I recently learned about a local zine called "Columbus Sucks Because You Suck," which in Googling to learn more brought me to this article by Bret Liebendorfer, documenting the Columbus punk/hardcore scene circa 2010. Lots of good insights, including:
To understand matters, first you need to know about the city’s greatest legacy (and infamy): The Ohio State University. Most punk is found in its nearby student ghetto. This inexpensive, noise-tolerant, and liberal neighborhood serves 55,000 students at the nation’s largest university plus an estimated 100,000 additional college-aged people.
The college-punk relationship can be stressful, but it’s far from preps versus cutters, as most punks are students, recent graduates, or dropouts. Some eventually leave for the liberal working-class neighborhood of Clintonville, directly north, or the yuppified Victorian Village, directly south. However, cheap rent, temporary unskilled jobs, and fellow punks are enough to keep most in the student ghetto.
With the exception of the Legion of Doom (which has been hosting DIY shows for around twenty years), most punk houses last a few years and come and go with the annual August 31 rental agreements (everything here seems to be tied to the university schedule). Annually, there’s always a steady supply of punks willing to host shows from their basement, living room, back yard, garage, van, and even outdoor shows powered by a generator. Houses do have their niches—pop punk, hardcore, noise, metal, ones where bands are secondary to the party—but different styles often play together and subgroups mingle without problems.
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