"Some of the people here might be described as punk rockers"
June 29, 2018 6:44 PM   Subscribe

"Now I'm told the band playing was Social Distortion from LA, it is a hard rock, punk rock type band, and some of the people here might be described as punk rockers, is that fair or not fair?" Milwaukee local news covers the "Odd Rock Riot" of October 4, 1988, when police broke up an overcrowded Social Distortion show before the band could start their set. Thirty years later, Social D returns to Milwaukee to play tonight at Summerfest.
posted by escabeche (10 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
Basically, I really enjoyed my nine minutes spent watching 80s Midwestern punk kids mill around while local news anchors looked at them in a concerned way, and I hope you will too.
posted by escabeche at 6:45 PM on June 29, 2018 [11 favorites]


I saw Social Distortion in 2011 and really enjoyed it. I have liked them since the 80s.
posted by 4ster at 6:58 PM on June 29, 2018


We have to go-o-o...
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 7:12 PM on June 29, 2018


Wow, that really takes me back!
posted by ethical_caligula at 7:16 PM on June 29, 2018


If you squint really closely, you can see nine year old me 12 miles away, doing decidedly non-punk things at the time.
posted by drezdn at 7:17 PM on June 29, 2018 [8 favorites]


This kind of footage makes it clear how it's a law of the universe that (white) local news reporters and anchors are always the squarest people in any room. Sheesh.
posted by axiom at 7:18 PM on June 29, 2018 [5 favorites]


NO, NANCY CHANDLER. IT'S THE HAIRSPRAY THAT GOT OUT OF HAND.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:26 PM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]


Holy shit, Odd Rock Cafe. You have taken me baaaaaaaaack, escabeche.

I went there once in '88 for a show, but during the summer. I would've been back at UW-Madison on the day Social D was there, and they were a little too punk for me at the time, anyway. I went to Odd Rock to see some guys from my first high school who were in a (fucking amazing) early 2nd wave ska band called Wild Kingdom (which evolved into Citizen King), and they got very popular for a minute. Their opinions of Jack Koshick were, shall we say, not good.

I looked at this video to see if any kids from either of my high schools would've been gotten themselves on TV; I was only 19 back then (nope). It's weird to see the newscasters and reporters; I remember them all (John Drilling! Nice man. He interviewed me at my grade school when I was 8. Oh, my god, though, the Pan Cake he wore. He was practically translucent so he needed it, but you could literally frost a 10" round cake with the amount he had on)!

Summerfest, huh? I can't believe the band hadn't been back in all these decades. I'm glad Mike Ness and Co. have put that mishegoss behind them, and their Milwaukee fans can enjoy them today.
posted by droplet at 8:06 PM on June 29, 2018 [4 favorites]


I went to Odd Rock to see some guys from my first high school who were in a (fucking amazing) early 2nd wave ska band called Wild Kingdom (which evolved into Citizen King), and they got very popular for a minute.

I saw Citizen King open up for Fishbone at the Cleveland Agora. My friends and I met them after the show, bought their cassette, talked about Funk music. They were really cool.
posted by ethical_caligula at 9:06 AM on June 30, 2018 [2 favorites]


I saw them in 1987 or 1988, and I don't understand why this video is so old-fashioned and, uh, old, because since I was there and I'm not old clearly there's been a mistake.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:39 PM on July 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


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