Alli's Articles
INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS, CULTURE PIECES, MUSICAL RAMBLINGS.
If you’re a New Paltz student who enjoys the house shows in the area, the name “Skatehouse” should be very familiar. It’s the closest venue to campus, in a quaint little house hidden in the trees. I wrote an article about my first show there in September, and have gone to multiple shows since then. It’s probably my favorite venue that I’ve been to yet, because the bands are always spectacular, the basement is always decorated to the theme, and the people are just great. I always have a great time, and I love moshing with my friends and enjoying the music. One person in particular I’ve noticed promoting the house constantly, and overall is very passionate about the shows there is Connor. Not only does he live in the Skatehouse, he also is in charge of the Skatehouse Instagram and all things social media-related for the shows. I’ve wanted to talk to Connor for a while, but one event in particular made me even more curious about the Skatehouse. On November 1st, 2019, the house hosted a Halloween Hangover show. The lineup was great, it was being promoted nearly every day, and it was looking up to be the perfect show. I arrived at the very start, and I immediately noticed that the vibes of this show were slightly off. It was overflowing with people. Usually, a lot of guests attend the shows, but this time, it was too much. I couldn’t even get to the basement, and was stuck in a sea of people who saw it as a normal house party, and were there just to be out of the dorms on a Friday night. It wasn’t about the music anymore in my eyes, and as the cops came to the driveway and began to shut it down, that became pretty apparent. There was supposed to be another Skatehouse show on November 15th, but all show activities were stopped after the shutdown. “We hope you all had a blast at the shows at Skatehouse,” read an Instagram picture posted on the Skatehouse Instagram two days after the event. Countless users flooded the comment section of that post, expressing gratitude and sadness. “Skate house will never die,” and “Gone but never forgotten,” are just two examples of all of the love guests were sending. Seeing these comments made me upset, but also confused. Is this the end of Skatehouse forever? Will they ever try again to put on the great shows they once hosted? Refusing to believe this was the end, I met up with Connor in SUNY New Paltz’ Atrium and got to the bottom of how the Skatehouse started up, how it operates, and what the future holds. ~~~ Alli: Could you tell me a little bit about the origins of the skatehouse? Connor: So…*laughs* We bought this house from our landlord, and, I don’t know, I’ve always wanted to host shows there, so last year I got into contact with the Lavender Ladies which is Denise and Elana, and they asked if they could have a show in our basement. So, we said yeah, and they did that, and it ended up being really cool. I realized, “This is what I wanna do, I wanna start hosting things.” I just completely took over the social media aspect of it, like making Skatehouse into an actual platform and venue. Slowly but surely, we transformed the basement from what it was into a stage and completely decorated it everytime. I don’t know...it just became really...like so much fun. I love it. Alli: Were there any venues previously, before the Skatehouse? Connor: So last year, there was Crossroads, but it was closer to campus back then. Like right across the street near the high school and middle school. You would cross the road and it would be right there. Alli: Oh. That’s why it’s called Crossroads! Connor: Yeah! You cross the road and you’re there! And then there was Nacho House. It was ran by the people in the band Winnebago Vacation and TOP nacho. And they had shows, like, all the time. It was insane. There were so many bands. They ended it off with Nacho Fest last year, where they had an all day thing where 20-30 bands played. Because Nacho House is gone now, and Crossroads is a little further, I wanted to make something that was more apparent to New Paltz, to kinda keep the music scene alive and to bring it back a little bit more, because it was falling out and leaving with the people that were maintaining it. I don’t know, I wanna keep the music scene alive. I really want to. Alli: Why is it called the “skate” house? Connor: Ummm…*laughs* So...I don’t really know. Someone asked me once, I’m pretty sure it was Denise or Elana, “What is this called?” so they could put it on the poster, and we were all joking around at first calling it “Skatehouse,” and I just didn’t know what to say, so I just said that. And it just became that. Now we’re changing it to Mountain Dew house. Alli: Oh my god, really? Connor: No. *laughs* Maybe. I don’t know. But we’re trying there. Alli: Who makes up the Skatehouse, and what is your role in the house? Connor: There’s Jack, there’s Ben, there’s Duncan, there’s Matt, there’s Brandon, there’s Koby, there’s Eddie, there’s Danny, there’s Peyton, there’s me...I think that’s everybody. I hope I’m not forgetting anybody. Pretty much what I do is the social media aspect of everything. I advertise, I book the bands, I talk to the other venues, I get the equipment set up, I talk to the people for the doors, the people running the PA system, the photographer. Everybody helps prepare and clean up after the shows, which is nice. I’ve decorated a little bit, and Ben helps do that as well. It’s very easy to do. It sounds like a lot of work, but I’m really prepared for it. And I love to do it, it’s one of my favorite things to do here. Alli: Yeah, I’ve learned that in a way. For the Music Collective here I was in charge of booking the bands for this upcoming show on December 7th. I had to reach out to the bands and negotiated, and it was so much fun! I had to send them the paperwork, I felt like such a professional person. Connor: It’s so much fun! It’s so great. You get, like, a sense of independence. You get a look into what the business is like. Alli: Yeah, exactly. It’s like, if I want to go into the business, now I know what it consists of. Next...what is the show preparation process like? Connor: So basically, what I’ll do is go into the basement, look around, clean it, get whatever is left down, I vinnegar-ed the floors completely, and washed them to get rid of any smell that was left. It rained and we left a window open, so we had to get rid of the carpet because it got all messed up. We have three electronic lights that connect and make cool little animations, we have shower curtains that we put on the sidings of the wall that makes it look kind of like white plating that the lights can go on, which is cool. The sound system comes in at around 7, before the show which usually starts at 9. I set up the GoPro to record the crowd. The camera guy usually comes at 8, the door people come at 8. All the equipment people just start coming in, and yeah! I don’t know! It’s pretty easy once they all start coming. It all just comes together, really. Alli: I was running these questions past my friends, and this was the one that everyone wanted to know the answer to. How long does it take to completely clean the house after a show? Connor: Um…*laughs* I don’t know. Don’t come into our house. It’s been a while. After our third show, I think, I realized that it usually takes so long to clean it after, so I went down the day after and cleaned the whole entire basement. Honestly, the upstairs is usually clean, so it varies. We can either take a day or a month. Depends on how we’re feeling, and, to be honest, we have not been feeling very urgent lately, so.... Alli: Do you have a favorite band that has played at the Skatehouse? Connor: Ah! Oh my God, Run for the Whales, obviously have been incredible. I love them. They’re all great. Greenhouse Lake was incredible, Koalamode is so good. It was just all great. I loved it. It was so much fun. Alli: Yeah, I agree. I loved when Run for the Whales covered “Sugar We’re Going Down” at that one show...That was definitely my favorite mosh of the night. Connor: Yeah! And then “Build Me Up Buttercup!” That was so cool. Sean Brennan is my hero. Alli: I understand you make music as well, under… Mono Neko (pronounced Moe-Noe NEE-koe). Who are some of your inspirations? Connor: I don’t really know how to describe my music taste, because it changes a lot. My inspirations are kinda just who I’m listening to at the time. A couple big ones are Hippo Campus, I love the way they’ve been sounding lately. I’m super into a lot of the indie bands. I love Wallows. Deerhunter is great, they’re a little more rock. If you’ve heard “PRIDE.” by Kendrick Lamar, it has the same vibe as an indie artist like Steve Lacy, and how he makes things. Anything that sounds spacey, and makes me feel like I’m in the 80s, basically, I’m inspired by. Alli: Out of all of the Skatehouse shows you’ve had, which one was the best? Connor: I don’t wanna say the last one, but...Okay. The most successful in terms of everything going great, everything was perfect, was probably the one before the last one, the one on 10/25. That was an incredible show. We had Winnebago Vacation, bby carrots, Run for the Whales, and Vanity Jones. That was an incredible show. But, I think I have to pick the last one. The one where we got shut down. Playing in front of 400 people throughout the night coming in and out at our 11/1 Halloween Hangover show, that was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my life. So I would say that’s my favorite show. Alli: Yeah, my next question was actually about that. The Halloween Hangover show got shut down a few weeks ago. How do you feel about it, and what’s the next step from here? Connor: So, right now, we’re on a bit of a hiatus, indefinitely. Not really sure what’s going on. All I can say is we now have so many places in the community that are all connected. Even if Skatehouse isn’t running, there’s Sanctum House, Sanctuary, Crevice, Crossroads, Groove Grove, and Crazy Dan’s. There’s still a community. I think for Skatehouse right now, we’ll probably be on hold for a little while, and that’s pretty much all I can confirm right now. But it was great, it was so much fun when we had it. Stay tuned, I guess, for something maybe not involving Skatehouse, but something else, who knows? And stay tuned for the Skatehouse Instagram, we’ll definitely be posting a lot there. Alli: Exactly. We can only go up from there. I mean, I was there for the last show, I left early because there was a situation going on, and I remember seeing a police car in addition to that. Personally, I saw many people I knew at the house that night. There was nothing else going on that night, the frats were dead and I guess the bars were as well, so people who aren’t really into that scene came. The basement was dead but the pong table upstairs was popping, and that’s what upset me about it. It wasn’t for the music. Connor: Yeah, there was a separation. If you went downstairs, you saw all the people involved in music, but upstairs was like a house party. Originally, we always wanted it to just be for the music, but...I guess that we learned from our mistakes, and move on from there. It’s not fun. But hey, that’s the risk you take. Alli: Yeah, especially being so close to campus and all. My last question is, what’s your favorite part about living in the Skatehouse? Connor: I love everybody in there. It’s great. It’s so much fun. I...we’re not a frat! We’re not! I don’t know, it’s just fun. I wake up in the morning, I go to class, and then I come home and there’s always something to do. Everyone’s so much fun. I’m in there with my best friend Eddie, which is great, because he’s always there too. Everyone I moved in with that I didn’t know prior, they’re incredible. They’re all great. They’ve all helped so much. I do all the technical stuff online, but that’s mostly just because I like to make sure that everything’s set. Brandon’s helped me with crowd control, and making sure things are staying safe. Pretty much everyone has helped the place stay clean. Eddie has helped make the posters. He sets up the blackboard, if you see it, he always makes the best designs. Ben and Matt redesign the living room every couple of days before a show just to see what they can switch up. Koby and Danny sweep up the entire driveway to make a path, which is awesome. Yeah, no, everybody has been contributing pretty equally, and have just been making it a lot of fun. It’s great, I love everybody there! Alli: Yeah, and I’ve seen it in your expressions at the shows, and on your Instagram and the Skatehouse Instagram, you seem very passionate about the music scene here and I really appreciate that. I come from Staten Island, and there’s some scenes, some people, but you really have to dig down if you want to find it. Connor: Yeah, I genuinely love it. ~~~ The Skatehouse may be on a little bit of a hiatus, but the music scene here at New Paltz is alive as ever. With venues all across the town, there are so many places to go and so many people to see. Some of these venues may be a little far for people without cars, but carpooling and Ubers are a thing in this day and age! Don’t let the Skatehouse shutting down steer you away from the scene as a whole. There are many other great places that you can support to keep the scene alive. I’m hoping that one day in the future the Skatehouse makes a return, because I had some of the best nights of my first semester of college in that basement. Seeing classmates and friends, making new ones, discovering new bands, and just seeing everyone happy and enjoying themselves were all great things to do there. So, to answer my question of this being the end of Skatehouse...it’s not a definite no. After talking to Connor and getting a better understanding of the lore of the Skatehouse, I don’t think that this is the end of the road. It’s just a minor setback. Stay posted on what the Skatehouse does next by following their Instagram! Follow Connor on Instagram! Listen to Mono Neko on Soundcloud!
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