By Scott Mervis Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Bananastock recalls the heyday of the Electric Banana A.T.S. in the late ’80s: Kip Ruefle, left, Mike Marcinko, Josh Arnson (who is a former member) and Evan Knauer. While the words “electric banana” are best known worldwide as the puzzling sex- ual or hallucinogenic drug reference in a Donovan song, in Pittsburgh, we knew it as the heart of the local punk rock scene. Starting in 1980, The Electric Banana, a disco/go-go club on Bigelow Boulevard in Oakland, propped in the back by stilts, opened its doors to Pittsburgh’s burgeon- ing punk and hardcore scene while also hosting such pioneers as Husker Du, Black Flag, the Minutemen and Sonic Youth. The punk scene raged there until 1999 when owners Johnny and Judy Zarra fi- nally decided to soothe their ears and con- vert it into the Italian restaurant Zarra’s. This weekend, Joe Landolina, who created the website electricbanana- club.net in 2014, pays homage to the club with Bananastock, a two-day festival at Spirit in Lawrenceville. While previous punk throwback celebrations, like RePunk and Non-Punk, have reunited bands from the scene’s heyday, Banan- astock catches up with some of the art- ists in the moment. That includes Tom Moran (of The Dark, The Five and Deliberate Strangers) per- forming on sitar with A.T.S. drummer Kip Ruefle doing hand percussion, and Ste- phen Sciulli and Dennis Childers (from Carsickness) appearing with their current electronic trio Standing Wave (with bass- ist Paul Ferraro). The newly formed hard rock band Mod- ern Fossils features Bill Munz (Scapegrace, Hidden Truth), Larry Dawgiello (Society’s Pliers, Shelter) and Ken Wolfe (Endless), who together account for 55 appearances at the Electric Banana, with Brendan Munz (son of Bill) and Danielle Dawgiello (niece of Larry). Four of the bands on the bill date back to the Banana era: A.T.S., who was known as “cowpunk” back in the day, industrial rockers Venus in Furs and pop-rock bands The Damaged Pies and The Wurms (who played there once). Also on the bill is post- Banana band The Gothees, sporting their “bubblegoth” sound of The Archies meets Joy Division. Mr. Landolina, a tax lawyer who also happens to be the father of Code Orange guitarist Dominic, was a Banana regular in the early ‘80s, favoring the Cardboards, Carsickness and The Five. A few years ago, surprised by the Banana’s lack of web pres- ence, he decided to create a geek-like data- base of Banana history with the bands that played there. It’s gotten more accurate, he says, day by day, over time. Although he’s far from a concert pro- moter, he was approached by Nick Zeigler of The Forty Nineteens to assemble a Banana tribute show, and even after that band was unable to do it, he rolled with the idea, fashioning it as something other than the expected punk/hardcore fest. “First of all, no matter what you try to do, if it’s going to turn out well, you have to stick to what you know. The Banana as I knew it, they called it punk rock, but was sort of an art rock thing where each band was trying to be different from an- other. And that’s what I’m familiar with. And secondly, there’s just so many hard- core festivals, at least it seems like to me.” The reaction, he says, has been mostly positive, but someone did send him a link to a Facebook rant about it. With some Banana spirit, he says, “That goes with the territory. I don’t give a damn what anyone says on Facebook.” Scott Mervis: smervis@post-gazette.com. Bananastock MUSIC PREVIEW Where: Spirit, 242 51st St., Law- renceville. When: Friday (9 p.m., free): Standing Wave, The Damaged Pies, The Wurms and Modern Fossils. Saturday (3-8 p.m. $8 advance, $10 at the door. 21 and over): Tom Moran, A.T.S., Venus in Furs and The Gothees. Information: electricbananaclub.net.