"Small punk rock shows in crappy
basements"
What the hell?
The goal of Basement Shows.com is to show off some of the finest punk rock (and occasionally metal & indie) bands ever to grace our planet. I shot a lot of these bands during a ten year period from the mid-80's to the mid 90's in and around the Minneapolis, MN area for inclusion in a cable TV series I produced called Sub-Mission Underground. Some shows were actually shot in shitty basements, and others were shot in large theaters or bars. All of these are great documents of the Minneapolis punk rock scene during this era.
Bands to be shown in the future are: Blind Approach, Libido Boyz, Firehose, Dissent, Bloodhound Gang (from MPLS), Impulse Manslaughter, Misery, Oxymorons, Quincy Punx, Vampire Lezbos, Doc Hopper, Death Squad, Scooby Don't, Sockless, Kung Fools, ALL, Chemical People, Big Drill Car, and many, many more! If you have a favorite, email a request!
If you are in a band, and have some video footage you'd like posted here, drop me an e-mail about adding it to the site!
This video is optimized for broadband connections. If you're a modem user and want the lower bandwidth stuff back, or if you've got a fatter pipe and want better quality, let me know.
FAQ
Q: What do I have against Mac
& Linux that I insist on using Windows Media files & the Windows Media
Player?
A: Nothing at all. I use Mac & Linux myself, but Windows
Media lets me make smaller files with a higher quality. Smaller files =
more stuff on the site for you to enjoy for free! Sorry. I recommend that you watch this stuff
at work anyway. Stick it to the man's bandwidth bill!
Q: Why do I only support
broadband connections?
A: Because that is what past users requested. I could make
smaller bandwidth files, but they'd look and sound like your pimple filled ass
(yuck!). Plus a second set of files would use more web space and more
bandwidth and......well, see the last question.
Q: I just can't get these damn
videos to play! What advice do you have to make it work?
A: I highly recommend viewing the site with a somewhat recent
version of Internet Explorer. I've tested the videos on both Mac & PC, and
they both are able to play the videos as long as you have a recent version of
Windows Media Player installed, and you're using either IE, Safari, Firefox and Netscape
browsers (Mozilla based browsers will open the player window at full width, but
you can resize it yourself). I haven't tested it yet with any browser on Linux. My guess is that if you can
get Windows Media Player for your platform, you can make this work.
Q: Do you take requests?
A: Hell yes! But will I play the requests? Well,
sometimes. As I make my way through the collection I am finding that a lot
of the videos have walked off or been misplaced. Several videos have been
damaged or are just unplayable due to age and a bad job of storing the
videos. If I can fill your request, I will do it. However I don't
rerun shows that I've recently run, so if you missed last months show, don't ask
me for it back the following month, it ain't happening. I do rerun shows
but never within a few months of the previous run.
Q: Can you make me a copy of the
_____ shows you ran last month?
A: No! Unless you're in the band, don't even ask.
If you're in the band, I'll do it, but I'm really slow at it and you'll probably
have to pester me for it a few times. ...and no, I won't sell you a
copy either.
Q: Gee Dave, this site is really
cool. What can I do to help?
A: Well, try buying shit from my Cafepress shops to help me pay for
the bandwidth or send me a video or a DVD of some shit you've shot and I'll put
it on the site. You could tell your friends about the site, or you could
add a link to your web site (if you have one). Otherwise I don't do this
for the money or the glory (still waiting for both.....yeah right!).
I do it so that all the shit I shot over the years gets seen, and the great
bands get appreciated. As long as this doesn't cost me too
much money, I'll do it forever.