This Week in Texas Music History, Austin fills a Cavity, G. G. Allin sparks a riot, and Texas punk folklore takes root.
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On February 20, 1993, the notorious Austin punk club the Cavity closed with a final show by the band Pork. The Cavity Club played a significant role in Austin’s underground, a no-frills, no-holds-barred venue created by Staryn Wagner, Jimmy Bradshaw, and Dave Hermann on Red River. The street already had a gritty musical past, including the blues-biker hangout the One Knite and the New Orleans Club that hosted both Ernie Mae Miller’s boogie-woogie piano and the early gigs of the 13th Floor Elevators. In this arc, the Cavity Club orchestrated the Red River District’s DIY punk turn. The space itself was already a bit odd, last occupied by the eco-radical Zendik Farm collective, who sold their zines and cassettes on nearby Sixth Street. Also, the Cavity Club was BYOB, so they had the benefit of being just outside TABC’s purview.
However, the club’s sheer outrageousness meant they still butted up against bewildered authorities now and then, like the Halloween when a band sprayed gallons of fake blood on passersby while playing on the rooftop. Or, notoriously, the scatological apocalypse of shock rocker G. G. Allin, an artist whose unhinged antics could Iggy Pop blush. Allin was a punk singer, sure, but people came to the shows to bear witness to his rapid descent into nudity and foul bodily fluids. Allin’s February 1992 Cavity set ended with the arrival a dozen cop cars. As policeman Charles Smith recalled of the reason for their presence: “Dispatch had prior advised me that a fight was in progress and that a white male was onstage and defectating.” Mace was in the air as the place cleared out. This all happened within about twenty minutes.
Outrageousness made the headlines, but even in the Cavity Club’s short life its significance was in its ability to sustain local underground bands like Stretford, Glorium, Pocket FishRmen, and Cheezus as well as introducing Austinites to touring groups like Green Day, Chumbawumba, and Bikini Kill. Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna rightly looked askance at the place’s aggro energy, and Rebecca Cannon of locals Sincola has called it a “dirtbag hole,” but Greg Beets and Richard Whymark’s book A Curious Mix of People makes a compelling case for the role that such dirtbag holes play in a healthy punk scene.
Sources:
Greg Beets and Richard Whymark. A Curious Mix of People: The Underground Scene of ‘90s Austin. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2023.
Tim Stegall, “30 Years Ago, G. G. Allin Cleared Austin’s Scuzziest Punk Venue in 24 Minutes,” Austin Chronicle, February 18, 2022. https://www.austinchronicle.com/music/2022-02-18/30-years-ago-gg-allin-cleared-austins-scuzziest-punk-venue-in-24-minutes/
