Nine years after the first edition of "American Hardcore: A Tribal History" came out, and four years after the book was made into a documentary, author/ex-promoter Steven Blush is taking the second edition of the book out on the road, ostensibly to let the kids have their say. But as he is old enough to be a grandpa to a 2011 version of Harley Flanagan, the book tour is more like a traveling musical anthropology tour.
Tonight you can expect discussion of what it means to be straight edge. You can expect tales of street justice. You will hear about Positive Mental Attitude. The praises of The Bad Brains will be sung. Ian MacKaye will be discussed, and there most likely will be at least one story involving the Boston vs NYHC grudge match.
The book ends in 1986, right around the time Miami punk rock scene began to take off. Many hardcore bands of that era had either gone metal (Black Flag, DRI), alt rock (The Replacements, Husker Du) or disbanded, so while it is a decent jumping off point to describe that scene, one might ask Blush why he feels further generations of punk/hardcore/postpunk weren't worthy of his attention. Why indeed is he doing a second edition of his first book, rather than making a volume 2?
Regardless, if you've spent time in the cameo theater (circa 85-89), Cheers, Flynns or the Thrash Can - chances are you'd be interested in hearing Blush speak tonight at Sweat Records. It starts at 8 PM, so it almost counts as nightlife. And if you're not embarrassed to admit you used to run around in circles, bring the kids along. Maybe you can put them off the whole teenage rebellion bit in one shot.
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