Buffalo’s DIY Epicenter: From Punk Shows to Clothing Swaps, Area 54 at Amy’s Place Allows Artists & Communities to Thrive
- Jare Curtis
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
DIY in Buffalo has undergone a lot of changes, taken on a lot of shapes, and ushered in an array of eras throughout the past decade. Since the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Area 54 at Amy’s Place has become the epicenter of the DIY scene.
Closures of spaces like Sugar City, Chemical No. 2, the Hostel, and others, have led to very few venues for all ages DIY events to happen, especially if that work is weird, creative, or a little off the beaten path. Amy’s Place, however, welcomes creativity in its booking, in terms of how those shows are presented, what they are, and who does them. If the community can think of it, it can probably happen there.
After being mostly closed throughout the winter, Area 54 has experienced a bit of a rebirth since the opening of Caffe @ Amy’s, and this has ushered in a slightly higher production value, and a lot of new shows. All of this has led to the up-and-coming generation of indie and punk artists who have a whole new canvas on which to paint — and this summer has been a real highlight in that new era.
A lot of that energy has been a renewed focus on creating shows that feel like true community events. Sure, these shows feature local and touring bands giving everything they’ve got, but local promoters and organizers — just regular people — are looking for ways to connect the bands and their crowds and create experiences that make local folks feel like they’re part of something special.
Benefits, food drives, mutual aid shows, and the like have always been a piece of punk and DIY, but local promoters like Swimming Faith, The Lavender Room and G.A.G.S to name just a few have picked up the frequency, and that’s given inspiration to upcoming bands and promoters alike. For example, toward the end of Pride Month this year, locals in Bitemark, PissGuzzler, and War Bond decided to take that energy and create a fun atmosphere, with a clothing swap at the center of the event.
The idea was simple: put a bunch of folding tables on the sidewalk in front of Amy’s Place and let the crowd bring unneeded clothes to donate. Everyone was welcome to take whatever they wanted from the spoils, all with the idea that those clothes could find new homes. The “T4T Clothing Swap” concept also centered trans community members — specifically (T4T is queer slang for “trans for trans,” describing romantic and platonic relationships between trans people) — giving them center space in the idea for the show.
What resulted was a true bounty of clothing of all different styles, with hundreds of pieces being distributed for free. Not only were audience members going through the piles, showing pieces to their friends that they thought they’d like, but locals just walking down Main Street also got in on the idea and were welcomed to grab whatever stood out to them. At the end of the night, several community members helped stash the leftover clothes in trash bags, which were then donated to GLYS WNY, a local nonprofit that provides a variety of services to queer and trans youth in Western New York.
Just with the simple idea of a big queer community clothing swap, the show already had a key theme: Joy through Sharing. Because of that, the whole show had already created a connection between the crowd and the bands.
Music kicked off with hardcore punk band War Bond, a group that’s been playing a steady stream of local shows since debuting at Guerilla Showfare in May. Tuning and transition sections between songs gave vocalist Ky Reynolds ample time to touch on the importance of queer community, solidarity, and the fight against racism, oligarchy, and
ICE in our local community and beyond. Following them was PissGuzzler, the trans-fronted grind core band well known for sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek performances, sharp and edgy guitar lines, and a focus on punchy, danceable, grindy breakdowns. And rounding out the night was Bitemark, the fresh riotgrrrl band with a loose and playful touch. Their set was a manic mix of bouncing-off-the-wall freneticism and nonbinary veracity, and the crowd ate up every second as vocalist Pink Thing barked at the crowd, both literally and figuratively, with crowd members doing push-ups in the pit.
It was the perfect cap-off to a night of bouncy, aggressive, compassionate queer joy. There was a lot of kindness and solidarity in the room, and despite the punch and aggression of the music, the crowd had that youthful, excited energy that has become trademark of Amy’s Place in the past year.
The T4T Clothes Swap felt like a perfect synopsis of the current era and is hopefully an indicator of new stuff to come.
