Outhouse (venue)

The Outhouse is an adult venue located on East 15th Street Lawrence Kansas. BYOB. Open seven nights a week.

It hosted many acts from the time it was initially leased for fraternity parties and biker bashes in 1985 until it was discovered by young rock bands desperate for a place to perform. The first hardcore/alternative rock shows to play at The Outhouse were in the late summer/fall of 1985. Its doors were permanently closed in 1998. The growing mainstream popularity of pop punk music in the early 1990s was already leading to the decline of the Outhouse, but what ultimately led to its closing was the Great Flood of 1993. The building once known as the Outhouse is now a BYOB strip club.

The Outhouse was unique because it was a gutted cinder-block storage garage in the middle of a corn field. The walls (if any) had been torn out leaving only cinder-block walls. Original shows in 1985 featured no stage until a stage was built by volunteers from the University of Kansas student radio station, KJHK, and various local bands. KJHK and others had made an arrangement with the Flaming Lips to play there and felt a stage was needed to attract other non-local acts. During the construction of the stage, it was suggested that the name be changed from Past the Pavement Hall. One KJHK staffer remarked that the place was a "shithole" and it should be called the Outhouse. The name stuck. Unfortunately, the Flaming Lips van broke down and the show never occurred.

In the April 1986 issue of Spin, KJHK was recognized for "excellence in supporting a local music scene" for their work in bringing many national acts to the Outhouse and other Lawrence, Kansas music venues. It was a vibrant time for alternative live music in the midwest.

The stage was a box that stood approximately a foot and a half above the cement floor. Much later, a bar area was added to the back that was used to sell T-shirts, and other band merchandise, as well as refreshments. Alcohol was never served, but people often brought their own. At first alcohol was allowed in the club, but after the Outhouse received publicity in the local press, the Kansas ABC told the owner that it would begin enforcing the law at the Outhouse. Thereafter, alcohol was openly consumed in the parking-lot-front-yard, but not inside.

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