Community World Theater

While I went to punk shows on and off for a few years, it wasn't until 1987 or so when I regularly started going to punk shows all the time. At the time, in Seattle, the Teen Dance Ordinance made it hard to put on all-ages shows, so venues in nearby towns like Tacoma and Bremerton had success in drawing a lot of us from the city to shows. In Tacoma the primary all-ages punk venue was the Community World Theater, an old movie theater turned punk venue that hosted about three dozen shows in 1987 and 1988.

Mike Ziegler has put together a great history of the venue here that I implore you to check out. He's cataloged flyers, shows, and photos, a great little Washington punk rock history archive, totally the kind of thing I'm into. There's also a MySpace page that includes the music from some of the bands that used to play Community World here.


The shows I remember most seeing at Community World were Fugazi's first tour, the Circle Jerks and 7 Seconds, and The Vandals. This is also where bands like Nirvana and Melvins played some of their earliest shows before they got well known. Along with the big name touring bands, there were also tons of smaller local band shows. Here's a semi-complete list of the bands that played courtesy of the Ziegler's MySpace page:

7 Seconds • 64 Spiders • Abolishment • Accused • Act Of Sabotage • Action Buddy • Agent 86 • Alphabets Swill • Amorous • A.M.Q.A. • Angry Samoans • Animal Clinic • Applied Science • Armoros • Attitude • Attitude Adjustment • Beat Happening • Big Idea • Big Tube Squeezer • Bitter End • Blast • Bleeder • Blood Circus • Blood Sucking Freaks • Bomb • Bosch Society • Brain Dead • Brigade • Brotherhood • Bundle Of Hiss • Burial Benefits • Cactus Love • Camper Van Beethoven • Cannibal • Cat Butt • Catalyst • Chemistry Set • Child Support • Christ On Parade • Circle Jerks • Clown Alley • Coffin Break • Comatose • Cool Runnings • Coven • Crash Bang Crunch Pop • Crisis Party • Dag Nasty • Danger Bunny • Danger Mouse • Dayglo Abortions • Dead Silence • Death Midget • Death Squad • Dehumanizers • Dekay • Derelicts • Desperate Minds • Diddly Squat • Diseased • Disgusting Youth • Dissent • D.O.A. • Doll Squad • Doris • Doughboys • Dr. Know • Dr. Seuss • Duracell • Eastern Star • Edge • Eleven Phantoms • Errant Souls • False Prophets • Family Circus • Fang • fIREHOSE • Flipper • Fluid • Forced Entry • Fred’s Crash Shop • Frightwig • Fugazi • Gary Allen May • Gary Jam • GBH • Girl Trouble • Go Team • G.O.D. • Gods Of Junk • Green Eggs and Ham • Green Pajamas • Green River • Green Suit • H-Hour • Hair Farmers • Half Life • Hateful Youth • Heliotroupe • Hell's Kitchen • Herd Of Turtles • Hester Pryne • Hickoids • Hodads • Holy Sisters Of The Gaga Dada • Housecoat Project • Inner Strength • Inspector Luv And The Ride Me Babies • Jesters Of Chaos • Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid Kids • Kil D'Kor • Killdozer • Killer Bees • King Krab • Lansdat Blister • Lawndale • Lethal Dose • Little Stranger • Lush • Malfunkshun • Mecca Normal • Melvins • Mentors • Melting Fish • Millions Of Dead Leninz • Mind Over Four • M.I.A. • M.I.S. • Moral Crux • Morpheus • Muck • My Name • Neurosis • Nirvana • Nisqually Delta Podunk Nightmare • No Cash Value • No Problem • NOFX • Noise For Nothing • NoMeansNo • Non-Oxynel 9 • Obituaries • Outrage • Pale Ryder • Panic • Pen Cap Chew • Poison Idea • Pop Defect • Positive Outlook • Primitives • Prudence Dredge • Purdins • Pure Joy • Really Rottens • Really Soon • Ride Me Babies • Ringling Sisters • R.K.L. • Room Nine • Sabre • Sacrament • Sacrilege B.C. • Scream • Screamin' Sirens • Screaming Trees • Sea Hags • S.G.M. • Shiva Dancing • Short Dogs Grow • Silent Treatment • Skid Row • Skin Yard • Slack • Slaughter Haus 5 • Slovenly • Snakepit • SNFU • Some Velvet Sidewalk • S.O.S.A. • Soundgarden • Soylent Green • Special Force • s • Spot 1019 Squirrels • State Of Confusion • Steel Pole Bath Tub • Strypes • Subculture • SubVert • Sustained Agony • SX7 • Systems Collapse • Ted Ed Fred • Ten Foot Faces • Thrash Forward • Totally Fucking Lit • Toxic Slaughter • U-Men • Undead • Undercurrent • Underdog • Urinal Disaster • Vampire Lezbos • Vandals • Variant Cause • Verbal Assault • Vomit Launch • Wankster Flu • Wehrmacht • Whipping Boy • White Zombie • Wicked Babe • Witnesses • Yellow Snow • Youth Of Today • Zamo


The photos I included were shot by Darcy Rant. Many thanks to Darcy for letting me put them up! In talking about the shows it sounds like she and I were at many of the same ones, but it was a couple years before I started photographing at shows and writing about music. I absolutely love the one with the skinhead speaker diving and his arms spread out like a bird above the crowd... it's amazing she captured that moment, and I think that dude landed right on me if it was during the Circle Jerks.