Thirty bands, 18 hours, one venue.
It’s called InsomKneestock, and Saturday at 10 a.m. a death metal band called The Bob Barker Treatment will kick off an 18-hour marathon show to raise money for the re-opening of a local art house called InsomKneeacks.
The show will feature local bands from almost every genre imaginable: rock, rap, indie, punk, metal, bluegrass, cajun and Christian.
Bands performing include Axes of Evil, Bones, No Fuego, Cohen & The Ghost and Imbroglio.
“Every style will be there except big band and classical,” said InsomKneeacks owner Peter Excho.
Along with the plethora of musical entertainment, attendees will also be able to lend a hand in the obliteration of a vehicle, just for fun.
Sledgehammers and other hand-smithed tools of destruction will be provided.
If an armed mob wailing away at a vehicle to the sound of non-stop live music sounds odd, then get ready, because it is just the tip of the weird iceberg at this art house.
From Florida Street, the word “InsomKneeacks” is visible in black lettering on the corner of the Broadmoor Theatre building.
Walk past the antique gift shop, and there is a large finger pointing toward a rickety set of pink stairs. Below the finger reads “art, coffee, poetry, live musick, strange and anomalous gifts.”
Those gifts include kangaroo scrotum pouches, the world’s most expensive coffee – made from beans partially digested by a weasel-like creature called a palm civet – and a bin labeled “ugly hats.”
Once through the door, people sometimes take a cautious look around and immediately return from where they came, Excho said.
It could be that they have to walk past a carpeted hallway that looks more like someone’s house than a place of business.
“It looks like someone’s living room,” Excho said. “It’s your home.”
Another reason for some patrons’ quick exits could be Excho’s facial jewelry: inch gauges in each ear, a half-inch septum gauge and nine piercings from the middle of his lip to the middle of his cheek.
But appearance is deceiving, and his gentle demeanor immediately puts customers at ease.
Excho is a lifelong artist with two kids that frequently have the run of the shop. He makes his own blend of coffee and charges by the hour, not the cup.
He is also a tattoo artist in the process of getting InsomKneeacks certified for the skin-art business.
InsomKneeacks is the opposite of what he calls “silent houses,” coffee shops where people spend more time looking at their computer screens or notebooks than each other.
Excho said his shop has wireless Internet, but when he sees people becoming anti-social, he shuts it off.
“I like making humans interact,” he said.
University correspondence student and first time InsomKneeacks patron Lynda Brazan said she fully approved of the idea.
“I want to be a coffee shop owner where people have to talk to each other,” she said. “I like the idea of having a place where people actually communicate.”
InsomKneeacks originally opened 10 years ago and acted as a haven for teens too young to get into bars.
“It used to be like a mecca for 15- and 16-year-olds,” said longtime patron Brad Watkins. “Now it’s all the same people but they’re 10 years older.”
InsomKneeacks does not serve alcohol, and none will be present at InsomKneestock this weekend.
“It brings stupidity, and we have enough of that,” Excho said.
The art house originally opened downtown on Laurel Street, but Excho fell victim to discrimination and was evicted shortly after.
Musician friends of his banded together and decided to do a benefit show, originally 24 bands for 24 hours.
The fundraiser only raised enough to keep InsomKneeacks going for about a year, and after a second InsomKneestock, Excho closed shop and moved to Washington, D.C.
Ten years later, he is back and ready to serve coffee to anyone who wants it.
“It is hospitality without the inhibition of expression,” longtime patron B. Edward Longwell said.
Bazan said she loves the unique atmosphere of InsomKneeacks.
“It’s a good place to get outside of your comfort zone,” she said. “People need to do that more often, especially in this town.”
—Contact Lauren Walck at [email protected]