Rock-n-Romp, like Fort Reno, is a D.C. summer concert series for post-punk music. Like Fort Reno, it caters to an underserved crowd. But while Fort Reno is for younger folks enjoying a wide open summer, Rock-n-Romp is trying to get parents out of the house. Running since 2002 in the backyard of the founder’s house, and spreading as far as Austin and Memphis, Rock-n-Romp is now hoping to change the music scene in Silver Spring (flyer at right). Curious, DCist did a Q&A with the founder and DC organizer, Debbie Lee.

What motivated you to start this concert series?

Back in 2001, my husband and I had moved to Silver Spring from our Logan Circle condo to give our not-quite-1-year-old a nice yard with trees and more space to crawl/run around in. We were big fans of the local music scene, both playing in bands at one point or another, and knew that we wanted to expose Jack (our son) to good music, but didn’t know of any place to take him. We were the first of our friends to even have a kid, so we were kinda making it up as we went along, you know? Anyway, we heard about a Dan Zanes show at Iota, and even though we weren’t totally familiar with his stuff at the time (we didn’t have ANY music targeted at kids in our CD collection), we were all for a live show that wasn’t Raffi or Barney! WELL, we trekked to Arlington to a sold out show! We were bummed! But it was a nice surprise to see so many likeminded parents, some of which looked kinda familiar, like maybe I’d seen them at the Black Cat or something. There were other people with kids who wanted to see good music! The idea to do shows in the backyard just kind of hit me. I’m a product of the DIY 80s music scene in DC, where community centers and church basements and houses as venues for good music were just as popular as the 9:30 Club. I thought, why not? We’ve got a kid-friendly space, friends who play music, and at least a few folks who’d be interested in coming. And so, in the summer of 2002, Rock-n-Romp was born.