I was, of course, too young to understand nostalgia as a neophyte punk know-it-all and hate-it-all-or-most-of-it-anyway, too green (sometimes literally) to get why anyone would pay to see punk legends of yore. We're talking 1995-98 here. I remember Agent Orange and Angry Samoans seemed to play in the Bay Area monthly, and I liked "Bloodstains" and Inside My Brain as much as the next geeky, just-barely-not-a-midget pizza-face with purple splotch-dots dyed into his misshapen skull, but I couldn't imagine enjoying the spectacle of dudes in their early fucking 40s playing "My Old Man's a Fatso" yet again, to the same 50 sad San Jose punks who were there last time and the time before that because the Cactus Club might be a shithole but at least it's not mom's basement.
How could someone in the Bay Area, I thought, pay to see the Toy Dolls at some sterile corporate club on a Friday night when bands like American Steel and Swinginâ Utters were playing some all-ages dive nearby for five bucks?
Maximumrocknroll
the Epicenter
Milo Goes to College
His Hero is Gone
the Locust
Rorschach
American Steel
Rogueâs March
The Streets of San Francisco
the Swinginâ Utters
Retox, featuring members of the Locust, plays Tube on Thursday, Aug. 18. 9pm. $5. 21+.
American Steel plays Branx on Friday, Aug. 19. 8pm. $12. All ages.
Rorschach plays Rotture on Saturday, Aug. 20. 9pm. $8. All ages.
Swinginâ Utters plays Danteâs on Saturday, Aug. 20. 9pm. $20. 21+.
Warcry, featuring His Hero is Goneâs Todd Burdette, plays Blackwater Records on Friday, Aug. 19. 7pm. $4. All ages.
The Epicenter closed soon after the knucklehead flooded it.
Agent Orange is probably playing somewhere. With Angry Samoans. To nostalgic suckers stuck in the past.
WWeek 2015
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