MilwHC:Venues:TheUnicorn

From MilwHC

The Unicorn

Gus, Thanks from a lot of punks and skins you treated as sons and daughters! Plus, who can forget Wednesday 50c Big Beer Nights!!!

History

Gus Hosseini ran The Unicorn...

Before it was called The Unicorn, it was a gay bar called "The Mineshaft".

... That was after Gus owned it. I heard they painted the place purple, which I find very sad.

Comments

• If I remember correctly, during the summer of 1990 there was a show there every 2-3 days. Crazy. --Kevin (XYZine)

• I think the all-ages shows there started in maybe 1987/1988 and used to happen a lot on Sundays, or on weekdays at maybe 5 PM, so we could do the shows when bar-time or drinking shows weren't going on. It was often a little scary dealing with Gus, but he seemed to like us alright. --Pete Prodoehl

• Gus had a little Mexican restaurant in the front of the Sydney Hih (pronounced SID-KNEE HIGH)building on 3rd Street and Juneau Ave called "Gus' Mexican Cantina" even though he wasn't Mexican. The food sucked except for the chips and salsa which we all exploited as much as possible. The Unicorn was on the backside of the building facing the parking lot. From the outside it looked like nothing more than a doorway but once you got downstairs it was a filthy, stucco paradise for young lads and lasses with chips on their shoulders. The walls were white with black bat stencils spray-painted all over the place. Gus once yelled at Brad Warsh of Mind Thelft for creating a large mess of grapefruits during their set and he kicked out the Dwarves, banning them forever because of a little nakedness and spitting. In the late 90's Gus appear on the news for shooting some dude that he caught breaking into his van outside the Unicorn. That Gus sure was wacky. My first show ever was at the Unicorn and it was 7 Seconds on the Soulforce Revolution tour. Must have been like 1989. --Jsn

• Supposedly one time Gus served up Demise a whole bunch of chips and salsa and Grant Kasten thought it would be an insult to not eat all of it, so he did, and ended up getting sick from it. That's what I heard anyway. --Pete Prodoehl 12:28, 31 Aug 2005 (PDT)

• After DOWNNER opened for HAMMERHEAD at the UNICORN I asked gus if were going to get paid. He said, "But of course," and proceeded to pull out eight bottles of Lienenkugels for me to divey amongst the four band members. I think I drank them all myself, much to Kate's chagrin. --Stokely66 12:54, 17 Sep 2005 (PDT)

• Oh yeah, I forgot about that! I just remember playing the same opening instrumental and having loads of fun. Gus pretty much was a big 'ol slimeball though. At least we got to open for Today Is The Day and Cows too. Good times............. --Kate-n-destroy 22:19, 6 May 2006 (PDT)

• Buried used to practice at the Sidney HIH building. We shared a room with Feck. --Pete Prodoehl 12:28, 31 Aug 2005 (PDT)

• The place was like a meandering cave with a stage room at the bottom of the entry stairs and a long corridor to the right that edged along the bar. Another turn to the right led to the back stage room, which looked like it could have been used for a slaughterhouse. I have a vague memory of a pool table somewhere, but I could be wrong. I'll never forget the Neurosis show in 1990 (or thereabouts). They cut the set after 6 songs because Gus told them they needed to clear out for the 21+ show. The crowd was pissed and someone yelled "Fuck Gus!" Gus didn't like that too much and asked "Who said that??? Who Said 'Fuck Gus'!??" He picked someone out of the crowd, probably not even the person who said it, and pushed him around for a while. I'm not sure what happened after that, but I don't think it was legal. --Optophobia 15:02, 29 Jan 2006 (PST)

• I think the pool table was in the back-back room, like behind that room where the back stage was. Or I could be wrong and maybe rennovations changed the whole thing down there. I think it did all change around at some point. The back room is where most of the all-ages shows happened in the later years. We used to have shows pretty often on Sunday around noon or so. I once joked to Milt that going to the Unicorn on a Sunday morning was just like going to church, only louder... and punk rock. --Pete Prodoehl 12:22, 30 Jan 2006 (PST)

• In order to save money on the all-ages shows, Gus would not hire a soundguy, but just say something like "You run the sound!" to one of us, and uh, we'd run the sound... A bunch of us (sort of) learned how by just doing what soundguys did when our bands played, stick mics near the drums, the amps, and where people sang. Trial and error I guess. We'd also run the lights on occasion when more comedy (or drama) was needed. Somewhere I have a photo of me running the soundboard looking completely confused with Sam and Little Duane staring at me. --Pete Prodoehl 12:33, 30 Jan 2006 (PST)

• A picture from the parking-lot of the Unicorn. A friend of mine (Jenny Shiswer) sent me this snapshot from the fall of 1990, taken under the Park East Freeway, since torn down. The trailer pictured in the back was there because of the Deep Tunnel project.I don't remember which show it was. I was 19 at the time. Pictured left to right: Milt Zorro, Jill Volkman (deceased), Pete Prodoehl, Kerry Priess, Jack Krebs, Me, and Eric Optophobia. Matthew Pickard 12:11am, 18 Dec 2006 (PST)

I can remember sneaking in to see Toxic Reasons and a German band called KGB around 1986 1987 or so. Got rip roarin' drunk and after that I never had a problem sneaking in again! Saw a bunch of all ages shows there also, but that Toxic Reasons show was amazing.