That Day In History
I was too hung over to realize it, but last Monday marked the 19th anniversary of the first local show I ever attended. It was just shy of my 16th birthday. The 4:50 and 5:45 bands were who I went to see. These were punk rock bands from my own town, something I'd never experienced before.
I went with several friends who had disparate levels of interest in the show. I was very excited though. Everything was so new to me... punk rock, music scenes, local shows... it wouldn't have taken much to impress the hell out of me.
The gig was outdoors; a scaffolding stage had been set up on the stairs of a large building on SGR (see below). We sat in the grass, away from the other people. Most of them were weird looking. So was I, but that didn't count. Cool kids were intimidating as fuck. We had very few at my high school. Obviously, the gig was free. I got more and more excited as the main event drew near.
I was not disappointed. The bands I came for played awesome sets of short, fast songs. The kind that would have still been in vogue in big American punk scenes a few years earlier. Some mean-looking guys started a slam pit. I didn't want to join in, because some of them gave me the evil eye at school a lot (I still looked like more of a metalhead... a no-no to some back then, though this was already starting to change). In fact, I was waaay too scared of scene people to ever have any kind of communication with any of them. But wow... just watching and listening to it all, I was blown away. I was so filled with energy, so inspired. I knew I had to do that. In one year my band would be up there, I vowed.
As it turned out, it would be just over three years before I'd play live (I was a temp bassist in a grindcore band). It took almost another year after that for my own band to "make it" to the stage. But that first gig experience left a huge impression on me. Looking back, I now know I was witnessing the last shreds of the glory years of 80s hardcore. It would never be like that again. I did my darndest to save it though. If you're familiar with Old Band, you'd hear alarming similarities to the punk bands that played on that day. Even though that kind of music no longer thrills me much, I feel like that show paved the way for every musical project I've ever been involved with.
I have to say, I'm very lucky to have some souvenirs from this experience. Not only do I have a flyer for the show, I even have a soundboard recording of the 4:50 band's set. I can listen to it and think, "that's what started it all".
The back of the flyer is an ad for a short-lived record store downtown.
I went with several friends who had disparate levels of interest in the show. I was very excited though. Everything was so new to me... punk rock, music scenes, local shows... it wouldn't have taken much to impress the hell out of me.
The gig was outdoors; a scaffolding stage had been set up on the stairs of a large building on SGR (see below). We sat in the grass, away from the other people. Most of them were weird looking. So was I, but that didn't count. Cool kids were intimidating as fuck. We had very few at my high school. Obviously, the gig was free. I got more and more excited as the main event drew near.
I was not disappointed. The bands I came for played awesome sets of short, fast songs. The kind that would have still been in vogue in big American punk scenes a few years earlier. Some mean-looking guys started a slam pit. I didn't want to join in, because some of them gave me the evil eye at school a lot (I still looked like more of a metalhead... a no-no to some back then, though this was already starting to change). In fact, I was waaay too scared of scene people to ever have any kind of communication with any of them. But wow... just watching and listening to it all, I was blown away. I was so filled with energy, so inspired. I knew I had to do that. In one year my band would be up there, I vowed.
As it turned out, it would be just over three years before I'd play live (I was a temp bassist in a grindcore band). It took almost another year after that for my own band to "make it" to the stage. But that first gig experience left a huge impression on me. Looking back, I now know I was witnessing the last shreds of the glory years of 80s hardcore. It would never be like that again. I did my darndest to save it though. If you're familiar with Old Band, you'd hear alarming similarities to the punk bands that played on that day. Even though that kind of music no longer thrills me much, I feel like that show paved the way for every musical project I've ever been involved with.
I have to say, I'm very lucky to have some souvenirs from this experience. Not only do I have a flyer for the show, I even have a soundboard recording of the 4:50 band's set. I can listen to it and think, "that's what started it all".
The back of the flyer is an ad for a short-lived record store downtown.
posted by the baron ash von foolishness at 3:17 PM
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