Original_To:  BITNET%"allmusic@auvm"
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Date:         Tue, 15 Dec 1992 10:46:00 EST
From:         MCINTYRE@MSUPA.BITNET
Subject:      re: the punk scene at the mall

>From:         WERT7176@SNYPLAVA.BITNET
>You followed the punk scene for a bit?  What
>punk scene did you follow, the punk scene at the mall with the 10 doller
>tapes and 15 doller cd's.
>I really don't think the majority of the people
>on this list know more about punk or hardcore than myself, although if
>there is someone out there please enlighten me with your wisdom.

I doubt I know more about punk or hardcore than you.  I have no wisdom
to offer, but I can cite my experiences.  The punk scene I followed
was small clubs where if the band members made 10 dollars a night,
they felt lucky.  The PRT Club was a DIY affair with one working
toilet and paint peeling off the ceiling like Thomas Covenant's complexion.
Totentanz played the first set there.  Zero pay; the proceeds were
poured back into the club.  Our reward was it lasted long enough for
us to play another two gigs there.

Bunches was an 80 seat restuarant/bar that let us play music late at
night.  Totentanz played there a lot.  The only time we got paid was
the Halloween show where the headlining act cancelled and the place
was still jammed, so the owner threw us $5 a piece.  Occasionally a
national act would play.  We got to open for MX-80 Sound.  No money,
but the Lansing paper reviewed us, calling us "the perfect wedding
band - for the Bride of Frankenstein".

The Club Doobee was a country bar the rest of the week, but two local
punk promoters took it over for Friday and Saturday evenings.  Occasional
national acts such as Black Flag, Jonathan Richman, Tiny Desk Unit,
Human Switchboard.  The first Totentanz gig was there; our biggest
paycheck: $12.50 each.  My more commercial band, Idle Hands (the local
underground paper compared us to Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen),
played Club Doobee.  One night during the soundcheck, our female vocalist
strained for a high note and ripped the front of her costume.  She was
in a panic, but I was level-headed enough to reason, "This is a punk
club.  There ought to be a safety pin somewhere."  It proved to be
one of our better shows.  $75 for a six member band.  We had three
tape decks recording the show, and we still missed my bass solo.

About the classiest place we played was Dooley's.  Six nights a week
it was a frat bar, but on Mondays, it was taken over by the Club Doobee
guys for "I Don't Like Mondays".  They brought in some big name acts:
the Stranglers (who were picketed by a women's rights group; the band
responded by opening their show by reading their own manifesto claiming
"not guilty" and ending with "the Stranglers love women, the Stranglers
have always loved women and will continue to love women at every possible
opportunity"), X, Wall of Voodoo, Gun Club.  Idle Hands got to open for
Nona Hendryx.  The Lansing paper called us "one of the worst bands to
ever play Dooley's", and the MSU paper dismissed us as third-rate
Hawkwind.  Do you think using Amon Duul II's "Mozambique" as an encore
might have been too much for them?

However, I guess I have finally made the mall scene.  If you want to
buy the Totentanz tape, Marco will charge you $10.  But hey, can you
even find Italian imports at the mall these days?  And if you order
my Mutually Assured Destruction tape as well, the pair is only $15.
Somehow I can't see them stocking us at the mall.

John McIntyre
Physics - Astronomy Dept
Michigan State University
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU