The Importance of Punk and Anti-Establishment Music in Rural America
By Curt of Townies
It is a warm September night (9/11 actually, but this piece won’t touch on that whole thing) and Cheap Perfume is about to take the stage. The stage is in front of a small dance floor, separating the main bar from the back bar. The bar is called Trinidad Lounge (or “The ‘Dad” if you’re a local...or “The Circle” if you’re an old school local) & it’s a quite popular spot in town. The town is Trinidad, CO, population about 9000. It’s the type of small, working class town that’s generally sleepy, but comes alive as folks let loose on Friday and Saturday night. It’s Saturday night.
The crowd of about 100 that has packed into this old wild west, honky-tonk-and-oddly-nautical-themed dive is abuzz. They’re abuzz because they’re at a punk show in Trinidad, Colorado, a rare happening in this mecca of retired white dude blues & ‘90s country cover acts. I don’t expect that a large swath of the crowd is going to necessarily enjoy the show. Some are attending because it’s Saturday night and it’s the place to go, some are there for the novelty of a touring punk show in Trinidad. A handful of us are old punkers, genuinely exhilarated for something loud ‘n’ fast ‘n’ angry.
Cheap Perfume takes the stage. Their vocalist, Stephanie, does what she normally does just before they kick into the set -- she takes her pants off.
Stephanie is a powerhouse frontperson, absolute lightning bottled into a slight frame. One of the just-there-for-a-Saturday-night older dudes turns to me and says, “Love to see that on stage, amiright,” mock salivating. I give him an askew glance, but otherwise let the comment slide, as I know that this seeming pixie in panties is about to become a hundred foot-tall giant on stage fronting her killer band.
They launch into the first song, which ends up being oh-so-apropos for the encounter I just had...called “No Men.” It’s about how men pretty much are the worst. I watch the offensive dude’s reaction to the music, which looks to be outright shock. But he does not leave, and shortly after that I catch sight of him toward the back of the crowd, tapping his feet.
An older regular at the bar, sitting next to her husband on a stool nursing her customary Bud Light, is entranced. She vehemently denies her husband’s requests to leave until she has had a chance to purchase a shirt from the band. I watch a typically reserved 23 year-old that I know to be born and raised in rural southern Colorado just outright lose her shit. She independently invents moshing. A good amount of the town’s small trans population is in attendance, stoked to catch the rare band in Trinidad whose members are their outspoken allies. A cowboy (one of the real actual ones) is hanging off of the railing that lines the stage and bopping his hat along with the beat. He shares with me that he was a big fan of the Pixies back in the day.
Video: a snippet of Cheap Perfume performing at Trinidad Lounge (Trinidad, CO)
These are but a handful of the occurrences that have brought me to a realization: punk & metal & other “extreme” music work as they are intended in these small communities, a phenomenon now lost in the big cities.
In Denver, you can see an obese guy in a bondage mask and lace pink briefs blowing a woodwind synth midi controller any ol’ Tuesday, but drive 3 hours south and it still means something. You can still shock and awe, still be new, still present fresh ideas in fresh ways, still challenge and excite and move people.
What I’m ultimately getting at here is this: established touring bands in the less mainstream genres, make room for a handful of rural stops on your tours. Bend some minds. Tell the young folks you meet to lease out a warehouse on the edge of their town and pool their money together for a drum kit and some amps and some shitty gear and start making original noise. Tell them to throw together shows on the weekends and charge a five buck cover to help with rent and maybe some less shitty gear. Build scenes. Let’s get out of the cycle of only preaching to the choir in the metropolises and the ‘burbs.
And kids in rural America, if this little guest editorial somehow makes it in front of you, and you’re bored and angry and yearning for an outlet: this is the way. Find a space to be creative and be yourself and collaborate with your peers. It doesn’t have to be music, and it doesn’t have to be loud and fast and angry...but it’d be a lot cooler if it was.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
