Patrick Connor plays trumpet in his two punk bands, but he also writes music and plays piano on the side. Connor has been forced to put his artistic plans on hold while he adjusts to living in Omaha and tries to contact his bandmates. Photo By Matt Anzur

Katrina separates Big Easy bands

By Patrick Kinney
Scene Editor

Under better circumstances, Patrick Connor would be celebrating the release of a CD that was meant to unite the diverse elements in one of the country’s most renowned music scenes.

Instead, disaster scattered Connor and his fellow musicians to every corner of the United States.

Connor, a Loyola University junior, plays trumpet in two New Orleans punk-ska bands: Fatter Than Albert and Samurai Deli. Both bands are included on a recent compilation CD of New Orleans punk.

Release shows and parties were scheduled for Sept. 2 and 3, but on Aug. 29 Hurricane Katrina, a Category 4 hurricane, made landfall in Louisiana.

Connor has learned that each of his bandmates — there are 12 between the two bands — evacuated safely before Katrina wreaked widespread devastation on the Gulf of Mexico area. Five took shelter in Louisiana and the rest fanned out all over the country. Connor ended up at Creighton for the fall semester.

“While some are helping their families and friends work, and some are on the road with Federal Emergency Management Agency helping other ravaged towns, everybody — save one person — still has a standing home in New Orleans and will be able to return in the coming months,” Connor said.

Connor also hopes that New Orleans’ legendary music scene will be up and running in the near future. Touted as the birthplace of jazz and a hotbed for all things rock, the Big Easy’s silence in the wake of Katrina is one more illustration of the all-encompassing effects of the hurricane.

“You can see a great band of any genre any day of the week, all the time, which cannot always be spoken of in cities across the United States,” Connor said.

“Murder City,” a CD containing 20 Big Easy bands, including both of Connor’s bands, ranges stylistically from progressive rock to emo. Now the album is just one more example of how life in New Orleans has been put on hold.

“Given that all of this work has been supported and funded at the grassroots level by devoted musicians and fans, this was set to be the culmination of a once-thought-of united underground music scene in New Orleans.”

Connor does not know yet if his favorite bars and venues, where he performed most often, are going to be in operation again.

“The music scene of New Orleans in general, whether it be zydeco, bluegrass, jazz, techno or rock n‘ roll, holds with it the grassroots unity of an underground network,” Connor said. “If you want to see real New Orleans music, you go to the small venues and bars.”

However, through the help of N.O. Punks United, an online community of New Orleans rockers at www.nopunks.20m.com, Connor has confirmed that some of his fellow musicians were evacuated safely and that copies of the compilation were salvaged.

“As of right now I am at a loss as to the situation of the other members in the New Orleans scene, but they are constantly in my thoughts and hope is alive,” Connor said.

“The city itself is in shambles and it may be months before people can live again, but so long as there is one of us New Orleanian musicians left, the music scene will never need a revival.”