Park sophomore. Desmond, who moved into the house from Hashring Hall in May, began coming to shows at
the house before he finished high school.
"There's a real strong energy that everyone has here," he said. "Everyone wants to do something."
Unfortunately for the band and crowd at the Locusts show, the energy — and the noise from the amplifiers — rendered it short-lived. Ten minutes after the band struck the first power chords, the police arrived. A reluctant Strano had to ask the crowd to disperse.
"The cops have come before, but that was the first show that was ever stopped," he said. "They know us by face and name now."
"We just mostly wanted a place where we could have shows."
The Pirate House legacy began in August 1999 when Kurt Lane and two friends decided to fill the void left after several Kansas City all ages clubs closed.
said Lane, Overland Park senior.
Lane said the name Pirate House came from the Jolly-Roger flag that hung above the porch. That fall, residents added a Christmas light anarchy sign and the big "E" that stands for equality, giving the house an even more recognizable identity.
"It seems that all the houses here have a name," he said. "Calling it the Pirate House just made it easier to identify."
Lane and the other two founding members have since moved out of the house, but he has seen a lot happen since 2-hr-Turn and Reflector played the inaugural show on September 12, 1999. Since then, residents have put on benefit shows for organizations like Senior Services and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. The house was listed in a national guide of places to play last year, and bands from as far
away as Sweden have played there. Current residents have organized caravans to protest President Bush's inauguration, IMF World Bank meetings and downtown businesses they say use slave labor. They are currently helping plan a national anarchist gathering for 2002, which they hope to hold on a local farm.
"I'd say the place is pretty nationally known right now," Lansaid.
Today, the Anarchy and Equality signs no longer hang from the front of the house. The homemade red and black "Tierra Y Libertad" flag — an anarchist phrase from the Mexican civil war that directly translates to earth and liberty — now hangs inconspicuously on the inside of the porch window. The couches, a rocking horse and other decorations were removed in late July at the
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