
How Chinese Food Fueled the Rise of California Punk - b0ner_t0ner
https://www.topic.com/how-chinese-food-fueled-the-rise-of-california-punk
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Epopeehief54
Great photos. It's so appropriate that they come out swinging with Alice Bag -
the Bags were just the best. I must have seen 50 shows at the Hong Kong - not
so many at Madame Wongs, but I did see the 1st B52's LA show there (B52's
would be Wongs prototypical band - more "new wave" than punk). But EVERYBODY
who was real played at the HK. You would get these fantastic lineups, like the
Germs, Bags, Fear and Crowd all on the same bill. Early on, the GoGo's were
more aligned with pure punk than pop, and so they played at the HK instead of
MW's. Won't get into everybody I saw at the HK (which would be, you know,
everybody) but I did see Lydia Lunch and James White there - both from New
York.

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creaghpatr
The article was great, I will be interested to see the documentary especially
if they've got video footage from some of the shows.

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almost_usual
You should check out The Decline of Western Civilization, definitely video
footage of some of these shows (LA specific) in that documentary.

Edit: The full documentary
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gc4yrcdAok](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gc4yrcdAok)

Another fun fact is the director also directed Wayne's World.

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creaghpatr
Wow that looks awesome I will check that out.

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fit2rule
Punk made its way to China, where .. it did not quite survive as one might
have hoped:

[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/film-review-beijing-
punk_b_71...](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/film-review-beijing-
punk_b_712248)

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Isamu
Just yesterday out of nostalgia I downloaded some classic songs by X - Los
Angeles, Under the Big Black Sun, etc.

Fun shows!

I don't have any of my old vinyl anymore. Anybody here still holding onto your
old albums?

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jyrkesh
X was my one of my dad's favorites growing up in LA, and I got to see them a
couple years ago at The Fillmore with him and my brothers. Was a very good
time, glad they're still out touring here and there.

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gwbas1c
I want to know more about the broken toilets!

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moate
As someone who's been to plenty of punk shows and plenty of punk clubs, I
promise you that you do not.

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triplee
Now this is the sort of news I can use.

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mistrial9
the punks were certainly the most health-toxic sub-culture in post-hippy
California.. definitely early pain-killer abusers, plus glue or extreme
alcohol, etc. not uncommon to hear of deaths, treachery or jail.. SF Fab-Mab
ruler Dirk was later found to be sexually using adolescents pretty regularly
.. lead singer of Fang on America's Most Wanted national TV for killing a girl
over heroin, things like that .. freedom has a price ! and if the songs
regularly invoke violence and madness, guess what, it actually results in
violence and madness.. who would have guessed

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PhasmaFelis
I don't remember punk lyrics focusing on drugs and violence any more than
mainstream rock did. (Which, admittedly, was also blamed for those things.)
Which bands/songs are you thinking of? I'm assuming you have some in mind, and
aren't just parroting stereotypes?

Also, are you sure you've got the cause-and-effect right way 'round?
Delinquents do seem to like punk, but that doesn't mean that punk made them
delinquent.

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jyrkesh
The way I read his comment, the music "invokes" the violence via live shows.
If you've ever been to a punk show, there's a lot of violence going on in the
audience/pit. I don't think it's a crazy leap to say that people who enjoy
beating the crap out of each other in a sweaty pit might be disproportionately
inclined towards beating people up outside that pit.

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PhasmaFelis
Huh, you think that's it? They're actually saying "mosh pits make you a
violent druggie"?

That's...actually even sillier, honestly. I fuckin' loved a good mosh when I
was a teen, and I was a kid who never, ever started a fight, and froze up when
someone started one with me. I know the pit looks like a brawl, but at every
show I went to it was more like a contact sport with no points where everyone
wins. If someone fell down, everyone who saw it gathered to help them up and
keep folks from tripping until they were back on their feet.

One time a flailing dude caught me in the face with an elbow so hard I
staggered and saw stars. He immediately stopped, grabbed my shoulders, and
yelled, "dude, are you okay?" He waited for me to nod before he smiled and
went back to doing his thing. It was all good.

I know there's guys out there who jump in the pit throwing fists. I can't
speak for every scene, but where I come from those guys got shoved out of the
pit until they got the point. It's not about winning.

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mustacheemperor
I read the post to suggest correlation, not causation.

To your other points, a close friend of mine loved to mosh as a younger man
too, and at his last warped tour he tripped and fell. Unlike the shows you
described, everyone who saw it kept jumping and smashing into each other for
minutes while his companions struggled to get him to his feet. His head was
beaten into the ground repeatedly by people's feet, fracturing his skull.

He's still physically scarred and cognitively not the same and years later it
seems like that will linger forever. I wanted to share this counterpoint to
your post because I think there is validity to your perspective but it is not
fully reflective of reality.

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hutzlibu
Was that punk as well?

Sounds more like hardcore/hatecore etc.

Usual punk or metal mosh is full of adrenaline and sometimes too many
uncoordinated drunk people, who can be dangerous, but I never experienced
people intentionally hurting others.

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gcbw2
N.B. it has some confusing passages to people that doesn't know L.A. very
well. e.g. "Chinese immigrants had started moving to suburban enclaves like
the San Gabriel Valley, bypassing Chinatown and its businesses completely" and
then proceed to tell an anecdote from a restaurant in the very heart of
downtown chinatown.

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jhbadger
But that was the point of the passage -- downtown Chinatown restaurants
started renting out to punk concerts _because_ the suburban migration was
depriving them of customers.

