SIDE STAGE WITH ALLY QUEEN

I was super psyched to cover this 80’s flashback to the D.C. Hardcore Punk days. Last year RQ and I got to interview the man himself, Henry Rollins. The punk scene in D.C. was a big part of RQ’s childhood and musical growth and influence and will be forever relevant in music history. So when I discovered that there was a documentary being made called Salad Days and a 2 night show at The Black Cat, I knew this had to be covered.

Our old mate John Stabb of Government Issue put me in touch with Salad Days director Scott Crawford and through the powers of Facebook, I realize that Scott went to school with the drummer of my first band, Inner Fear and my bass player in I.F. was also friends with local legends Fugazi.  It’s a small world after all.

My girl JoAnna was pissing her knickers to see Dag Nasty and my buddy Aaron (RQ played with him in Sorry About Your Daughter) also an old friend of Stabb’s covered photog duty for me. The 2 night SOLD OUT extravaganza included Kingface, Dag Nasty, Black Market, Government Issue, Youth Brigade and Scream (Dave Grohl’s old band). Actually Skeeter from Scream had a band called Soylent Green and I used to play shows with them back in the Inner Fear days. Also Dag Nasty’s Shawn Brown went to grade school with my girl Christine, her hubby Billy used to work at the old and new 9:30 Club and Sean was in their wedding! It’s like one big circle with lots of branches.

H.R. from Bad Brains and Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi and co-founder of Dischord Records) graced us with their presence. Everyone is obviously a lot older now and a little more squishy around the love handles, but hey, aren’t we all? Doesn’t mean we can’t still bring it!

SALAD DAYS Director/writer SCOTT CRAWFORD is a music journalist, musician and graphic designer. As a teenager in the DC suburbs, he started a fanzine called Metrozine that documented much of what was happening in the DC hardcore punk scene in the 1980s. In 1985, Metrozine (and WGNS) released a 7" compilation called "Alive & Kicking" that featured unreleased tracks by DC area bands Gray Matter, United Mutation, Marginal Man, Beefeater, Cereal Killer and Mission Impossible (featuring a 16 year old Dave Grohl). He was quoted in both Dance of Days and Banned in DC—the two most definitive books on the early DC punk scene. In 2001, he launched Harp magazine and served as its Editor-in-Chief for over 7 years. Crawford also launched the online music portal Blurt (blurt-online.com) in 2009. Local musician appearing in the film include, Ian MacKaye, John Stabb, Brian Baker, Bobby Sullivan, Alec MacKaye, Joe Lally.

“Much has been written about the pre-Nirvana period of American punk rock, but there's never been an examination of DC's immeasurable contribution. We've spent the last year interviewing dozens of
the participants who helped create the local music scene in the 1980s— musicians, photographers, DJs, activists, and writers—to tell the story of one of the most inspiring (and misunderstood) decades in independent music. We've also sorted through hundreds of photos, live videos, flyers and zines for inclusion in the film.” – Scott Crawford.

“Back in the 80's there were some of the harder than hardcores (aka fascist assholes!) in Boston who actually used to slap a beer out of a person's hand at gigs. That never happened in the WDC Punk scene. At Salad Day there were no Beer bullies, but there were definitely some Beer bellies-ha! Mine, on the other hand, is a fruity girly rum drink belly. Beer, piss-shaww!" – John Stabb.

All that’s left to say is, young’uns do your homework, Google some shit and get educated!

You can contact Ally Queen at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it