In The Beginning...

Gumby's officially opened in early 1990, and to very little fanfare.

What would eventually become one of West Virginia's premier music venues was still more than a year away from making its mark in that regard.

Downtown Huntington, West Virginia has long been a haven for drunkards and amateurs alike, and the options from which to choose for drinking the day's problems away was then, and still is, plentiful.

So, a new bar/club opening on Fourth Avenue was not surprising, especially in a town with a Marshall University student body that traditionally accounts for one-fourth of the city's population nine months out of any given year.

But, Gumby's was something completely different, even for those whom had frequented places like The Rock N Roll Café or Rocker's (another mid-to-late 1980's Huntington rock club), where outcasts, metal heads and various other fringe groups would congregate.

The club's appearance, for which it has now become infamous, was firmly intact from the outset - it was dimly lit with unconventional decor and, most memorably, grungy .

I distinctly recall my first visit to Gumby's in the spring of 1993, to see a double bill that consisted of Black Cat Bone and Huntington's own Electric Lullaby.

(Russ Fox, Mark Harlan and Brian Lusher, Electric Lullaby, 1992)

I was 16-years-old at the time, and a few months earlier had hit on a concept and crafted what I believed was a fool-proof fake ID, knowing full well that I would expose it to the scrutiny of someone trained to identify such things.

On that night, I presented this ID to the doorman at Gumby's, and he was able to quickly ascertain that it was fraudulent.

When questioned about its authenticity, I explained to him that I was not there to drink, but to simply see the bands (which was an entirely factual statement).

To his credit, he recognized the sincerity of my tone and demeanor, and allowed me to enter.

My first impression of Gumby's was what I imagined CGBG to have looked like, circa 1977. (This comparison was later confirmed when I had the opportunity to visit New York City's fabled punk dive in 1998.)

For all intents and purposes, it was a shit hole, and I mean that in the most flattering of ways.

Ask anyone who spent any amount of time in the place and they'll likely tell you the same.

But, that's what gave Gumby's its charm and character, and why so many people, to this very day, hold it in such high regard.

By 1993, Gumby's was hosting live music multiple times a week, but in 1990 it was, more or less, an alternative dance club that would book the occasional live act, without the benefit of an actual stage and/or public address system.

Those early live performances featured the likes of F.N.G., Government Cheese and West Virginia's one-man band, Hasil Adkins.

(Hasil Adkins, as he appeared on the cover of his 'Achy Breaky Ha Ha Ha' album)

("The Haze" would appear multiple times at Gumby's over the years, and the stories of the drives to Boone County, West Virginia, to pick him up became the stuff of legend. Parts of his 1993 album 'Look At That Caveman Go!' were actually recorded at Gumby's.)

While the club was still searching for its identity, John Kerwood brought Brian Barlow on board and this partnership would, for the next four-and-a-half years, solidify Gumby's reputation as a must-play venue.

Barlow was well connected within music circles and would serve as the club's primary booker for nearly the entire duration of its run.

The first notable live show this pairing brought to Gumby's (and one that is still talked about today) was when GG Allin appeared with his band, The Murder Junkies, in November 1991. (Coincidentally, the bill also featured Hasil Adkins.)

(An undated photo of a typical GG Allin live performance)

Allin had been released from a Michigan prison earlier that year after having served two years for "assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder" to that of a female companion.

This tour was to have signaled his comeback, and the jaunt he took down the East Coast that fall brought him to Gumby's for a performance that, in typical GG fashion, featured blood, excrement and the insertion of microphones in places previously unthought of. (Until recently, a video from this performance was available for viewing on YouTube, but was pulled by website administrators for obvious reasons.)

While it was now dedicating itself to hosting national recording artists, Gumby's biggest contribution was, much like Lexington's Wrocklage, allowing up-and-coming local bands to perform nearly as often, or as openers for those acts.

For a time in the late 1980's, local bands in Huntington were resigned to playing sets that consisted mostly of cover songs because club owners were hesitant to let them perform their own original material at the risk of alienating its clientele.

Gumby's, however, took that chance and not only enabled those local bands but helped to foster a growing music scene in Huntington as a direct result.

Over the next few years, that scene would blossom into something its creators could have likely never conceived.