Saturday, September 19, 2009

Scenes from Piazzale Roma - "Punks on the Bridge"

Hanging out at Piazzale Roma one morning, I noticed this group crossing over the new bridge.
Of course I hesitate to use the word "Punks" to describe this group.

When I was in High School (yeah, back when dinosaurs roamed the campus) punks looked a certain way, Heavy Metal was an entirely separate scene (in fact they often fought), and grunge...well that hadn't even been invented yet.

Nowadays I understand that the word "punk" has gone from a single defining term, to a suffix or prefix for unnumerable splinter-groups. There's pop-punk, post-punk, skate-punk, surf punk, christian-punk, hardcore-punk, ska-punk, punk-jazz, cow-punk, punk-blues.

It would appear that one can no longer just be punk!

Back in my day (and yes, I considered myself a "Punk"), it was Black Flag, Dead Kennedy's, the Circle Jerks, and a handful of other bands who were on the scene. Listenning to the Sex Pistols was the punk equivalent of getting back to the oldies.

There were no Neo-Nazi anarchists, animal rights activists, third-party political organizers or militant lacto-ovo Vegans looking to co-opt the music for their own agendas. It was just "Punk" - a shortening of the original name "Punk Rock".

But I digress.

I wonder if there's "gondola punk" out there somewhere. I'd listen to THAT!

1 comment:

Megan Sliger from Boston Gondolas said...

Haha! You know? I distinctly remember seeing these people on the bridge to P. Roma, that morning. I got all excited and happy that they were there, punkin' up the town!

Item two:

Stay tuned for Gondola-Accordion Punk! It must be done.