ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – For a small group of young Alaskans, the revolution began in the late 1970s.
“I think punk is just something that blooms like a mushroom out of nowhere,” says Kurt Riemann, a producer at Surreal Studios.
For over 40 years, he’s worked with hundreds of musicians in Anchorage.
“There’s this undercurrent, there’s this underground of things, and then eventually a band pops out with music.”
The scene began forming when Frank Harlan, under the stage name “Bill Bored,” began a punk magazine with friends.
The idea was developed along with “Bomb Shelter Videos,” an MTV-style show that aimed to bring attention to alternative musicians in Alaska and beyond.
“Knowing that we didn’t have a whole heck of a lot going on in Anchorage, we decided to bring the scene to Anchorage,” Harlan said.
At the show’s peak, over 40,000 viewers were tuning in to his show.
“It’s just a lot of interaction and communicating with everybody and checking in with everybody and the fanzine was like that little center of the wheel,” Harlan said.
Over time, venues were opened to provide a space for these new rockers to perform. Java Joint and Gigs were two of the most well-known businesses, while the Werehaus (later renamed the Eighth People’s Werehaus Republik) became a haven for counter-culture Alaskans looking for a place to stay and interact with like-minded artists.
“Venues would happen because they had to happen,” Riemann said. ”There was just an amount of people that had a place to play.”
He had only been to the Warehaus once, but remembers hearing stories of the concerts and Halloween parties that made the place well known to Anchorage residents. An old scrapyard in Spenard and abandoned bomb shelters in Kincaid Park were also frequented by concertgoers.
The scene began to die out just as quickly as it had begun. Key figures in the scene, such as Harlan, moved to the Lower 48, and venues struggled to afford to stay open for more than a few years. Java Joint would later become a pawn shop, Gigs was replaced with a new firehouse, and the Wearhaus was left to be abandoned until a fire destroyed it in 2017.
Despite the ending, those involved in the scene remember it fondly.
“It did what it was supposed to do. It got young people making music,” Harlan said.
Riemann also feels that the scene was key in developing Anchorage’s artistic identity.
“I think everybody should be interested in what it is that happens in the community because it’s our voice. It’s what we do here that’s unique to us, and no matter how hard you try to sound like someone else, you’re always gonna sound uniquely Alaskan,” Riemann said.
Both Harlan and Riemann have continued their artistic endeavors into the current year.
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