Punk Damage

Seth L asked, lets get it.

(My main man

Seth Lorinczi

asked)

I wave my Punk Rock flag from a high staff. I defend my Punk Rock flag from all those who came to this in such a manner as to indicate they did not earn it. I do not pose. I earned my right to speak about it. And, sometimes I just you for talking to me about it. I do not exclude you, or criticize you, I am glad you got here, but maybe you need the chili to cook longer.

I was very young when I went to my first punk show. Naturally it was Black Flag. I was a kid from Wisconsin, on a skateboard, being beat almost weekly by football players, and I was in the right place at the right time to see Black Flag. And it never left.

I was not ready for what I saw, or what I felt. I just was not. So, it simmered inside me. I kept on swim team, and on tennis team…but it was starting to come apart. I was regularly the victim of violence at the hand of the late 80s redneck stereo type. I was little, for a bit longer, but eventually, these dudes would show up.

They were not that yet. They looked more like me.

Jill handed me the Repo Man sound track when I was 15. My friend Bill stepped between a beating I was taking, and suddenly I felt something. Somehow the crew of people around was larger. I could name them all. They were in addition to my five regular friends. And they fucking pulled me close.

And then some English teachers decided I could write. And then books showed up. Then this girl Amanda was right in the distance.

So, we started plugging in. Zines mostly. Record stores in other towns when we went somewhere to skate (or tennis tournaments and swim meets, my folks were cool like that). Then someone somewhere said, “Hey, can you help us do a show in your town?”

What the holy fuck does that even mean? But, I asked, and they told me, and I did not have a mohawk or piercings, so I got to go ask the guy at the VFW if we could do a show there, and he fucking said yes. Who the hell says yes to me? But, then away we went. Now, I was a teen punk rock promoter.

I did not know that was a thing. And I stopped pretty soon. I had regular high school stuff to do.

But, soon enough we had a trap. A moment. It was this moment.

My crew were growing out dreads, piercing stuff, putting on the show. Being defiant at school, some were quitting. Some where doing real drugs. And if this photo was my life, I was Bill Danforth. Bald headed. Wanting to keep playing tennis, wanting to skate more, wanting to ride my mountain bike.

I had consumed Minor Threat. I had consumed Black Flag. I had also consumed Ted Nugent and Bad Religion.

I had settled on a different version of what non conformity and freedom was. I walked away from my punk rock family in my home town. And I was good with it. Not going to lie, I might have wanted this more than I wanted to be John Lydon.

But, my life got bigger. I was absolutely ostracized by my high school crew, and high school is shitty like that. But, Todd, Aaron, Steve and Steve did not give a shit. So, I had those dudes. And we rode Mountain Bikes together, and went to Taco Bell.

That girl Amanda was literally a thing on the horizon.

I closed the distance to her when an English Teacher told me to work on the high school literary magazine, and there she was. And man, she helped me a lot. Her and her friends were different, they listened to the Cure, and New Order, and other stuff that blew my child aggro mind. And by the time I got to college, I had an Indigo Girls tape in my tape case, along with all the other stuff.

I still have the Mixtape from Amanda. She moved me off of so much external bravado, and modeled (oh thats an old man word) a whole other thing.

Then college, and Jackie, and 2409 Linnwood, and the failed Zima threesome, and the trip to NYC to see Broadway shows.

Then the road.

I think Punk rock has given me SO MUCH. I learned the absolutely priority of direct action.

Being in NYC in the mid 90s, and watching Krishnas appear to feed the whole of the world for free, boggled my mind. Seeing the Beastie Boys fight for Tibet.

Punk rock taught me all the good stuff. And it also taught me early on about the tribalism, and nonsense we do to ourselves. I am glad I got to have skateboarding, punk rock, hip hop, and English Class at the same time. Taught be about superficial vs substance. Conformity comes in lots of outfits.