Damn, I’m super lucky that I got to see both of these bands in the 80s at separate shows. Both Whipping Boy & Social Distortion made an impact on me and the community at large! I want y’all to see this rare full set featuring both of them that took place at The New Varsity. None of us realized we were living in a historic time, but we were!
WHIPPING BOY
Growing up black in the 80’s hardcore scene was a challenge on many levels, but it’s an experience that helped shape how I see the world today. When I would see another black punk in a band, I always hoped I would dig the music they were creating – and most of the time I did. One band from Northern California that had an intense black male as the front person was WHIPPING BOY. I got to catch them when they played SoCal with the Faction and they totally killed it! When I got enough courage to say good show to the vocalist, he gave me a dry thank you. What I actually wanted to say was, damn Eugene, your shorts are really short – but I thought he might have punched me in the grill. What I loved about WHIPPING BOY is that they made the music they wanted to make and did not give a fuck about following trends, which in reality is as punk as fuck.
CVLT Nation
Social Distortion and Whipping Boy @ The New Varsity
Social Distortion
It has fun being young and even more fun being a young punk in ’82; we could go to any ghetto and fit right in! It should be understood that back in the day in Los Angeles, African Americans were cool with punks because we both got our heads kicked in by the same downpresssor: the LAPD! In the true spirit of DIY, back then promoters booked shows wherever they could, and lots of times that meant gigs were in the straight hood of South Central. Deeper than that, I remember the first show I went to was at a black lodge/biker bar, where Sin 34, Caustic Cause, Channel 3 and Social Distortion all played, the latter being the subject of this post. This OC band had that “we are the shit” factor about them, I guess nowadays you would call it swagger. Just like Rock n Roll, Punk can trace some of it’s musical roots to the blues, but with the Cali bands you also get the surf beat. On their debut album, Mommy’s Little Monster, Social Distortion showed the world they could write rad songs that were dark and gritty, but dipped in Americana/pop. Mike Ness was great at writing stories with his lyrics; if you listen to this album closely, it’s almost a time capsule of what weirdos faced back then. This band knew how to use melody as a weapon to make sure that their songs would stick in your head.
