Friday, February 22, 2008

Farewell, My Friend

Tonite, The Galaxy will close it's doors. Sure, the place has seen better days, and the interior is a little ragged, but it was still the best place around for catching a good show while also getting a taste of the newest flavors.
But what hurts the most is the absolute lack of venues for hardcore punk acts around here, and with the Galaxy going down, this leaves the Orange County hardcore scene fairly non-existent. Its a damned, crying shame.


Orange County was one of the birthplaces of hardcore, giving birth to bands like Agent Orange, The Adolescents, The Vandals. Bands that remained true to their original style while still performing to this day. There is a connective-ness in Orange County towards it's music scene. Our native bands play harder here, and the home crowd fans are more enthusiastic. These bands have been around 25-30years, and have too big of a following to play the small houses. Now, we need to travel outside their backyards to see them. For a while, anyway.

Last night, The Galaxy hosted their last punk event. The place was sold out, and I was caught blindsided by the whole thing. If I knew last week what I knew last night, I would've been there:
This was a benefit show combining an all-star line up, offering a rare opportunity to see so many of my favorites all in the same place at once. Some real groundbreaking, history making bands from the good old days: T.S.O.L., Agent Orange,Shattered Faith. On the same stage. The same night.
And I missed out.
Life sucks.
But Shattered Faith still rocks.

I know,I know...
All this means nothing to you.
But I needed to vent.

4 comments:

VLW said...

Actually, it does. We recently lost the Java Joint. That was the last vestige of hardcore punk in the St. Cloud area. So, I think I can understand the pain, although it sounds like it was an even bigger loss in terms of historical value.

Kristopher said...

Dang it. It's a good thing punk music sucks anyway.

Just kidding.

Gino said...

VAS: i didnt even know they had a seen in MN. wonders never cease. if you were only ten yrs older, you'da loved it here when 'here' was 'now'.

KRIS: i understand. somethings were just too real for others to get it.

Jade said...

Hey - I thought of you last weekend, we went to the casino at the beach and the venue there always has a band playing on the weekends... usually a cover band that plays Southern rock/country. They threw a few "surprises" in, one of which they introduced this way:
"This next song is kind of punk... because of that people like to call us 'punkry'"

It was a Green Day Song.

I laughed.