The Termination of CM Punk by The Coward Tony Khan

[Log]

2 hours ago, EVA said:

I read this paragraph in Craig Finn’s voice.

Needs more mentions of Gideon and Charlemagne.

[Craig H]

I thought I was into being straight edge in high school. Knew what straight edge was and everything.

Then the local club that had punk shows every Friday here that was a high school hangout and a little older had a straight edge night bringing a couple sXe bands from Chicago. That meant a lot of sXe folks from around Chicago made the trip here. I just remember so many of those dudes being assholes and no one I wanted to fuck with. A couple were harassing kids smoking cigarettes outside the main entrance. I mean, everyone there except for me smoked. Basically if you were a smoker and goth or punk that’s where you were going on a Friday. That was the last night I described myself as being straight edge. I’d get in a fight to defend a friend or get in a fight because of who I was friends with, but that was the extent of anything violent I did and I never actively sought out being an asshole like those dudes.  I just wanted to be the shy, nice friend who didn’t smoke or drink or do drugs and wound up also being the driver for my group of friends.

Weirdly enough, that place ran a black metal night some weeks after that that I remember being pretty tame as far as who showed up. They also got a couple big Midwest punk bands to come here. But that sXe night was the worst other than when someone threw a chair through the front window to just be a dick.

I clearly have since given up the no drinking stuff and since I turned 40, the no weed stuff too.

Edited September 8, 2023 by Craig H

[Curt McGirt]

The only outwardly dangerous black metal bands are the self-proclaimed "NSBM" (National Socialist black metal, AKA Nazis) groups. I think even the "war metal" subset are just dudes that like to wear camo and lift weights. Now dangerous to themselves on the other hand, there are a lot of really depressed motherfuckers out there.

[Godfrey]

55 minutes ago, (BP) said:

Yeah, the problem in the Northeast became when they drove all of the Nazis out of the scene they just found different people to beat up. In my area they beat a guy to death in a bar for wearing a Skynyrd shirt that had the confederate flag on it. Obviously no one should get murdered over a shirt, but even their premise for doing it was a stretch. 

Fair enough, that’s brutal. I was on the west coast and the Nazis didn’t go anywhere so we never had a chance to see how they evolved

[Craig H]

46 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

The only outwardly dangerous black metal bands are the self-proclaimed "NSBM" (National Socialist black metal, AKA Nazis) groups. I think even the "war metal" subset are just dudes that like to wear camo and lift weights. Now dangerous to themselves on the other hand, there are a lot of really depressed motherfuckers out there.

This definitely wasn't that, the Nazi groups I mean. It was probably some early 20s dudes into that growly, grindy black metal where it sounds like they're trying to summon a demon. It was forever ago, but I still remember there being no mosh pits that night and no one moshing. Just a bunch of folks all dressed in black nodding along to music you normally wouldn't nod along too. And then my group and me went to the pizza place next door and hung out/loitered there for the rest of the night.

[Curt McGirt]

Sounds about right. Social, physical activity/interaction... ummm, reaaaaally isn't in the cards at these shows. 

I was thinking of black metal wrestling gimmicks and only came up with Rev. Dan Wilson and Sullivan's Army, though they both fall under "cult leader gimmick" really. It would be cool for some wrestlers to come out with bullet belts and six inch nail gauntlets but people would probably just say they're channeling Demolition. 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

HoB miiiiiiight fall under that umbrella, but I guess you could just as easily say the same 'cult' thing about them in a way

[twiztor]

i'm just jealous of all of you that had "clubs" and "scenes" and got to "see live music". My first concert was at age 16, we had to drive an hour and a half to get to the venue, and it was an actual venue, not a bar or nightclub or whathaveyou. 

i had never even heard the term "straight edge" until Punk, and i only know maybe 1 or 2 people who have claimed that. Now that i'm self-reflecting, i can't think of a single adult in my adolescence that didn't drink (and most smoked as well). Probably not a surprise that alcohol is my drug of choice too. I don't think i even recognized not drinking as an option. Mind you, i'm not complaining. i drink responsibly for the most part now, although that certainly wasn't always the case.

[Log]

I think the first time I heard the term "straight edge" was in a NOFX song that I was probably really drunk when I first heard it.

[For Great Justice]

Say what you want about the tenets of straight edge, dude, but at least it’s an ethos 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

35 minutes ago, For Great Justice said:

Say what you want about the tenets of straight edge, dude, but at least it’s an ethos 

'Well that must be exhausting'

[sabremike]

5 hours ago, Godfrey said:

Fair enough, that’s brutal. I was on the west coast and the Nazis didn’t go anywhere so we never had a chance to see how they evolved

I remember the old joke about the difference between Nazi Skinheads and SHARP Skinheads: SHARP Skinheads hate EVERYONE.

[COLETTI]

3 minutes ago, sabremike said:

I remember the old joke about the difference between Nazi Skinheads and SHARP Skinheads: SHARP Skinheads hate EVERYONE.

Woah, this just made me realize that the skins I've known were WAY less scummy than the edge dudes and that's WILD

[Curt McGirt]

2 hours ago, For Great Justice said:

Say what you want about the tenets of straight edge, dude, but at least it’s an ethos 

Goddamn you, I was gonna make that joke but decided against it 

I actually did know a SHARP (Skinheads Against Racial Prejucide) in the scene when I first got in town and yes, he did hate everyone haha

My first concert I waited for until I was 18! The only possible options before that were the Motley Crue and Kiss reunions in the late '90s. The first show was a roadtrip to Pittsburgh (I think), Columbus, and Cincinatti to see three shows with Deceased, Nunslaughter, and Corpsevomit, who were doing a mini-tour. So I waited for some really underground shit. 

[Greggulator]

One of the weirdest things about being into punk in the 90s is that the craziest shows largely involved not sXe vegan animal rights bands — Earth Crisis and the derivatives. So weird because being vegan in the 90s was insanely hard. You essentially existed on Rice Dream, plain bagels and instant soup. My vegan friends would go the Krishna temple in Philly and get people trying to convert them or go to a buffet in the basement of a sketched out Nation of Islam home where kids were being raised only on raw foods. I never associated people with vitamin deficiencies with windmill tossing but those shows were always the ones where there were fights (on top of the music sucking.)

There was a legendary show (might be on YouTube, can’t look right now) that I almost went to but doors shut before we could get in. Earth Crisis and a bunch of those bands were playing at a community college in Central Jersey. The members of this band Ink and Dagger and their cohorts from Philly went up and wore fur coats and threw yogurt at Earth Crisis and you can only guess what happened next! Truly inspired stuff of legend.

[Lawful Metal]

I remember when the skinheads showed up to a punk show and then everybody just started beating one of them up.  Then the skinheads didnt' come to the show anymore.  Oh well.  The one SHARP I knew in HS was alright, until his mom made him grow out his hair and go to church again.  Then he hated everyone. 

[Greggulator]

Also, I loved Punk so much when he was doing the evil sXe cult leader stuff. I always wish they ran an angle where one of the members of the sXe Society took a hard turn and became Krishna.

[COLETTI]

@Greggulator I already loved Ink And Dagger plenty, but that absolutely increases my adoration!

[Greggulator]

[Nice Guy Eddie]

I knew a straight edge kid in high school. His name was Ray Cheek, so he got called Ray Butt Cheek. We weren't friends. I heard he became a drunk once he got to college. Eh, fuck him. 

[Nice Guy Eddie]

16 hours ago, Greggulator said:

I briefly went to Middlesex before I got into the funeral field and went to Mercer, which is the only school in New Jersey that has funeral services as a major. 

Edited September 9, 2023 by Nice Guy Eddie

[zendragon]

1 hour ago, For Great Justice said:

Say what you want about the tenets of straight edge, dude, but at least it’s an ethos 

Now I want a Dutch v Orange Cassidy feud where Dutch screams a Aubrey "THIS IS NOT NAM THIS IS WRESTLING THERE ARE RULES!" when OC tries his nonsense 

[Curt McGirt]

I hate that Victory Records shit so much. Bad "hardcore" (read: slow, poor groovy metal), spinkicks from the punching penguins, athletic print sweatshirts... the only thing good about it is the unintentional hilarity. Stuff like the singer from 25 Ta Life. 

Bemasked Punk with his goons and bald (yet in true WWE style, implanted) Serena was indeed pretty good and I wish I watched more back then. 

[sabremike]

14 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

I hate that Victory Records shit so much. Bad "hardcore" (read: slow, poor groovy metal), spinkicks from the punching penguins, athletic print sweatshirts... the only thing good about it is the unintentional hilarity. Stuff like the singer from 25 Ta Life. 

Bemasked Punk with his goons and bald (yet in true WWE style, implanted) Serena was indeed pretty good and I wish I watched more back then. 

Fun fact: 25 Ta Life was the supporting act of the first show I ever went to: SOD at Tuxedo Junction in Danbury in July 1997.

Also need to point out that the people who ran Victory were lowlife sleazy crooks who fucked over countless bands.

Edited September 8, 2023 by sabremike

[Greggulator]

My best friend saw a double headliner bill of 25 Ta Life and Earth Crisis in Philly. I forget why I did not go beyond it being 25 Ta Life and Earth Crisis.

Rick Ta Life was doing some kind of rant where he would give a shout out to anyone he ever met in his life. He finally said “I want to shout out to my mom” and my friend yelled out “Misses Ta Life!” and Rick flipped the hell lit and demanded to know who disrespected his mom. My friend did not identify himself. He then later set off stink bombs in the pit during Firestorm. To be that age again.

I was way more into pop-punk and ska and indie and The Lemonheads than hardcore. Not sure about elsewhere but in Jersey at some VFW show you would always get a show where the bill would have some ska band with a pun name (Skazle Tov was my favorite bad ska name), then some sXe hardcore band with a name like Ends Justify, a pop punk band where the lead singer would literally fart in the microphone, a female fronted twee band that was incredible but no one watched because girls and then, always and forever, Chisel.