Open eyes

This weekend was pretty fantastic! I went to a shows in Philly saturday and sunday. I felt like a kid again, though Im only 21 I know that sounds silly, feeling like a kid again and all because in some eyes I still am one.. but I thought about a lot of things and here is how my weekend went.


I drove down to Philly to see my friend Billy’s band Rat Pack play their first show ever at Planet Molly's a punk house venue having is third to last show ever. Not having an exact address I thought it would be hard to find as I drove down 40 somethingth street. While thinking these thoughts I saw smoke and a bamillion shirtless dudes standing on the sidewalk. Obviously I found the venue. As irony would have it after parking my car written in the pavement in front of the house it said "calamity". As I met the kids and walked through the sweat, beer and tofu the foyer of the house was filled with bicycles and a pentagram done with masking tape that said under it "HAIL SATAN", needless to say I felt right at home.

Fuck went on first, a two-piece band of madness that was a pleasure to watch. Then Ruins who if you haven’t heard you should kill yourself because you life is seriously lacking, a band of "to many gingers" played some of the best shit Ive heard in a while. www.myspace.com/ruinsrockandroll is their myspace, I suggest you check them out. Then Rat Pack went on which was just fun to watch, everyone was drunk and out of control, beer was poured all over Billy before a line could even be screamed. Of course to say I didnt loved it would be a lie. The last band was Endless Bummer but we had to miss them because Billy in his drunken genius gashed his arm open pretty bad and walloped his head pretty good so I thought it best to take him home.

All the rest of the night I kept thinking about Ruins playing that basement. The whole show reminded me of something out of 8th grade. When at shows everyone was friends and if they weren’t they would eventually be. Unity was key and its sad that Mollys moving out and wont have shows their anymore after today. After laying around getting pissed off that the world of music has begun to go into the gutter I started to get some hope that maybe finally the swords been taken from the stone and theirs finally a band from Philly thats new and doesnt suck.

Sunday after going to Govindas for a fantastic "chicken" cheese steak with Billy I headed over to The Banner show at The Church a spot I havent been to since The Explosion did their last show with Modern Life is War in September of last year. I began to realize I only go to the shows of my friends bands, because its the only time I see them or because I get in for free. I dont contribute to anything except opinions with little actions and started to get really annoyed. I saw Richard, Jake and Joey and met Buzz for the second time though he doesnt remember the first, which was sometime last year haha.

I didnt watch the first band because I was talking to everyone else. The Banner was pretty awesome and their super fans made it exceptionally fun to watch. It reminded me of days when I got so stoked on a band I couldnt stop moving, that Id actually have to run to the bathroom to throw up. Which one of these kids actually did. Thus naturally this weekend of past nostalgia wouldnt stop here. I sat outside for a while talking to Steve the drummer of Elysia a band going through some dramatic musical changes and trying to shake this image of just typical metal/hardcore kids. It was really awesome talking to someone that wasnt a moron and new what they were saying. We also talked about art and traveling, and I felt thankful that I make time and can do the things I do and work on my art and still make a living.

Their set was awesome Zachs vocals kicked ass and once again I was happy to watch a band in Philly that didnt suck (though they are from Sacramento). Then I started to look at this young girl, probably 16? Wearing basketball shorts, her "moshing" was pretty much the running man mixed with aerobics and I started to laugh to myself.

As I watched her pat her buddies on the back and bop around smiling and attempting to look hard I once again got on that ride back to the hey day. I saw myself standing around with Brooke my only girlfriend from Philly, as we were 15 years old getting our asses kicked by huge dudes saying "girls have no place in hardcore" and "girls cant dance". I remember watching a girl outside the Troc get knocked out by a guy because she was confronting him about a confrontation inside the venue. As I got out of the car driving me home, I took a beach towel and cleaned up the blood on her face and we drove her home.

I explained all this to Blur as we stood there watching the band and watching this girl. I just thought of the years of blood, scars and broken noses I had to go through in Philly my short time venturing there as a teen. How hard we fought for girls like that to have a place to have their style. And this chick was doing the running man? Walking around like a peacock. It was an insult to injury. Literally. And I know this is just me being a snob but I was just kinda like what the hell..seeing as how I was already in rare form.

It was at this point that I walked outside and had a cigarette. One of my old friends younger brother came up to me and started to talk to me about INFEST. A hardcore festival in Sayerville. He was saying how this year he didnt want to go because of FSU and all the fighting that would happen. I finally just hit my boiling point and started to go off on this kid and his friends. Here is basically what I said,

"Why are you going to not go see bands you want to see because a bunch of old dudes are going to get in fights? Thats retarded, and that kind of stupid shit is the reason why we have no hardcore scene in New Jersey anymore. Everyone’s afraid; everyone’s scared, of what? 7 dudes that are older and bigger then you? Because honestly thats all it really is is 7 big guys who go to a bar and eat wings at their meetings and dictate your life? Youre really going to let them scare you out of going to a show? When kids stop booking shows, the bands stop coming and when the bands stop coming this all becomes stale and dead. Its people like you that are killing this scene. Theirs hundreds of you and 7 of them, what do you think their going to SWAT team the rest of the FSU nation in to NJ so they can beat up a bunch of 14 year olds for trying to have shows? That’s retarded. This isnt a Republic this is fucking HARDCORE. I didn’t vote for these people, Im not going to give them my respect, my fear, POWER over ME. But you kids, you’re the ones in control not them, youre the ones who stopped having the shows, stopped printing the zines, stopped buying music stopped fucking caring enough to do something about it. If you want to see a band you like go see them. If you see a fight break it up, you’re obviously all these for the same reasons. All it means NOTHING is three letters that is, you’re going to let the fucking alphabet control your life? FSU started because of the Neo Nazi's in Boston and NYC are you a Nazi? NO so they have no reason to beat you up, and if they do then they are just dumb old retarded men with nothing better to do then pick on children. If you book a show and they come there call the cops, your not doing anything illegal but they are, their a fucking GANG of mostly 30 something year old dudes, I think a cop would find a bunch of old balding men hanging around and intimidating 13 year old kids fucking weird. Let them know they fucked everything up and their obviously not going to be welcome. You think they want to risk jail or fines to come to your show? To what prove a point that they’re hard? They’re fucking COOL? They don’t have anything to prove anymore, their credibility is out the fucking window that shits long gone. In other areas Im sure they’ve gotten respect because they were there for something. When was the last damn time you saw a Nazi skin head in New Jersey!? Im done hearing people bitch about what the fuck happened and you little fucks need to start making things happen of this shit, because Im getting bored."

It seemed pretty inspiring and Im glad that he and his friends listened so intently. Maybe it will spark a change. That these little bastards will get their shit together and realize a thousand bees can kill a bear. Im just so sad that something I love so much has gone to hell, I have hope though that bands like Ruins will still play and kids will look for new bands to play shows that arent the same shit over and over again. We’ve been run to the damn high hills of Jersey now to have shows, that shit needs to change.

As a teacher, and someone who loves kids, I dont want them living in a world without this. Lord knows the best time of my life and the most lessons I learned were in a school they were in a VFW, a Church basement, M&M Hall, Barn, Venue, Parking Lot, House Basement, Living Rooms, Roof Top, Knights of Columbus, Backyard, Club. Anywhere that had somewhere to plug in an amp. And these dumb kids are letting these fucks take it away from them? They dont even know what their missing.

Later me and Blur went to El Catena to get a pitcher of Margaritas and Vegan tacos. Needless to say it was a good night.

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