Note: I did not dance "with" Talesha at the WISE Hall tonight, as the Castillo/ Enforcers gig earlier this evening, but we did talk about it a bit, at least in the abstract. A friend, noting that she was dancing and I was dancing, observed that "you should dance together," which idea we both immediately dismissed.
Truth is, Talesha and I are unaccustomed to dancing "with" other people. She actually has *been* a dancer, in her past, and has overall more experience dancing (and skill) than I do. She even only goes to shows, generally, where she can dance, she says.
But she also tells me she doesn't know how to dance "with" anyone anymore than I do. She laughed when I told her that, my wedding aside, the last time I'd danced "with" anyone was in high school, maybe a square dance class, somewhat against my will.
But even if we weren't dancing "together," I had fun dancing with Talesha at the Oi!/ street punk/ skinhead show at the WISE tonight, where Castillo headlined and First Attack made their debut. Be clear: I did not mosh, I danced. Occasionally I had to shuffle my dancing towards the margins, to accommodate moshers -- as did Talesha -- but it was a very friendly vibe overall, not a particularly violent pit at all (if at times a bit rowdy and exuberant, say).
It's a scene I actually do not know well, so I feel a bit of a voyeur to be amongst it. At one point, I got to shamelessly eavesdrop on a conversation about skinheads in Toronto vs. skinheads in Vancouver. One party had grown up as a street punk among west coast skinheads, and knows them as a diverse, welcoming community, which includes Asian skinheads, black skinheads, gay skinheads, and so forth. The other person, whose background is the music scene in Toronto, got punched once, for reasons of racism, as a kid, by a skinhead, so they think of the scene as much more divided and much more Aryan than we have...
As for me, tho', I have a "whatta I know" writ large over my head on this topic: my main exposure to skinhead culture in any form, Vancouver or otherwise, has been filtered through Atilla Richard Lukacs, which is perhaps not, uh, mainstream skinhead culture, necessarily? May I direct you to this, my favourite of his paintings? ("I like the early stuff best." I saw this show at the Dianne Farris Gallery decades ago). It is just as well that I not post it on my blog. Oh: trigger warning, I guess: Nazi gay skinheads. Or are they gay Nazi skinheads? They appear to be a couple. And one of them has a boner, and there's a swastika. And some bunnies?
The bunnies are a particularly nice touch. See his Instagram here.
Anyhow, maybe Lukacs is very, uh, "west coast skinhead," sorta? (Again, "Whatta I know?"). I would love to discuss this stuff with an insider: the racial, cultural, and sexual politics of being a skinhead in Vancouver, so to speak... to talk about it with an actual member of the subculture. Is the toughness of the skinhead image a compensation for liking poppy, tuneful singalongs? Can you not have one without the other? Is there a big gay skinhead scene here? This is not, I suspect, how most people think of skinheads.
But understand, I know nothing. I've mostly only seen the skinhead movement from without, though when I have encountered it in public, it has not always been at its finest (I *have* seen Nazi skinheads here, once, harassing a First Nations man on a bus out in Surrey, randomly taunting him, calling him "Chief." I was ashamed, and afraid for him, but, more shamefully, also afraid for myself. I got off the bus before he did, and have always worried, since, what happened to him when he got off...).
Skinheads galore tonight, suffice to say -- some might say the night was even "too skinhead" -- but that I noticed, there were no Nazis (and no bunnies). But lots of boots and braces, lots of skinny jeans, maybe a pair of suspenders or two, with many fists pumped and many choruses song along with by an audience who clearly knew the words, and I would guess had a far lower overall BMI than you might get at other punk shows.
The first band, the Buzzers, had a very pleasing pop element to their basslines and guitar, such that, with a different vocalist (one with bigger hair), you could imagine them covering "I'll Stop the World and Melt with You," for example, at least based on the tempo and the simple, straightforward catchiness of most of their tunes (some were a bit more punk than others). But the singer they did have had a gruff bark of a vocal, and was singing in the key of Oi! -- not much pop in his delivery. That was an interesting combination, a bit unusual, but it worked.
I enjoyed dancing the most to the third band on the bill, who I guess were Pure Impact. I wasn't paying enough attention consciously to their music to actually write about it now, though; I was enjoying dancing too much, not worrying about finding words. It was the most exercise -- and the most enjoyable exercise -- I've had in weeks, though I might be sore tomorrow.
If the Buzzers were the poppiest and Pure Impact the one whose tunes got me moving the most, the Enforcers were probably the toughest band of the night -- music still hooky but filled with sinewy rage, inspiring the most aggro pit -- a pit that definitely was pretty male, as were the bands: I believe that, of five bands, there was only one female bandmember on the stage, the bassist of the Buzzers, who is also in Toy Tiger, we gather (thanks Jonny Bones for confirming this).
The slightly tough-guy, alpha-jock rugby-player presentation of some people on the scene is a bit tough for my tastes, I confess, even if it has nothing to do with racial politics or such. I mean, sure, a couple of members of a couple of bands were kind of pudgy, and a member of one later band was dressed in an almost Peanuts-like "skinhead dork" costume, which I thought was quite adorable... and there was at least one chubby girl in the pit... but I still get a bit nervous around so many guys who present as so much tougher, stronger, more aggressive than I ever am. It's like hanging out with rugby players or something. I don't do that, either, though I did enjoy rugby a bit in high school -- more than floor hockey, say. Contact sports! Wrestling was fun too, male bodies grappling... I am not now nor have I ever been a gay skinhead -- though I did have some Lukacs pinned to my bedroom wall as a young man. This one, actually (one of two I had up). TMI? My parents wondered, I'm sure:
I'd be a slimmer, fitter man, probably, if I'd... well, nevermind. Haven't thought of Lukacs in awhile. And it was, uh, a fun night. Anthemic choruses, memorable tunes, an actual melody to the songs. Vibrant little Oi! scene happening here.
Oh, and one of the bands was First Attack -- the first show of the new band by Greg Huff of Bishops Green, who went on hiatus this past year (I do not have the details but someone is apparently having health issues?). First Attack were terrific, very like you might expect a Greg Huff band to sound, but with Greg on guitar this time, which was fun to watch. I shot vid, but I don't want to post it without Greg's or someone's say-so. I am very pleased to have been at their first show!
And the vibe WAS friendly. At one point, a guy in a studded coat in the audience gave me a random hug, after having seen me dance. He still had his hair, mind you -- more than me, even! -- but still, it felt very welcoming.
Videos pending? Meantime, here are some photos. All by me, in order of bands, from 8pm onwards. Could have been a bigger audience, especially with a five band bill, but the $40 tickets meant that things probably worked out okay...? The people who were there sure enjoyed themselves.
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