Dicks

WHY ARE STRAIGHT EDGERS SUCH DICKS? A Rhetorical Question by Jim Testa I've

been

business

a

fanzine,

in

long

this

punk

time

rock

now

-- my

Jersey Beat, just celebrated

its 8th birthday - and I've seen bands come

&

go.

I've

know

some

great

people who've played in bands; some of them

still do.

assholes too.

I've known some

real

That just goes with the

territory. But year in and year out, all

my

dealings

bands,

there's

with all

through

one

kinds

constant

I

of can

count on. If they're straight edge,

they're

probably going to be dicks. Now I know this sounds like one of Ben

Weasel's

sweeping grant decent Well, of

diatribes,

an

generalization,

unholy

and

I'll

you that there are a couple straight

edgers

maybe one or two.

respect

out

there.

I have a lot

for Ian and the

Fugazi, for instance.

of

guys

in

On the other hand... The Case of The Vanishing Van ABC

No

Rio

is

an

abandoned

building on the Lower Lower East

Side

of Manhattan, in a neighborhood that's mostly hispanic and very poor, but for nearly

a year,

it's been the home of

the only real hardcore scene New City

has

known.

The

starting in December, continued,

week

shows

1989,

and have

since.

basically,

delivered

ABC

on

They've

two or three weeks,

but

there

in and week out,

almost every Saturday missed

York

think,

Rio

has

with four or

five

a show,

No

I

cool bands, a low door charge, a great table

that

fanzines, all,

sells

and

7

inches

lots of fun.

and

Most

of

agent

there's no club owner or booking making all the

decisions;

the

shows are run by a collective of fans, musicians, and writers. Every show has more than its share of fanzine there,

and

a small group of regulars

who all play in other segregates

people

the

bands.

music

by

Nobody labels;

"straight edge" and "punk," scum and

stenchcore,

everybody

rock plays

together and everybody watches all the bands.

In

a city where hardcore and

even ska have been banned from every

other

club

because

uncontrollable violence No

Rio

of

an

problem,

ABC

hasn't had one fight in

eight months of shows. what

almost

over

If that isn't

a "scene" is all about,

then

I

don't know what is. Now the drawback to ABC No Rio that it's small, advertised regulars

in

is

and the shows aren't the

newspapers;

know about them,

the

and spread

the word with flyers. One week, the popular South Jersey straight

edge band Vision was

for a show.

booked

Now, remember, ABC No Rio

didn't call up Vision and beg them

to

come; they asked for a show there.

So

Vision pulls up in their van, and take a

look

number

at the place,

say,

and count

of people there, in an offhand way,

the

and sort

of

that it's

a

lot smaller than what they're used to. So

the

band,

with the exception

their guitarist Pete, the

van,

of

clamber back in

and announce they're

going

for some food. Apparently back

to

because show.

they went all the

Trenton they That

to

look

for

never came back to left

Pete to

face

way it, the the

crowd

and

announce

that

his

band

decided they didn't want to play there because

it was too small.

to the guy, he

I hand it

it took a lot of guts and

accepted

responsibility

bandmates' actions.

for

his

Okay, Pete is one

straightedge guy I respect. But the rest of Vision?

Dicks.

Ingrate, Thy Name Is Straight Edge Another came

to

straightedge

Insight,

play from

No

Rio

band

that

was

called

Salt Lake City,

Utah.

They had some problems on the road and lost a lot of their equipment, so they show up without a drumkit or amps ask

if

Since

they can borrow

some

and

stuff.

there are a lot of bands on the

bill (including Supertouch,

the head#

liners,

of

who

equipment),

have

would go

a

lot

good

it`s decided that Insight

on right before

Supertouch,

use their equipment, and save a little set up time between bands. So what does Insight do? They pack together all

through the first

bands. play the

in their van and stay Then

they come out,

three songs, singer's

three

there opening

set

and announce

throat hurts,

so

up, that they

stop playing.

Then they get back

in

the van, and don't even hang around to watch Supertouch,

who loaned them all

their equipment. Dicks.

No Reply Necessary In

eight

fanzine,

I've

bands. mail

years of

publishing

interviewed

a lot

After an issue comes the

bands

a of

out,

who appear

in

I

each

issue

some complimentary

thank

them for appearing in the zine.

Their

response

they'll to

differs

send

usually

copies

a

and

- sometimes

t-shirt,

they'll

always send their next record

be reviewed,

and more often

than

not, I get a thank you note. Jersey

Beat

straightedge received

a

interview, bands

lot

of

the

was and

featured

bands,

who space

works.

One of

Two

the

Dan - each run

(straightedge)

were

- photos,

Nation, of

two

both

Carry

California. Frank

#40

those from

members their

-

record label,

own

and I'd

never received anything from either of them in the way of press materials.

This

is

not

straightedge fanzines

surprising.

labels

support

by giving away review copies

of their records. that

don't

I guess they figure

all the straight edge

will

Most

run

out

and

buy

zinesters all

their

releases right away anyway, and nobody else

matters.

typical if

This

is

a

fairly

attitude among the SE

you're not SE,

crowd;

you don't

matter.

Anyway, that's why you never never see reviews

of

Revelation

or

Schism

Records in Jersey Beat. So out,

anyway,

when the issue

came

I sent both Dan and Frank a

copies

of

the

zine,

and

casually

that

I

anything

from

either

respective Nation in

labels.

had

mentioned

never

seen

of

their

that

Carry

Now

had been featured

Jersey Beat,

quality

and

few

prominently

and they'd seen reliability

of

the the

publication, maybe they'd like to send some

of

review?

their

releases

Records,

(Frank's

for

label,

us

to

Nemesis

released Vision's lp, by the

way). Well, I didn't receive any records to review.

Neither Frank nor Dan even

bothered with the courtesy of a reply.

Dicks. Another the

band that was profiled in

new issue is called Bedlam

They've been around a long haven't

had

Hour.

time,

much national

but

exposure.

The lead singer and band leader, Chuck Walker, quite

is straight edge,

and

makes

a point of it in interviews and

lyrics. I new

sent Chuck four copies issue

little note.

for

that

the

a

nice

the band and

of

No reply.

Then I

Chuck and a friend had

saw

released

some old tapes of early Bedlam Hour on a

new

EP.

about

I wrote again and

getting a copy

to

asked

review.

No

reply. Then I wrote again and asked if there

was

any

reason

answering my letters,

he

wasn't

since he seemed

so open and friendly in the we ran.

interview

No reply.

Dick. Now

I

know a lot of this

like whining and sour grapes, expect

like

I

out of a band if

I

something

give

them space in

that's

not

true.

sounds

my I

fanzine. don't

But

solicit

advertising based on who we interview. We

get

records

to review

from

all

kinds of labels,

from the majors down

to kids who press up 1000 copies of

a

7" they recorded in their garage. But that

there

are rules

of

behavior

govern all human discourse;

fashioned still

concepts,

believe

in

perhaps, them.

old

but

Like

I

being

polite. Like answering your mail. Like realizing, band,

if

that

you're in a punk

your ability to

rock

function

depends on a complex inter-related web of fans, radio,

fanzines, and

clubs, promoters,

record labels,

and

that

everybody in the web should be helping one another. Straight edgers, convinced

because

they're

of their moral superiority,

feel they are entitled to their of

share

the scene without putting anything

back.

They take, but all they give is

advice on moral conduct.

Well,

I've

got news for them. Generosity, respect all

for fellow bands - those

positive moral values

greed, and

consideration,

selfishness,

the

disrespect

too.

are And

self-involvement you

show

other

bands are just as wrong as drunkenness and promiscuity. get

drunk

Maybe worse. You can

and not hurt

anyone

else

(assuming you don't pick fights or try to

drive a car while you're

The

sort

of

bombed).

self-righteousness

displayed by bands like Carry Vision,

and

Insight

hurt

Nation, the

people

who are pouring part of

lives

into

MacKaye

the

scene.

was writing songs

straight Threat,

edge

movement

very their

When

Ian

about

the

for

Minor

he wrote, "Don't drink, don't

smoke, don't fuck." He

never said anything about being

a dick.

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