The following feature appears in the Spring 2016 issue of Medley Magazine.
Forty people bob their heads to an indie punk band playing in the basement of a nondescript, blue apartment at the far end of Ackerman.
For the past two years, Schoonmaker and his seven apartment mates have kept a tradition of hosting bands in their house, inspired by venues the guys visited as freshman.
For the past two years, Schoonmaker and his seven apartment mates have kept a tradition of hosting bands in their house, inspired by venues the guys visited as freshman. “We were all talking over video cam or whatever and thought, how can we make our living situation, like, really rad?” Schoonmaker says. They decided to turn the basement of their first apartment on Ostrom, where they lived last year, into a space for indie rockers from all over the Northeast, christening it the Goon Lagoon. is morphed into the Scarier Dome, the name of the eight guys’ apartment on Ackerman, which has become a community all its own.
Flannel-adorned kids with thick-rim glasses crowd the dark basement. A folding table displays band merchandise and Scarier Dome-branded gear for sale. A homemade lighting rig composed of small spots and Christmas lights, built by Kevin McCallum, a Scarier Dome resident and senior fine arts major, illuminates the stage. Wires running out of small wooden boxes everywhere and puddles on the ground give the basement a trendy Triangle Shirtwaist Factory vibe.
People go to the second floor to converse and eat food, like macaroni and cheese topped with Doritos served from an orange ceramic pan. The kids in this slightly less crowded space sings along to Biz-Markie instead of moshing with a shirtless guy.
“A place is just a spot. A space is where you come to eat and hang,” says Andy Horvath, lead singer and guitarist of Super Defense.”
Members of the band Leapling hang out in the first floor living room before their act. They just arrived from Montreal and stay
the night at the Scarier Dome on their way back to Brooklyn. As
part of having a band in temporary residence, the Ackerman guys produce music videos for the band. Dan Arnes, the vocalist and guitarist for Leapling, says they had been approached about playing Funk ‘N Waffles when looking for venues in the Syracuse area. “Someone mentioned that to us and we were like that sounds like not our place,” Arnes says. Another potential perk: a housemates can run to the corner store to grab beer for the guests.
“It’s like the difference between a space and a place,” says Andy Horvath, lead singer and guitarist of Super Defense, a self-described Bedroom Pop band. “A place is just a spot. A space is where you come to eat and hang.” Most people had a similar story. ey come to a show or two and feel this sense of belonging. Some, like Horvath, perform while other attend as regulars in the audience. Something about aggressively loud music in tight spaces brings people together. “I’ve met a lot of friends here,” says Josh Bazan, a senior broadcasting major. “It’s a place to meet awesome people.”
Of the eight guys living there right now, all but one graduate this May. McCallum predicts almost all of them will end up working
in the music or art scene. As for Scarier Dome itself, nobody seems too worried about it disappearing. “I know that freshmen really dig our shows and they are already planning how they are going to
do this,” McCallum says. The Scarier Dome, with its makeshift concession stand and unofficially official branding might change next year, but the tradition won’t.
by Ben Farr, originally published in MEDLEY MAGAZINE Spring 2016