This scene, that you are all part of, has and will always start when a group of like-minded youth get together for some fun and adventure.For me the beginning was in Philly in 1978 when a group of us kids got together to take over this abandoned lot in the heart of the downtown, and build wooden skateboard ramps that we would ride with wild reckless abandon. The goal was to create a weightless flying feeling pushing your mind and body beyond all previous know limitations. To help us achieve this state we had to skate with music. It was the music that helped our minds transcend all the societal limitations that would mess with our heads. This radical new music was called Punk Rock, and it was perfect for our cause, so we sought it out, it was nothing like what you heard on the mainstream radio, it was intense, daring and very aggressive, nothing could stop us. We were so impassioned by this music, that it became our lives.

We loved this music so much, and we needed more of it, so in 1982, Howard Saunders( Bunga ), Bruce Mumich ( Boosh ), and myself ( Eye ) under the name of BungaBooshEye started brining some of the first all age Punk shows to Philly, to a place that we called Love Hall, with bands like: The Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Circle Jerks, D.O.A., T.S.O.L., Meat Puppets, Husker Du, SS Decontrol, Scream, Negative Approach, Misfits, Necros, Flipper, the list goes on and on. At that time I also documented all of the Philly shows on video tape from 81 - 83 .

Not content with all the urban squalor surrounding me in Philly, I relocated to Tucson in 1985 to try to develop a deeper relationship with this earth. It was in April of 1987 that I rented the old produce warehouse located at 31 E. Toole Av. from the State of Arizona Department of Transportation. Our first Art opening here was in 88’ under the name Hellrad Club, and soon there after the name evolved to, Dodajk Internation ( the internal nation of the wild ) From 88’ - 91’ we had over 70 Art / Music openings with bands like: Fugazi, NOFX, SNFU, Crashworship, Helios Creed, Tragic Mulatto, Sink Manhatten, plus many more. With continual threats and harassment from the police about the people who were attending our shows, and no support from the city officials we were forced to stop doing our events here, and I was very frustrated, swearing never to do shows again in this town.

With great encouragement and very enthusiastic support from the people in the art and music scene of Tucson, I was reinspired to search out another building to have the shows in. Jerry Brunetti found the perfect building, and once again I rented a building from the State, this one located at 530 North Stone, which became the Downtown Performance Center ( DPC ) . The DPC was in effect from 91 - 95, we had over 800 shows take place in that building with bands like : Green Day, Offspring, Rancid, Cake, Blind Melon, Voi Vod, DRI, Stereolab, Jesus Lizard, Seaweed, Sunny Day real Estate, Soul Coughing, Jawbox, Jaw Breaker, Neurosis, NOFX, Bad Brains, Crashworship, Citizen Fish, Malignus Youth, The American Deathtrip,UPS, Blood Spasm, Opinion Zero, Feast Upon Cactus Thorns, plus so many many more. The DPC closed August 1995 after continual police harassment, and the West University Neighborhood Association’s full scale assault on us for having some of the troubled youth that came to our shows roaming through the neighborhood that surrounded the DPC building. Once again I was devastated and my heart crushed and I swore that I would never do shows again in Tucson.

( The lease to the DPC building was eventually given to Ned Schaper who has turned it into the lovely and most wonderful home of the Matt Bevel Institute )

During the next years I worked on my healing by reconnecting with this Earth and the Cosmos. My heart became full again and I opened up to the message that I was hearing in my meditation, “make ecstatic energy available to the people” To celebrate this inspiration, and to mark a rebirth at 31 E. Toole, the name was changed to Datura Studios and Gallery, as Art shows started happening again.

In the spring of 99’ newly inspired and freshly renovated, the soul of the building evolved into Solar Culture., and in October of 99’ the music would not be silent anymore, as once again we had our first Art opening / music event. A core volunteer group of us emerged as the Solar Culture staff, Mat Marcus, Mark Rosenburg, Andy Gardner, Joy Thomas, Gary Bear, and myself. Now the music has been flowing freely like never before, as bands regularly come to town from all over the world.

In the summer of 2001 after years of financial difficulty with the concerts at Club Congress, Richard Oseran the owner asked us to join forces with the Hotel. In October of 2001 we started doing our first ever 21 and over bar shows at Club Congress. February 2003 marks a new beginning for Hotel Congress as we turnover all of our concert connections to Curtis McCrary the very esteemed vetran booker for Club Congress.

These events that continue to unfold in the most glorious, and mysterious manner always delight and challange me to seek out new meaning, opening my heart to the divine poetry that is being written right before my eyes.

All of this history could not be possible without you.....

- Steven Eye