Posts Tagged ‘performance’

Lima Punk – El Terrible & the Mongoloides!

// September 7th, 2011 // No Comments » // Photos, Videos

In every major city in each country I’ve visited there seems to be one punk fan, aficionado and ambassador of punk ,if you will, who sees fit to take it upon themselves to show me the ropes of their local punk scene.

"El Terrible Y Los Mongoloides" Interview

For Medellin, Colombia it was Jorge, for the Moscow rockabilly scene it was Viktor (with a “k:) and for Lima, Peru it’s Victor (with a “c”)

I met Victor like I meet many punks I get to know before I visit their fair city, through my contacts via Punk Outlaw’s facebook page. In this case a good punk soul from Colombia referred Victor to my page.

When he graciously offered to help me do some groundwork for getting plugged into the scene in Lima, I was hoping he’d help me line up a couple of interviews.

El Hueko... a legendary punk pit, now a pre-school

Well Victor went above and beyond the call of duty and not only arranged more kick ass interviews than I could accommodate, he arranged a showcase of 5 current Lima punk bands to perform exclusively for our cameras.

Like a true punk rocker, Victor didn’t ask for a thing in return including recognition, so this will be all I write about him when recapping Peru. He’s not a Mohawk wearing punk with a ton of tattoos and like many; you might never guess the guy is into punk music by looking at him, but Victor knows his stuff.

El Averno - Not your average community center

I think it has something to with the fact that he was born and raised in a house right next to the legendary El Hueko. This little spot in a suburb of Lima is bordered by the local TV stations, a Jewish Synagogue and a Catholic church where Victor reportedly witnessed a dust up between the local punks and the area priests! Now that I’d like to catch for the Punk Outlaw cameras.

During its day in the 80s and 90s, El Hueko was the home of the Lima punk band Eutenasia and with it’s concerts and constant punk music pouring out it’s pores, El Hueko was the rough equivalent of CBGBs of Lima.

It wasn’t an official bar, but it was a place where many a punk concert took place during Lima’s punk heyday.

Today it’s a preschool.

El Averno's Cool Art

El Hueko was also the location for my interview with El Terrible Y Los Mongoloides (The Terrible and the Mongoloids), a street punk band which has been tearing up the Lima punk scene for quite some time.

The guys were great and we had the interview right where the local pre-schoolers learn their daily lessons and the Mongoloids gave me a history lesson of my own, on the punk scene in Lima.

After the interview at El Hueko, we all headed to downtown Lima to tour the Al Averno  Cultural Center, a very bohemian and picturesque spot in downtown Lima, that hosts many punk concerts and all types of music events and is an important staple of the underground and counter culture community in Lima.

Punk Procession to Peru Noise Studios in downtown Lima

From there we caught up with the 4 other bands and walked the few blocks over to a rehearsal studio just a block away from the beautiful San Martin Plaza in downtown Lima. About 30 of us in all in this punk procession, headed down to Lima Noise Studios, which is in a basement studio accessible by a series of unlit, pitch black stairways that had me wondering “where in the hell were we going?”

But I trusted my punk brothers and sisters and it paid off.

Once inside Lima Noise each of the bands performed 3 songs in an incredible showcase of current punk and hardcore music just for our cameras.

Now I’m going to feature the other bands a bit later on but for now, from Lima Peru, here are El Terrible Y Los Mongoloides performing “Generacion Negativa”. So enjoy it motherf***s!

 

 

 

 

Buenos Aires Punk Band Sepulcro

// February 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // Videos

As I posted a couple days ago, I caught up with Batra and his band Sepulcro at the legendary Salon Pueyrredon in Buenos Aires, Argentina the other day and they graciously let me sit in on a rehearsal. Here’s a couple songs from that day, sorry for the bad lighting. Enjoy!

I’d like to thank the punk gods…

// February 17th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Photos

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA 2/16/10

So the day began with a big breakfast for a change and a drop of clothes at the laundry because quite frankly, I’m afraid I might be starting to smell and how many times can I wear that Social Distortion T shirt?

I then proceeded to the gym, where it is leg day and promptly threw my back out doing squats because I didn’t know how to convert KGs to LBs and did too much weight. Now I can barely move.

Batra at Rehearsal at Salon Pueyrredon in Buenos Aires

Ahh but after that, my luck began to change as the punk Gods obviously took pity and began smiling on me.  I headed over to Salon Pueyrredon to meet with Batra, the lead singer of  punk band Sepulcro and one of the founders and owners of Salon Pueyrredon. I had met Batra and a host of other cool folks there the other night when I dropped in to make some contacts in the punk scene and they invited me back today.

Salon Pueyrredon has been around for over 14 years and is a staple to the punk and music scene in general in Buenos Aires. The name is hard to say (and spell) for this Gringo but it’s a cool venue for music. I think my favorite thing is this cool Johnny Cash painting behind the bar.

Johnny Cash is big in Buenos Aires

It’s actually a house and evidently Batra and a few others lived there when the financial crisis hit a few years back. Now the upstairs is an office and rehearsal hall for band and the top floor hosts an online radio station that is going to begin broadcasting some shows and indie music.

I caught some of Batra’s band Sepulcro’s rehearsal upstairs and Batra was cool enough to give me a couple of CDs which is great because I enjoyed the rehearsal immensely. Later Batra gave me a very humorous interview and thankfully I had Mariana, the communications person there, who translated a few sticky questions for us.

Rockabilly Queen Anita

I then proceeded to interview Rockabilly Queen Anita, who I had also met the other night and she graciously agreed to be interviewed in English.  Anita filled me in on the very underground Rockabilly scene here in Buenos Aires which is small but bigger than I expected.  She makes some of her own clothes and she dances swing but wants to learn burlesque but that particular art revival and pin up haven’t made it down to Buenos Aires just yet, she says.

Psychobilly fan Kituh is excited about Social Distortion coming to Buenos Aires

Then for a little psychobilly perspective, Salon Pueyreddon Bartendar,  and psychobilly band member, Kituh agreed to be interviewed while he served up a batch drinks that included some Argentine liquor that I can’t for the life of me remember the name. Anyone? I do remember it is mixed with coca cola, was good and strong.

I sipped mine considerably more slowly than everyone else cause after all I had work to do. In addition to bartending, Kitulh owns a tattoo salon called Buenos Muchachos . He like many people here  is very excited about the upcoming Social Distortion show in April.

I ended my session at the Salon with an interview with communication director Mariana who also consented to be interviewed in English (girls rule!) and she filled me in on the bar’s history and her own personal outlook on the punk scene in Buenos Aires.

Dos Minutos Rehearsal

I ended the night by tracking all the way over to a neighborhood close to downtown to catch most of the rehearsal by very well known and influential punk band “Dos Minutos”. These dudes are  hard core and my ears are still ringing from their intense set list. They are playing a concert on Sunday and invited me to go, so of course I said si. They’ve toured all over Latin America and the U.S. so I can’t wait to see them perform in front of a live audience of Buenos Aires punks.

El Mosca of Dos Minutos at Rehearsal

Its been a long day and I have another even longer day tomorrow so I’m off to bed. I have a feeling I’m going to sleep like a baby. Other than the back injury, it’s days like today that I really love what I’m doing.

The Legendary Misfits in NYC – Halloween 2009

// November 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Videos

Is it Halloween or just a Misfits concert? Both! The legendary Misfits (what’s left of them) played BB King in NYC on Halloween night and it was a sweaty, hot, loud and smelly mess.. just like a good punk show should be. The Misfits played their two new songs especially written for the occasion now available on i-tunes and they are pretty good as well as their classsics incuding “We Are 138″ and they ended with “Die, Die My Darling” as you can see in the video here. I got to the gig a little late, so I apologize for being so far from the stage but this was as close as I could get without being slung around in the pit.. and I was still getting bounced around quite a bit, as you can witness by the shaky, jerky flip cam work. Halloween in NYC with the Misfits.. does it get any better?

Youth Brigade Perform “Sink with Kalifornija”

// October 24th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Events, Videos

More Youth Brigade performing their classic in Brooklyn, NYC! Notice the cameraman (me) falls down at  the end. The pit is the shit.

Legendary Youth Brigade Perform “I Hate My Life” in NYC

// October 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Events, Videos


So I’m all amped for the big Youth Brigade/Casualties show at Cafe Europa in Brooklyn, NYC on Saturday 9/19/09. I mean, I literally postpone a couple of trips to catch one of my all time favorite hard core bands the Casualties. I just bought their recent CD off i-tunes “We are all we have” and i have to say it is excellent stuff. I also want to see Youth Brigade, I mean these are two legendary punk bands, why aren’t they playing in Manhattan?

Well, I figure its going to be a packed show, so I prepare for the day by going to see a special documentary screening of “Let Them Know” the story of the Youth Brigade and BYO Records. I don’t regret spending a couple hours of a beautiful college football Saturday holed up in a dark theater checking this doc out. This is one good documentary and it deals with the often overlooked West Coast punk scene so often overshadowed by the scenes in NYC and England. With interviews with Fat Mike from NOFX, Seven Seconds, Bouncing Souls and of course the Stern brothers from Youth Brigade, it is a truly entertaining, mostly hilarious and slightly uplifting documentary. It really made me appreciate what punks went through in the 80s in the U.S.

I arrived at Cafe Europa around 8:30PM and was dismayed to find out I arrived just in time to hear the last :20-:30 of the Casualties “Unknown Soldier” with about 100 or so punks in full fury in the pit. That was it? Final song!? WTF? What kind of punk show is over at 8:30PM on a Saturday in NYC none the less? What do punks have to be in bed by 10pm or something?

I was really dismayed, proceeded to down 4 beers in a row but the evening was almost salvaged when I met Shawn Stern, lead singer of Youth Brigade, who was out mingling with the crowd before the show.

I congratulated him on an excellent documentary (he executive produced and got the most air time). We also discussed the punk scene down in Central and Latin America. Shawn’s a big surfer and he indicated he’s ready to tour down there and get some good surfing in.

He’s a cool guy, as expected and YB proceeded to put on a hell of a show. Here are a couple of clips for your viewing pleasure. YB and Shawn, thanks for all you’ve done for punk… oh and thanks for salvaging my night.

Rise Against perform in NYC

// October 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Events, Videos

This was a great show and I was lucky enough to get to go backstage and meet Tim and the gang from the band. Nice guys and very talented.. Chicago representing punk!