Hippies vs. Punks: The SST Tour 1985

This is a first-time Hippies vs. Punks post for Monday. I noticed that video of the 1985 SST Tour has appeared on YouTube.

My flying-the-flannel bonafides boil down to a devotion in the 1980s to the Minutemen. I saw them perform during the SST Tour. If you want to see what the Minutemen looked like in their prime, here it is.

I was at this show, featured in the video above, at The Stone on Broadway. My cousin and I along with a high-school friend who had come up from UC Santa Cruz drove over from Berkeley.

The YouTube video says the show was taped March 1, 1985. This means that it was a Friday night.

This is definitely the show I was at; I remember the young women in front of the stage that the camera catches during the Meat Puppets and Minutemen sets.

I remember we showed up right when SWA was finishing.

We caught Saccharine Trust, whose neo-Doors poetry didn't go over well with the crowd. The lead singer, Jack Brewer -- I remember well his red shirt, faded now on the old VHS tape -- was covered in spit by the time the band was through with the set.

I remember seeing the Meat Puppets and enjoying them. I owned their albums and recognized all the songs. I even congratulated Chris Kirkwood  as he left the stage walking through the crowd.

He laughed right in my face.

I remember slam dancing to the Minutemen. I remember how strong D. Boon seemed. They were by far the best band that night.

I remember when Hüsker Dü came out they were loud. Bob Mould created a wall of sound with that Flying-V guitar of his.

I remember all the people stage diving. But I don't remember the big "Louie Louie" all-band send off. And so far I can't locate myself in the crowd.

****

Update: I believe I have found myself. The young man clapping in the white t-shirt at the lip of Greg Norton's part of the stage at 1:05:48 of the video; his mic stand is partially obscuring my face.

Update II: I had difficulty identifying myself because I can't imagine myself as I appear in the video: tall and slender and looking slightly mean. I am with my cousin who appears to be about five-inches shorter and we're draped over D. Boon's monitor all throughout the last Minutemen song, a cover of the Meat Puppets' "Lost." Curt Kirkwood makes an appearance. I also notice myself at the beginning of Hüsker's "Diane." Minute 54:46 to 54:48 in the video. What's up with all the white cotton t-shirts?

It has given me a lot of joy today to discover that I am part -- albeit in an atomized way as one of the throng in the pit -- of the official record of the SST Tour. It was a great show. Those bands changed my life, changed a lot of lives.