THE LAB

The Lab was actually the basement of a house located at 144 Hill Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan. What made it important was the fact that it was one of the only places where people of all ages could go and see bands play back in the early 90's. In the beginning, The Lab was intended to be an open performance space for everything from art to poetry, but the music was the only thing that really found a permanent place there. The Lab was first opened in September of 1992 by Brian Tubbs, Brad Hales and Jason Tolzdorf. The first few shows were very small with very few people in attendance. This changed as time went on as more bands and people found out about one of Ann Arbor's best kept secrets. By late fall of that year, The Lab was now doing shows every Friday and Saturday night and kids and adults from all over Michigan would pack into a small and sweaty little basement to see some of the best bands that this town has ever seen. Eventually, bands from out of town were now coming in either to play or just to drop in and visit ('Bash And Pop' stopped by on their way to a gig in Detroit one time, and it is rumoured that 'Sonic Youth' showered there while on tour one time). Soon the local press found out about what was happening and it didn't take long after that for the local authorities to take notice as well. The Ann Arbor Police made it there point to show up every weekend after awhile, handing out M.I.P. tickets to underage drinkers and the house was being fined for noise violations(which was ironic seeing as it was a block away from Michigan Stadium). By spring of 1993, the police had gone to the City Council and reported to them that The Lab was serving alcohol to minors(which was obviously untrue). Not long after, on the night of March 27th, the police raided the house during a show and brought in the fire marshall. Over $8000 in fines were handed down to the residents of The Lab mostly for fire code violations and for running a business in a housing zone. The fines were dropped after the residents of The Lab agreed to move out and cease the string of shows. Since then, many houses have existed like The Lab but none have ever made such an impact on the local music scene like The Lab did.- John "Rastafari"Griffin


				*THE LAB*



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