Thirty miles north of Washington there is a town called Columbia, one of the first planned-communities built in the US and, in retrospect, the perfect birthplace for a band as completely chaotic as Void. Their DC debut was in 1980 at the first Wilson Center show, a marathon 15-band affair largely organized by the Bad Brains.

When Void started a song, it was as if each member was playing his own parts as fast as humanly possible, but not necessarily together. To some, it may have seemed like complete cacophony, but to those in the know it was music on a higher level. 

Photo: From the collection of Chris Stover