My name is Nate Hollis. I'm 19. Since March of 1998 I've been putting on all-ages punk and hardcore shows in the basement of Grace Fellowship Church, on the corner by the laundromat, every other Friday night. This page is the flyer, the calendar, the rulebook, and the explanation, all in one, because I got tired of photocopying.

Here's the situation in this town, and probably yours. There is one club that has bands and you have to be 21 to get in. There is a VFW hall that used to do shows and then somebody broke a window in 1996 and that was that. If you're 15 and you want to see a band that isn't at the county fair, you drive 90 minutes to the city, if you have a car, if your parents let you, if you can afford $12 at the door and $4 for a Coke. Most kids can't. So they don't. So there's no scene. So the bands that DO start here have nowhere to play and they break up by graduation.

That's stupid. It's fixable. It's been fixed in a hundred other towns by kids with a PA and a room. This is us fixing it here. It's not a business. Nobody makes money. It's five bucks, it's a basement with a low ceiling and a linoleum floor, and it's the best night of the month.

People think there's a trick to this. There isn't. Here's the whole process, so you can do it too.

1. THE ROOM. Grace Fellowship has a fellowship hall in the basement: about 40 by 30 feet, a little stage at one end that's really a platform for the Christmas pageant, a kitchen off the side, two bathrooms, one door to the parking lot. It holds about 120 people if they're friendly. We get it Friday from 5 to 11:30 and we have to leave it the way we found it. (See the thank you at the bottom. It matters.)

2. THE BOOKING. I book 3 bands a show, sometimes 4. Usually two local bands and one from out of town that's driving through on a little tour, because that's how those bands survive, and because that's how OUR bands get shows in THEIR towns. It all trades. I find out-of-town bands through the mail, through zines, through the bands we've already had, and lately through e-mail. Anybody can send me a tape. I listen to all of them. I'm not a snob about it; if you're loud and you're not jerks, you're in.

3. THE DOOR. $5. All ages. No advance tickets, no guest list, no exceptions, including my own band and my own mother. If you truly don't have it, talk to me at the door and you'll get in; nobody's ever been turned away for being broke, and nobody's ever abused it, which says something. Kate runs the door with a cash box and a hand stamp from the craft store.

4. THE MONEY. Everything goes in the box. At the end of the night: $40 comes off the top and goes to the church for the lights and the heat (their number, not mine, and it's low). Then the take is split between the bands, with the touring band getting a bigger cut because they bought gas to get here. A good night is 90 kids, $450 in the box, $410 to the bands. A bad night is 35 kids and the touring band gets $80 and everyone else gets a handshake. The bands know that going in. I keep nothing. If there's leftover from the pop table it goes toward duct tape and flyers.

5. THE PA. We don't own one. The PA belongs to Squarehead's singer's uncle, who used to do sound for a wedding band, and he lets us borrow it: two speakers on poles, a powered mixer, four mics, a snake. We pick it up Friday at 4 and return it Saturday morning, clean, coiled, counted. If it breaks, we fix it, and we've had to once. If you don't have an uncle, there are places that rent gear by the night; there's one on GeoCities called Loud & Clear Sound Rental, and I've seen other scenes pool money for a night's rental and make it back at the door.

6. THE NIGHT. Doors at 7. First band at 7:30 sharp. Every band gets 30 minutes plus 10 to change over. Four bands = done by 10:15, floor swept by 10:45, lights out by 11. Bands sell their own tapes and shirts at a card table by the kitchen door. We sell pop and chips for 50 cents (at cost) from the church kitchen. Kate's mom made cookies once and now people ask.

7. THE FLYER. One 8.5x11 sheet, black and white, cut-and-paste, photocopied at the copy place. 200 copies. Record store, skate shop, guitar shop, the high school if you can get past the office, every telephone pole between here and the mall. Somebody always tears them down. Put up more.

All shows: Grace Fellowship basement, doors 7:00, $5, all ages. Lineups can change if somebody's van dies. Check back or e-mail me.

No shows over Christmas break; the church needs the hall. We start again in January.

SQUAREHEAD — 4-piece, fast, been around since '97, the closest thing we have to a headliner. They have a 7-inch out on their own label (they pressed 300). Their singer, Marcus, is my roommate, which is why he's on every flyer. It's not favoritism, it's proximity.

THE FISHSTICKS — pop-punk, 3 chords, all songs about girls and one about a dog. Three of them are seniors so get 'em while you can.

LOSING STREAK — new. Loud. Two guitars, no bass yet, they're looking. Their drummer is 14 and better than all of us.

MR. TUESDAY — slower, kind of emo, quiet parts and loud parts. The dads in the back like them best.

BROKEN RADIO — playing their first show Oct 8. I've heard the tape. Come.

My band is called Hollis Street, which is a bad joke, and we play when there's a hole in a bill and not otherwise. There's another band on GeoCities that does the garage thing, the Basement Tapes guys, and if they ever want to drive out here, the answer's yes.

TOURING BANDS: want to play? Send a tape and a letter (not just a tape) to the e-mail address at the bottom and I'll write back with the mailing address. Tell me what nights you're routing through. I can offer: $5-door split, a place to sleep (a floor, 3 or 4 floors on a good night), food from Kate's mom, and a room full of kids who have been waiting two weeks to see somebody from out of town. I can't offer: a guarantee, a hotel, or a sound guy who knows what he's doing. Sound guy is me.

People e-mail me from other towns asking this, so here's the essay. It's long. Sorry. It's important.

You don't need permission. That's the first thing. You don't need a club to book you, a label to sign you, or a paper to write about you. You need a room, a PA, three bands, a date, and 200 flyers. Fugazi has been doing $5 all-ages shows for over ten years and playing wherever a room could be found, and it works for them; it can work for a 16-year-old with a borrowed mixer. The volunteer-run club at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley has been doing all-ages shows with no alcohol since the '80s. It's been done. It's still being done. Do it.

Find the room first. Churches, VFW and Legion halls, Grange halls, community centers, the rec room at the YMCA, a barn, somebody's basement if the parents are saints. Walk in during the day, in a clean shirt, and ask to speak to whoever's in charge. Explain exactly what you want: the room, the hours, the rules you'll enforce, the money you'll pay them. Have it on paper. Offer to do a trial night. Half of them will say no. You only need one.

Make the rules before the first show and never bend them. Not once. The first time you let a guy in with a beer because he's your buddy is the first day of the end of your venue. Your reputation with the building owner is the whole thing. It's worth more than any band.

Keep it cheap. $5 is a number a 14-year-old can find. $10 isn't. If you can't pay the bands at $5, book fewer bands, not a higher price. Nobody's getting rich. Nobody should be trying.

Book out-of-town bands. Two reasons. One, it makes the show an event, not just the same four bands. Two, it gets your bands shows in their town. That's the circuit. That's how a band from here gets to play Ohio, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis on a week off from school: because those bands played here first and slept on a floor. Be the town that treats touring bands right and they'll tell every band they know.

Put somebody responsible on the door. The door is the money and the money is the trust. Kate has run ours for a year and there has never been a dollar unaccounted for and every band gets a piece of paper showing the count and the split. Do that. Every time.

Be there early and leave last. Whoever books the show is the janitor. If that sounds bad, don't book shows.

Take care of the building. Sweep. Mop. Take the trash to the dumpster. Fix what breaks, out of your own pocket if you have to. Leave it nicer than it was. The people who let you use their room are doing you a favor that nobody else in town would do, and the way you say thank you is with a mop.

It'll be small at first. Our first show was 22 people, and 9 of them were in bands. That's fine. 22 people in a basement is a show. 22 people in a basement is a scene. The rest is just doing it again in two weeks.