What a weekend!
On Friday night, Salad Days (2014) premiered at AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland. Through an odd but great set of circumstances, my wife and I helped out at the merchandise table for about 6 hours during the 2 screenings. It was a blast. The film is a brisk and wildly informative trip through the best era of D.C. hardcore. Starting with a bit of the Bad Brains, Scott Crawford and Jim Saah waste no time in getting to the good stuff (Minor Threat, the early punk years in D.C., and more). The rise of Dischord is chronicled along with a look at the biggest bands of the era, including a few acts that should have been even bigger (Marginal Man, Beefeater). Salad Days (2014) works best as a crash course in the vital music of this area. Anyone with even a passing interest in the era, the D.C. scene, or punk rock, should make the effort to see this film.
I normally don't post pics of myself on this blog but I am going to make an exception this time given the circumstances.
In which I try to sell a t-shirt to Ian MacKaye of Fugazi...
Some 25 years ago I knew Archie as a very cool customer at the Record Co-Op. That was before he joined Black Tambourine and Velocity Girl. Archie did the sound on Salad Days and it sounds great -- that's a lot of music and interview segments to mix! That's Danny Ingram of Dot Dash, Youth Brigade, and Swervedriver and Bert Queiroz from The Untouchables and Youth Brigade...
Salad Days director Scott Crawford, me, and John Stabb of Government Issue...
Kenny Inouye of legendary Marginal Man (and Skatley Crue, a band that featured my buddy Rich from The Now)...
On Saturday night, we hit the Black Cat. We missed Moss Icon but we caught most of surprise guest Swiz with Dag Nasty vocalist Shawn Brown...
Next up were Dischord legends Soul Side playing their 3rd gig in 25 years. You'd never have guessed it. The band was tight and on form. Just a blistering, inspiring, aware set from these cats!
On Sunday we went back to the Black Cat to see Soul Side again as well as Dot Dash who were trotting out new cuts from their upcoming Mitch Easter-produced record. And they were playing what was by most counts their 50th gig! The new songs sounded amazing -- loud and catchy and full of hooks. The band only played a handful of old cuts (see the setlist) and they even threw in a cover of a track from a Dischord band (The Snakes)...
Next up was Office of Future Plans with J. Robbins from Jawbox...
And then it was another wonderful set from Soul Side. I'm sorry now that I didn't get a pic or video of Salad Days director Scott Crawford sitting in with the band for one song. He can now add "musician" to his CV next to "director"...
And finally here's a pic of me and my buddy Mike with legendary Scream bassist Skeeter Enoch Thompson...
