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WHY BE SOMETHING THAT YOU'RE NOT

Tony Rettman's history of the early 80s Detroit hardcore scene, Why Be Something That You're Not, comes out today and should be occupying yours and your friends' back-part-of-toilet for the next few months. Here's an excerpt about Negative Approach et al's attempted penetration of the Detroit club scene.

BOOKIES…NUNZIO'S…MENJO'S TOO…

As the fall of '81 rolled on Detroit clubs such as Bookie's and Nunzio's had to acknowledge the pimply faced miscreants of the Detroit hardcore scene as a possible major force on the music scene. Sporadic shows with bills consisting of Necros, Negative Approach, Youth Patrol, and the Usual Suspects happened at these clubs, much to both the club owners' and the New Wave guards' chagrin.

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John Brannon: Those guys on the rock club circuit hated us. Those New Wave bands were so threatened by us and I loved it. All our songs were about thirty seconds long and the set would only last ten minutes. The dudes from the more established rock bands in the area were offended we had the nerve to go on stage and do that. We were kids playing music for kids and were going to do it the way we wanted to do it. At the time, there were only a handful of kids who got it, but we knew it had to be done.

Ron Sakowski: These guys that had been playing the rock club circuit for years didn't understand why club owners were letting these bands play. To them, the bands played bad, looked bad--it was the opposite of what they thought a band should do to get a gig. They didn't understand it.

Jon Katz: The one time we opened for Figures on a Beach, a bunch of our friends showed up, watched us and left. There was no one there to watch Figures on a Beach. After the show, they complained to the club owner saying our music scared everyone away. They didn't want to acknowledge no one was there to see them.

Tesco Vee: These guys that were in local bands like the Cult Heroes were much older than any of us--even me! Once the Meatmen, Necro, and Negative Approach started playing out and Touch and Go magazine starting getting a little recognition outside of the area, we started coming off with an attitude and making fun of these bands and they didn't dig that. Once we noticed we started getting under their skin we realized we had to stick the bamboo shoots in a little deeper on these guys. Barry and I had a lot of correspondence going on all over the country and people were writing us asking what was going on in the Midwest. No one from anywhere was writing any of these other bands. No one gave a shit about them.

After awhile, someone on the circuit started making anonymous phone calls to these establishments, threatening to rat them out for allowing underage patrons into their clubs. Ironically, this act didn't stall the Detroit hardcore scene at all, but kicked it into its most vibrant stage yet.

John Brannon: There was supposed to be this Necros/Bored Youth show at Nunzio's. Some anonymous person called the club beforehand and told the owner all the bands and their fans were underage, so he told us we couldn't do the gig. So there's a shitload of kids in the parking lot saying "What are we going to do?" My mom was out of town for the weekend, so I was like "Fuck it! Why don't we do the gig at my mom's house?" I had a P.A. down in the basement and my parents were gone for the weekend, so why not? My mom ended up coming home unexpectedly and she wasn't into seeing all these little skinhead motherfuckers running around her house. That was the night she chased me out of the house with a hammer and told me never to come back. That's when I moved down to the Cass Corridor and we started having shows at the Freezer Theatre.

TONY RETTMAN