The music scene in Eugene, as in any decent-sized town, has a few basic strata. There are big venues like Matthew Knight Arena and the Cuthbert Amphitheater, and there are smaller ones like the W.O.W. Hall, where indie bands cut their teeth. There are the bars — maybe an all-ages venue or two. There are the bluegrass purgatories known as food festivals and farmer’s markets. These are all pretty easy to find.

Then there’s the house show scene, invisible to local event listings. This is where those bands you might have vaguely noticed at Black Forest or Sam Bond’s stretch out, swig some whiskey, bare their teeth and bust out the 20-minute jams. And even if they’re absolutely godawful, the crowd will still dance.

“It’s romantic,” said Isaac Griffin, lead singer of Eugene band The Slumps and a senior at the University of Oregon. He’s organized house shows at his various residences over the years. “Kids come out who don’t even like rock ’n’ roll — they’re into folk or EDM, and they’re digging this grunge garage rock that’s loud and fast.”

“You get to see these acts that are way the fuck out there that would never make it in the bar scene,” said Aidan D’Angelo, a UO sophomore whose band Spiller regularly plays house shows both in the campus area and in the Whiteaker neighborhood.

House shows tend to be cramped and poorly promoted. Bands rarely give their “best” performances, and there’s a good chance the police will show up on any given night if a neighbor makes a noise complaint. But house shows are a staple of both the music scene and party scene in Eugene, and local bands leap at the chance to play them.

Bassist Matt Harman played Soccer Babes’ show at The Ant House last Saturday. (Cole Elsasser/Emerald)

Bands like Pluto the Planet find that the often formal atmosphere of bar shows scarcely compares to the anything-goes attitude of house shows.

“At a bar show, you want to leave a good taste with your original music. But with a house show, we bust out the covers,” said Pluto the Planet member Cameron Lister. “We’ll pull out ‘Freebird’ and jam on it for a long time. That’s why house shows are so fun — you can do things like that.”

The house show scene is the perfect stomping ground for bands like Sleep Inertia, whose decidedly bar-unfriendly shows often involve video projections, extended improvisation and drummer T.J. Martin-Lokey painting in the background.

Martin-Lokey, who also books shows at both bars and houses, sees house shows as a more music-focused experience than bar shows.

“When you play at a house you connect with people on a more emotional level, as opposed to people spending money at a bar to just get drunk and not necessarily being there for the music,” he said. “It’s more of a musical event. For me that’s the entire point of it.”

Any show at a place people live can be termed a “house show.” They can vary from informal gatherings to regular, scheduled occurrences at places that are practically venues. The former tends to occur more in the campus area, where the population is more dense and noise complaints are more common.

Though house shows are legal, it’s easy to make enough noise to lead one of the neighbors to call the police.

Artesia Hubbard is a UO junior who fell in love with the house show scene upon her arrival in Eugene. She convinced her roommates to help her put one on at their house just south of campus. Yet they quickly found organizing a house show wasn’t as easy as just booking a couple bands and inviting a few friends.

“We got seven noise complaints and a letter from the university, and the cops showed up,” she said. “We learned our lesson from that.”

For the next show, Hubbard and her roommates knocked on the neighbors’ doors and gave out their numbers. That way, they figured, the neighbors could just call them and politely ask them to shut the show down rather than having to call the police.

“A few of them did text us,” she said. “I had my phone on me the whole night, so we shut down the party and there were no cops.”

Since then, they’ve made this routine, and none of the house shows they’ve organized have been busted.

If a noise complaint is filed, organizers must empty their house or face a $375 base fine. House show organizers are nearly always compliant, so attendees should prepare to be shooed out.

It’s easier to have successful house shows in more sparsely populated areas — including the Whiteaker, home of The Ant House.

The Ant House is the residence of three former members of the band Empty Weather, who realized their basement was perfect for shows after jamming there for a year with no incident. Its shows, hosted about twice a month, are relegated to the basement. So far they’ve had no issues with noise.

“Cops have only come by once, just to tell people to keep the drinking off the sidewalk,” said Ant House resident Connor Cook. “Our neighbors love us, so that’s not a problem. Nobody gets hurt — everyone’s pretty respectful.”

The Ant House is small and cramped, and its clientele largely consists of a handful of close friends from the Whiteaker scene. The bands it books are also consistent; most shows feature The Critical Shakes, whose lead singer Davey Beebe is a resident.

House show enthusiasts packed into The Ant House for a show on Feb. 13, 2016. (Cole Elsasser/Emerald)

In addition to noise, the presence of underage revelers is a major concern among the residents of The Ant House, and as such, the house does not allow minors. As most of The Ant House’s regulars are UO graduates now residing in the Whiteaker, the house is able to enforce a 21-and-up policy while still packing the floor.

Yet Cook fears if The Ant House gets any more attention, it may potentially attract revelers unfamiliar with its climate. If the basement cannot fit a show’s audience, showgoers may end up spilling into the rest of the house or even the street, potentially attracting noise complaints.

Cook and the other members of The Ant House have no qualms about kicking out anyone who breaks the rules or poses a potential threat to audience members or house residents.

“We’re not trying to be a legit venue,” said Cook. “This is still my home, our home. We’re just trying to keep it as it is.”

The house show scene is quite exclusive, and organizers don’t make it easy to find their events. But those connected with the music scene can actually find them with ease. According to D’Angelo, the best way to find out about house shows is to follow local bands.

“Find out what bands are playing at the bars and go on their Facebook pages and see if they’re playing a house show,” D’Angelo said. “Then come out and jam.”

Editor’s Note: the Emerald’s associate news editor, Noah McGraw, is a member of The Slumps.