It’s 42°. Wool coat again today!
It is January 17. Fifteen years ago tonight, I attended my first ever real punk rock show.
Two bands from Portland, two from Olympia. Heavens to Betsy played first, I think we missed part of their set. Singing about having their periods, which to me, was revolutionary. Riot Grrrl had recently been born in our town. Unwound after them, wearing dresses, changing my ears forever, lighting a spark that would turn into a deep and disasterous crush. The Spinanes played next, sounding nothing like the band before them. Crackerbash finished, very loud and chaotic and fun. I sat up on a high ledge with Leilani, looking down at the mass of people below. There was no stage. The audience and bands stood together on the same level. It was the first time I had seen such a thing.
I remember so little about that night, visually. In fact, what stands out most is Justin’s yellow dress, though it may not have been yellow, and it may not have even been him.
It’s 8 degrees here. For real.
that gave me chills.
i love that you know the date and commemorate it–and even have the poster!
i still have some posters from my early show-going years. i really need to scan them in case they ever get lost, but i’m so glad i’ve got them. one early one:
Well, I had just turned 19 and had only been out of my parents’ house for a few months. The only shows I had ever been to were either stupid arena rock concerts (hi, INXS) and a few smaller but still large shows at the Moore Theatre in Seattle (Deee-Lite!). This show on 1/17 was tiny in comparison, and back then, the punk rock shows at the Capitol Theater took place “backstage”, which is to say, the entire thing ws on the stage: audience, band, equipment. It looked really odd to me that someone in the front row was eye to eye with the bass player, etc. But I got used to it, esp when I started going to basement shows at people’s houses.
I used to save my flyers and hang them up on my bedroom wall. That flyer from that first show was seen by me on campus at Evergreen, on a bulletin board in a stairwell. I found it still there the day after the show and snagged it. Fairly sure by the handwriting that it was made by Jon Quittner, who later became a good friend of mine. Anyway all of my flyers are scanned in my 90s Flickr set.
Ah, found a photo I took that perfectly captures this feeling of equality
taken backstage at the Capitol Theatre, 1992
siiighhhhhhhh
the whole reason your post gave me chills is that it reminded me of shows i’d been to like that.
holy crap, all this talk ended up in me finding this:
http://www.the4squares.com/images/flyers/062296.jpg
wow.
it’s weird what you remember from 11 years ago.
only 11 years?