The OAF House Was Austin’s Early-80s Punk Address

Austin’s punk scene had addresses before it had formal venues. According to Michael Corcoran’s account in “Great Party! Who Lives Here?”, the Colony at 2703 Rio Grande ran on legal sound permits obtained weekly by caretaker David McDonald. A banner aimed at the neighboring Contessa West read, “Go ahead and complain. We’re legal.” When the Colony closed, the party moved to the OAF (One-Armed Farmers) House at 2800 San Pedro, owned by John Pierratt.

The OAF House worked less like a club and more like a shared social contract. Sunday barbecues drew residents and outside punks alike, occasionally including people living in the bamboo forest behind the property. Bands such as Pez, Technicolor Yawns, and Scratch Acid played there; Scratch Acid singer David Yow lived in the house. The music usually stopped when police arrived — common enough that Corcoran writes a party didn’t count unless the cops showed up.

Sprague’s photographs, now circulating again, document that period’s friction with the wider city. Austin in the early 1980s was not uniformly welcoming: the Big Boys released “Frat Cars” in 1980, and a brawl involving stagehands and Big Boys fans broke out at the 1984 Austin Music Awards. The images preserve a moment when the punk house functioned as both shelter and flashpoint.