I had a very colorful youth. Nothing to out of control, just very free. My parents didn't pin me down, although I think they knew they couldn't pin me down. I am a free spirit, always have been and somehow after 41 years, I still get that sense of "Wow, what great time I lived in and what great people I have met over the years". We arrived at our sleeping destination the "Santa Monica Motel" at approximately 630pm. The typical LA traffic had us backed up for a bit but we broke free somewhere after Hill Street. As we settled in with our stuff and caught a cab to the show, I got that giddy rush I always do when I go see my favorite bands. I adore music and yes, do I take more to the punk scene of yesteryear, yes, yes I do!
I could not believe within the first 35 minutes of being there and having a beer with Sophia, I saw a friend from back in the day and he hadn't changed a damn lick. Almost 24 years had past and he was still very genuine and the goofball I remember him to be. He let me know, that I was so much more formal in my behavior. I did have to agree as I have toned certain aspects of myself down a bit. Don't get me wrong I am still a pistol, I just have to pick my time of pulling the trigger. After catching up with him and setting him free after jibber jabber not within another half an hour, I ran into an old classmate from elementary catholic school. There was nothing more annoying to the nuns than me coloring my hair fire engine red with a cute little catholic school uniform. He recalled the trouble I got in for hair color experimentation. I always got a charge out of people's reactions, kinda still do.
As we waited for the first couple bands to play, it wasn't long before we meandered in and caught The Adolescents playing "Amoeba" and finally finishing with "Kids of the Blackhole". I truly cannot count how many times I have seen them, Social D, and X play. It doesn't matter it was part of my growing up. We were a small family all of us that went to shows. This outlet allowed for the few of us to forget out school week woes and take it out in the pit, having a great time forgetting the outside world, you know societies never ending choke hold. It was good to see kids and good to see adults with their young kids. I brought both my boys up in the scene although they both like their own genre of music now, as they should.
Night number one...I could go on and on and with Sophia and I, we are two people who cannot escape the strangest episodes. I met a gentlemen while watching Social D and we knew mutual friends from the local surf community. He was with his girlfriend and a couple other folks and invited us to go to the Tequila bar after the show. Now here is the thing I love about meeting people, you just don't know where it can go. Sophia and I joined them for drinks and all of the conversation back and forth was truly great. Just nice people enjoying the night out. As Sophia concluded out first night, we had a few laughs thinking, "why is it always us?" Anyway, this lead us finally to crash out at about 3am.
With Saturday morning on the horizon and a grey sky welcoming us to night number 2, that can never hold a punk back. Of course, the night I would consider the best! With TSOL and Bad Religion to make it all worth the bruises, sticky clothes, and messy hair, why not? Sophia wanted to be right up front and I just said, "Dude, it's TSOL, are you sure?", she replied "Hell yea!" As I proceeded to push my small frame to the front, they were introduced and Sophia was just in awe of good ol' Jack, Jack Grisham. Now with Jack, since he is a close neighbor and we have had several conversation in passing, the man just cracks me up. I do not know if it's just his style of relating, or we have similar sense of sick, twisted humor, but he always makes me laugh. I did my best to get Sophia next to me but the pit was so tight we both got wedged by two Neanderthal type guys. After Jack and the guys finished there set and we finished wiping the sweat from our brows, we decided to be senior like and take the seats at the back and thoroughly enjoy Bad Religion, which was such an awesome performance and Greg still got it!
I don't want this to turn into a runaway post about my punk years, but let me tell you something, that spirit never dies and I will always be part of a small family that has memories of a wild, innovative, creative, unwavering sense of self!
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