Teenagers Who Book Punk Shows At Chain Restaurants Are Heroes
Outside of a few lucky cities, America has spent the past few decades transforming into an undifferentiated landscape of strip malls and identical chain establishments. That’s not great! But fun and ridiculous things can still happen, even if they’re happening at these places that sometimes seem like they exist specifically to ensure that fun and ridiculous things will not happen. Case in point: Punk shows in chain restaurants.
Now: It doesn’t ultimately matter if nobody is actually at these things — as in the time, earlier this year, when a metalcore band played at a Wendy’s — or if it’s in a restaurant jammed with fired-up teenagers. But if there are fired-up teenagers, that’s a real win.
As Lambgoat points out, this past weekend, the Long Beach punk band Wacko played a show at a Denny’s in Santa Ana, California. It looks like it was fun.
WHAT THE FUCK IS UP DENNYS pic.twitter.com/ycouJnBDnm
— $$$$$$$$ (@urfavhotgirl) December 15, 2019
Indeed, Wacko managed to play a full 20-minute set, ending it by yelling about “afterparty at the generator under a bridge, three miles that way!” Here’s video of their full set:
They weren’t kidding about the afterparty, either:
This show was the brainchild of a 17-year-old promoter who, according to Wacko, was held responsible when all those moshing kids did something like $1,000 worth of damages to chairs, tables, and chandeliers. But someone started a GoFundMe campaign to help him pay for everything he had to pay for, and that GoFundMe, which has already raised $1,115, is now locked. Good job, everyone. Go throw an afterparty at a generator under a bridge. (Also, you can find Wacko’s Bandcamp here.)
