In late spring 2001, I came to DeKalb for the first time under the pretense of playing a show in a basement. I remember thinking that DeKalb was a college town, so, of course, this show would draw tons of people. It was a shock when four people showed up to see us (and we had brought two of them). The “crowd” hated us, but stayed the whole time just to spite us. This experience shaped all I knew of the DeKalb music scene when I came here to live the next year.

“The musicians in this town need to take the initiative and fight for their right to express themselves,” said Kyle Graham, local music and arts promoter. “They need to get in this town’s hostile little face and force them to accept that there are great cultural influences in this town.”

DeKalb is host to well over 30 local bands with a constant flow of out-of-town bands rolling through, and rarely does word get out that they exist let alone that they have an upcoming show. What separates DeKalb from other scenes is the lack of communication between bands and potential fans and NIU’s status as a commuter school.

“There’s something in the water that makes the local venues unfriendly to original music and makes the college kids ignore the music scene and go home for weekends,” proclaims Gary Butterfield of Justin Bailey and Honkies with Privileges.

Unfortunately, this idea runs rampant among musicians around town. Bands watch cover bands draw people and money to places like Otto’s, while their own shows are lucky to get a dozen people who are mostly friends and other bands.

“Bands that aren’t cover bands are very supportive [of other bands],” said Sam Dole, of Sam Dole and the Forget-Me-Nots. “There is a split, though, between cover bands and original bands. The original bands stick together.”

When you go to shows in town, often the crowd is largely comprised of other musicians. There is a network among the musicians themselves, and all of them will come out to support their friends and other musicians. Yet, the college community remains in the dark about much that goes on in town. Somehow, the grapevine never extends past the Woodley Street border, let alone to the residence halls.

“Creating a scene is a long and arduous process. It’s almost like trying to get people to think you’re cool,” said John Ugolini, long-time CAB promoter and member of Where’s Jimmy K At?.

Getting the word out there is a hard thing in a town where there is little word-of-mouth to rely on, and when the university adds unheard of levels of bureaucracy to the process of flyering. According to the Programming and Activities Board Poster Policy, only SA recognized student organizations can flyer on campus; and if you’re not a student and the show is in your garage do you really think you will be getting your flyer approved, let alone you and your buddy recognized as a student organization? This sort of red-tape doesn’t help when you already have a bad reputation and you’re trying to woo a constantly shifting college audience.

“Indie rockers are less than welcoming to those who are not already part of the scene,” said Joe Robinson of Sliced Bread.

Things are starting to change, though. Recently, Otto’s and The House have been more receptive to the underground of DeKalb, booking such bands as Troubled Hubble, Bunko Musical Circus, Ropka popka and Candy Sweat among others; and the hardcore scene still thrives in the basements around town drawing over 200 people for its shows. It could always be worse, we could live in Rockford.

“DeKalb has always been really supportive. Unlike Rockford, everyone comes out to the shows not just the hardcore kids,” said Eliot Porter, of The Moment and the now disbanded Alethia.

DeKalb always has been supportive of the Roscoe and Rochelle bands, or the Twin Village Noise Core bands. Alethia’s last show before disbanding drew over 100 people into a basement, and those numbers are modest. When bands like The Ghost or Murder by Death roll through town from Urbana and Bloomington, IN respectively, you can cram over 200 people into a basement. Unfortunately, these shows happen more rarely, but DeKalb has already garnered a reputation for the amazing reception bands like Murder by Death have seen.

“DeKalb is considered one of the hardcore capitals, not just of the state, but of the country,” John Ugolini said.

Hardcore is seeing the end of its renaissance in DeKalb as shows start to dwindle, but other areas are seeing growth. Groups like Ropka Popka and Photosynthesis have seen good reactions at Otto’s and other local venues. DeKalb is experiencing a rise in avant-garde music as more and more artists combine a flair for art, performance and music to create a multimedia event at their shows.

Ropka Popka, a potent leader for avant-garde performance art in DeKalb, is known for its brash and colorful theatrics during perfomances combined with skittering laptop tones. The day of the DJ complacently spinning repetitious techno is fading as a new group of electronic musicians pushes laptop music forward in DeKalb.

Even the indie scene in DeKalb is seeing a forthcoming renaissance. The local owned and operated Scratch and Sniff Records is finally starting to push its way into the world with a catalog of over 30 records from more than 15 local bands. The label is getting noticed by online ‘zines, most recently on www.splendidezine.com. Unfortunately, the locals have taken little notice of these bands, and they have taken little notice of the lack of fans.

“It is really hard to get used to the sound of indie rock, especially when it is recorded and perfomed in such a raw format,” said Joe Robinson.

The preconception that bands won’t have broad appeal has kept the indie scene hesitant until recently. Scratch and Sniff has seen the release of its first official compilation. A string of shows around DeKalb and Rockford and a few higher profile independant artists coming through town in upcoming months is quieting Scratch and Sniff’s stage fright.

DeKalb has a strong scene flowing through the neighborhoods east of campus. Communication remains limited among the groups, but a system of message boards and e-mail mailing lists is starting to get all those interested to create larger and larger shows. The underground has yet to extend its reach past the bands that already play, but bands and promoters should look to the hardcore scene’s example of bringing on bigger names to draw crowds.

DeKalb is starting to come into its own, and we could soon be considered as fertile as Madison or Champaign with enough support from college students, locals and other bands willing to come through town.