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By MIKE GANGLOFF
As shock and sorrow spread Monday, a day after a man died and five others were hurt when a window gave way during a third-floor punk show, musicians and showgoers recalled the rental duplex's unique character. (Read more about Daniel James Martin) "Their intentions were nothing but pure," Blacksburg musician Mike Bowers said of the successive sets of tenants who organized shows at Solar Haus. "They wanted nothing but to put on good shows for people for not a lot of money." "It's always been pretty central to the underground scene here in Blacksburg," added Mike Scarborough, a Virginia Tech graduate student who was at Sunday's fatal show. "Bands that played there couldn't play anywhere else because no club would book the bands," said Jeremy Koren, a veteran of Blacksburg's rock scene who recently moved to North Carolina. "It was the only place for us to see bands that we cared about and could identify with," former Tech student Bryan Flowers wrote in an e-mail. "Everyone at these shows were friends, which continues today." As in many college towns, private house parties long have nourished bands deemed unpalatable by Blacksburg's more commercially oriented clubs. But the number of these houses has diminished in the past decade, leaving Solar Haus as one of the last of its kind in town. Tom Snediker of The Kind, a band whose huge repertoire of Grateful Dead songs eventually made it one of the New River Valley's best-known groups, said Solar Haus' reputation as an alternative stage began soon after its early-1980s construction. He remembered one of The Kind's early shows was the 1986 Solarfest, an annual spring party that house residents used to organize. "It provided everyone with a place to play in front of a lot of people they wouldn't otherwise get to play for," Snediker said. Other long-running Blacksburg rock bands like Electric Woodshed and O.U.F. played Solar Haus as they were getting started, Snediker said. Solar Haus owner Homer Hurst, a retired Tech professor who designed the south-facing windows that give the house its name - and that dancers fell through Sunday night - said he wasn't aware of any previous problems at musical events. Not only did he not mind the shows his tenants put on, Hurst said, but he also considered them a coming thing. "It appears to be a national movement ... private concerts," Hurst said. Neighbors also seemed to accept the occasional noise. "I would say, compared to other areas of campus, there are no more parties here than any other apartment complex," said Justin Garrison, a Tech senior who lives a stone's throw from Solar Haus. Garrison said his understanding is that many of the concerts involve straight-edge bands that shun alcohol and drugs. "I would say it's crazier here during the football games with all of the tailgating than it ever is with Solar Haus," said next-door resident Kelly Oats, also a Tech student. In recent years, as Solar Haus residents turned to various styles of punk music, their 16-by-22-foot living room played host to local acts and traveling bands who worked a circuit of nontraditional spaces. That wasn't exactly the case Sunday. Death By Stereo, the California band that headlined the five-act bill, has a video on MTV2 and came to Solar Haus after their booking at a Richmond club fell through. But the 50 or so people that audience members and police estimated were present Sunday was actually a low turnout for Solar Haus. Jimmy Street, whose band The Greatest has played at Solar Haus a number of times, said Sunday's accident has prompted worries across town that go beyond the sadness for the lost life and injuries. "No show in town is worth losing a life over. That's of course obvious," Street said. "But ... there is a generalized fear around that the scene is dead." Staff writer KEVIN MILLER contributed to this report.
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