A friend living in Cleveland from Chicago bought this album called Crash Course in Cleveland Life down South. It is a compilation of decent garage punk from the late 80′s. A Google search on its origins revealed an article entitled Why Tremont Owes Me a Parking Spot on a defunct site called ClevelandWeirdness. Some excerpts:

Pat’s was a starting off point for a whole generation of Cle underground. The gritty suuroundings reflected the gritty music. The gas burn off from the chimney of LTV, dubbed the “eternal flame”, the big oil tanks across the street, the piles of crushed glass down the road, the burnt out cars, all gave that place a dirty, industrial wasteland vibe. Great place to see a punk show.

If you wanted some mainstream entertainment, a growing number of establishments on Old River Road could accomodate you. If you wanted to bash maniquin heads together Pat’s was the place.

In conjuntion with his new basement recording studio, John Walsh started a “Battle of the Worst Bands” competition. This was a first, and actually encouraged people to be “bad”. This was a great creative outlet, introducing the world to such musical luminaries as Sleezy Jesus and the Splatterpigs, Mission of Parma,and that French heavy metal band Shefukdher. The competition went on for 4 Saturdays culmulating in the packed final round, with Shefukdher ripping a confetti filled manquein and tossing it into the air. The confetti stayed airborn for 5 minutes. This made Pat’s quite the place to be. John Walsh and I booked National acts like Alice Donut, Algrebra Suicide, No Means No, and Scrawl. The booking agent for Peabody’s showed up at the Algebra Suicide Show. He was impressed by the turnout.

I put together a compilation LP of bands that played Pat’s called “Crash Course in Cleveland Life” that futher embellished the mystique of Pat’s. College radio airplay made people drive up and down the Eagle Street ramp looking for the place the Synders of Berlin were playing.

Richey Piiparinen