The Termination of CM Punk by The Coward Tony Khan

[zendragon]

To bring it back to music & wrestling new Tojo Yamamoto just dropped

https://forbiddenplacerecords.bandcamp.com/album/tojo-yamamoto

[Greggulator]

I never got to see a show at City Gardens. Trenton is over an hour from where I grew up. I did not have my driver’s license until late in high school (can’t get it in NJ until your are 17.) My parents were also fairly strict with me about curfews (understandably so.) I think my friends saw Shelter or someone I was not interested in. But as I also once joked: I never went to City Gardens because my parents loved me.

I did go to a bunch of shows at The Wetlands. They had a bunch of bands outside of the Dead jam band stuff it was best known for. I know I saw a few ska shows (of course) and at least one Bouncing Souls show. But I did see maybe the best show of my life there:

El Vez, The Mexican Elvis. 

The guy behind El Vez was in The Zeroes and a few other old punk bands. Then he became El Vez, which is sort of really hard to describe looking back. Or maybe not: Imagine if Elvis was Mexican-American, with his “parody” songs (In El Barrio) not really parody songs but more statements about Chicano pride and politics. Great stage show with his backup dancers The Elvettes and a lot of costume changes and fun. I saw him with a few weeks left before I went back to school and came close to just following the tour for the next week or two but my parents wanted to hang out some, and I am a mamma’s boy at heart.

I saw El Vez a few years later at one of the most memorable weekends of my life. I worked at my school’s library and was good friends with this guy Joe. Joe was not a student (a few years older than me and I think chipping away at a class here and there) but still worked at the library. Joe was obsessed with El Vez but never saw him. We became friends over El Vez (I think I had his tour shirt) and probably half of our conversations were about him.

El Vez finally came to Philly to play at the late, great Trocadero. (Sadly closed.) Joe was brimming with anticipation. We got to the show early and he got pretty inhebriated. (I drove and was also a lightweight.) Before the show starts, this girl standing near me catches my eye and we start talking. El Vez starts. And then 2 songs in — literally 10 minutes into the show — Joe freaks out and grabs me and says “I have to go catch a bus and get to Wildwood right now!” (Wildwood is an insane Jersey Shore town — making it even weirder was that the show was in late September.) Just so weird.

I ended up driving the girl and her roommate to where they lived (they were freshman art students) and we made plans to hang out the next day. The girl calls me and asks what I am doing. I tell her that I am watching Mark McGuire try and break the home run record. She has no idea what that means. When I tell her, she says “Eww. Sports.”

The date did not go well at all, to say the least. Nice girl but I learned a hard lesson about the delicate dance of being into weirdo stuff like El Vez while at my core being more of a bonehead than I would ever admit.  Or: I did not want to learn more about her eco-focused art fanzine and she did. She did now want to hear about Survivor Series.

The last time I saw Joe was a few years ago. First thing he brought up was his awesome the El Vez show we saw was. I reminded him of what happened — him freaking out and going to Wildwood. He did not believe me.

Sadly, Joe passed away last year. Addiction got the best of him. Real good and funny and silly dude.

[Zimbra]

My introduction to GWAR was seeing them wandering around the show floor at Gen Con when I was 14-ish without having any idea they were a band until some grognard explained it to me.

Absolutely the best way to experience GWAR because it's genuinely shocking and you don't have to hear their music.

[Curt McGirt]

El Vez makes me think of Mark Boone Junior doing the Jewish Elvis impersonator gig on Sons of Anarchy. 

EDIT: For those old enough to remember, were there Elvis impersonators while he was still alive, or did that come after? 

Edited September 11, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[(BP)]

4 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

were there Elvis impersonators while he was still alive, or did that come after? 

They were around almost as long as he was, but it was more regional acts doing unauthorized ripoffs to take advantage of markets he didn’t commonly play. It definitely didn’t become a national phenomenon until after he died. 

[Curt McGirt]

Oh man, can you imagine being a fake Elvis doing the rounds in... well, where wouldn't have he played... Montana or SLC or something? What if they found out you were fake and tried to kill your ass? What if the Mormons found out you were playing and tried to burn you at the stake? 

Edited September 11, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[JLowe]

I never made it to Shitty Gardens but I did see 7 Seconds in late ‘89 at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, and Helmet/L7/Quicksand/Crawpappy at Trocadero in ‘92.

As for GWAR, when I first moved to Austin for grad school I lived in a private student housing complex that included apartments for grad students and a dorm for undergrads. So I ended up friends with a bunch of undergrads. One of my best friends was a geeky punk kid from Salt Lake City by way of El Paso, around 6’4 when he wasn’t in full-on punk slouch. He was super stolen to see GWAR when they came to Austin, went and got himself a nice new white t-shirt for the show. When he came back he was soaking wet for head to toe, his shirt was a dozen different colors, and he was grinning from ear to ear.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

14 minutes ago, JLowe said:

I never made it to Shitty Gardens but I did see 7 Seconds in late ‘89 at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, and Helmet/L7/Quicksand/Crawpappy at Trocadero in ‘92.

As for GWAR, when I first moved to Austin for grad school I lived in a private student housing complex that included apartments for grad students and a dorm for undergrads. So I ended up friends with a bunch of undergrads. One of my best friends was a geeky punk kid from Salt Lake City by way of El Paso, around 6’4 when he wasn’t in full-on punk slouch. He was super stolen to see GWAR when they came to Austin, went and got himself a nice new white t-shirt for the show. When he came back he was soaking wet for head to toe, his shirt was a dozen different colors, and he was grinning from ear to ear.

You had me at Helmet, L7, and Quicksand. I saw Helmet in 2005 when the lineup included Page Hamilton, Chris Traynor, John Tempesta, and Frank Bello. 

I saw L7 open for the Offspring in 1997. Also on the bill supporting their first album was AFI. 

Edited September 11, 2023 by Nice Guy Eddie

[Curt McGirt]

I was surprised to find out the early Offspring was a total TSOL ripoff sound. Nice fit with the early AFI Misfits-y stuff. 

Shit, I wonder if TSOL and Misfits ever played together...

[JLowe]

9 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

I was surprised to find out the early Offspring was a total TSOL ripoff sound. Nice fit with the early AFI Misfits-y stuff. 

Shit, I wonder if TSOL and Misfits ever played together...

Quick google shows they did in 2015 but I know that’s not what you’re thinking. I wonder if some of the old punk flyer collectors online would know?

[zendragon]

1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

El Vez makes me think of Mark Boone Junior doing the Jewish Elvis impersonator gig on Sons of Anarchy. 

EDIT: For those old enough to remember, were there Elvis impersonators while he was still alive, or did that come after? 

To kinda bring it back to wrestling The King was supposedly a big fan of Andy Kaufman’s bit

also I believe I saw Dave a Brockies final LA performance, GWAR is like steel panther to me the live performances are almost more important than the actual music

[Greggulator]

The first nationally known MTV band I ever saw love was Helmet. It was my junior year of high school. They played the spring fling type of event at Montclair State, which was about 15 minutes from my house. What a great band. I had been to a bunch of local shows.
 

One of the first local shows (I think maybe the first but it is all a blur) was Youth Brigade on a reunion tour. Also on the bill were pop punk legends Weston from the Lehigh Valley. One of their old members used to post here a little bit way back when. There is a big crossover between Lehigh Valley punk and Chikara. I think some of the guys in Pissed Jeans were on the original roster. Their first band were called The Ultimate Warriors and our guy Warrior threatened to sue them. 

[Greggulator]

Also, I was asked to help out at s live game show in Philly where people had to guess the identity of the mystery guest when I was still doing comedy. The guest was Sleazy P. Martini of GWAR fame (I forget his real name) and this is how I got to wear his pompadour. I will share the pic later no idea how to do so on my phone.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

I should get more into Helmet. I always used to inexplicably confuse them with Prong for some reason when I was younger

[Craig H]

I traded someone Helmet's Betty CD for Tool's Undertow CD (or maybe AEnima? Whichever one has a cow licking it's butt on the inside of the case.) back in high school. I won that trade. Never could get into Helmet despite people in high school that listened to them telling me I'd like them because I was a Smashing Pumpkins fan.

[Craig H]

Also, whichever mod sees this, don't shut this thread down, please.

[SturmCRF]

Pig Destroyer's cover of In The Meantime by Helmet is amazing. So is the original. Both essential gym playlist tunes.

[Curt McGirt]

Undertow. Aenima was the one you'd remember for the crazy... well, whatever it is the eyes on the cover do. Move in some way, I don't know what you call that. And I have no idea what Helmet has to do with Pumpkins...

Prong's Primitive Origins surprised me, very solid stuff. 

[Craig H]

11 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Undertow. Aenima was the one you'd remember for the crazy... well, whatever it is the eyes on the cover do. Move in some way, I don't know what you call that. And I have no idea what Helmet has to do with Pumpkins...

Prong's Primitive Origins surprised me, very solid stuff. 

Yeah, that's why I traded the CD away. I tried getting into Helmet again via Spotify a couple years ago and still couldn't dig it. And listening to Smashing Pumpkins now feels kinda lame so I don't listen to them anymore, but thankfully Silversun Pickups came along to have some of that Pumpkins sound and also sound really unique. They'll probably be the band I go to see over and over again in my life. Them and Tegan and Sara. 

It's like wrestling. I used to be into some really dumb shit when I was younger because my brain was dumb and didn't know any better. It would be weird to go back and tell 14 to 16 year old me that, yeah, you're going to think Tommy Dreamer is the best shit ever, but here's what's going to happen - ECW is going to suck, you're going to discover Misawa vs Kawada and then find all the cool shit Vader has been doing and along the way you're going to discover some other really awesome Japanese dudes, then all wrestling is going to get really bad for awhile, all of your favorites are going to die, and the favorites that are alive won't last long or are going to despise wrestling, you'll cry over two women named Bailey and Sasha and you'll get teary eyed again for women wrestlers in a Wrestlemania, and then a dude from the message board you're going to start posting on in a couple years will wind up running WWE's main competitor and it will be pretty cool, and you'll think two women named Giulia and Hayter are the two coolest wrestlers on the planet.

[twiztor]

26 minutes ago, Craig H said:

It's like wrestling. I used to be into some really dumb shit when I was younger because my brain was dumb and didn't know any better. It would be weird to go back and tell 14 to 16 year old me that, yeah, you're going to think Tommy Dreamer is the best shit ever, but here's what's going to happen - ECW is going to suck, you're going to discover Misawa vs Kawada and then find all the cool shit Vader has been doing and along the way you're going to discover some other really awesome Japanese dudes, then all wrestling is going to get really bad for awhile, all of your favorites are going to die, and the favorites that are alive won't last long or are going to despise wrestling, you'll cry over two women named Bailey and Sasha and you'll get teary eyed again for women wrestlers in a Wrestlemania, and then a dude from the message board you're going to start posting on in a couple years will wind up running WWE's main competitor and it will be pretty cool, and you'll think two women named Giulia and Hayter are the two coolest wrestlers on the planet.

14-16 year old you would have absolutely no idea what you're babbling about. 

but really, trying to explain anything after like 2012ish to teenage me would make me sound like an absolutely insane person. between politics, wrestling, music, comic book movies, and just life in general? i wouldn't even be able to fathom it. 

[Curt McGirt]

Been thinking about this a lot recently. Realize that we have lived at the cusp between an entire sea change in technology. We're part of a generation that will remember and have used dial phones, non-HD television, dial-up Internet -- hell, didn't have the Internet, all forms of analog media that may or may not survive. PRINT MEDIA has almost "gone away". We've lived through a change in milleniums and all that entails. It's insane. 

[Dog]

Someone coined the term "xennial" as a microgeneration on the border of Gen X and Millenials, and characterized them as people who remember the days before modern technology but were still nimble enough to adapt to it. 

[AxB]

Seeing Wrestling fans complaining that a show is only streaming in 720p is quite common if you’re friends with enough youngsters. You can try to tell them that we used to watch on 6th generation VHS tapes that had been converted from PAL to NTSC and back, but you might as well be speaking Flemish.

[twiztor]

1 hour ago, AxB said:

Seeing Wrestling fans complaining that a show is only streaming in 720p is quite common if you’re friends with enough youngsters. You can try to tell them that we used to watch on 6th generation VHS tapes that had been converted from PAL to NTSC and back, but you might as well be speaking Flemish.

i have engaged in plenty of tape trading, and continue to fly the jolly roger in regards to many of the old shows that may or may not ever be re-released. It still takes me aback when i see complaints like what you're referring, because i think in 3 terms when it comes to quality:

1) really good. like brand new stuff. 720? 1080? 4K? i don't care. they're all the same to me.
2) watchable. basically anything and everything else. digital file ripped from a 4th gen VHS? good enough. a copy where somebody flipped channels and you get a few minutes of Friends instead of the middle of a Godfather match? i'm probably fine with that. 
3) not worth my time. most of the 90s fancams would be a good example- if you can't hold a camera steady, i ain't got time for you.

[Dog]

2 hours ago, AxB said:

Seeing Wrestling fans complaining that a show is only streaming in 720p is quite common if you’re friends with enough youngsters. You can try to tell them that we used to watch on 6th generation VHS tapes that had been converted from PAL to NTSC and back, but you might as well be speaking Flemish.

I see Attitude Era fans in their late 30s now, who do really enjoy good wrestling, but who will sill say they don't watch half of AEW because it's "just good matches." Motherfucker, do you know how many people had to die to track down good matches in 1998?! The scummy people we had to deal with!!!