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Ayla Elledge
Professor Campbell
UWRT 1101-059
06 November 2014
Punks not dead, at least not in Charlotte
I have been a punk since I was 15. Eleven whole years. This scene has
meant a lot to me. They have made me feel like family and I have shared some
of my best memories with good friends I found in this group. I have also had
very interesting or bad times since I started going to punk shows. Regardless of
my attachment to them, I was always very interested in learning about
counterculture groups that could be deemed deviant. Many people see the
punk scene as such so I decided to delve into objective observation of their
gatherings this past month. I observed the Charlotte punk scene on multiple
occasions, but made most of my observations at two specific settings. The first
event I observed was a punk show held at a house in the Plaza-Midwood area
of Charlotte. At this event, only local bands played. The second event I attended
and observed was a ska show at a local historic dive venue called The
Milestone. A semi-large ska band from the early 1980s named The Toasters
headlined and local acts opened up for them.
The first show I attended was on October 17th. Me and a couple of friends
carpooled to the show to save our dollars for beers instead of gas, a pretty
common practice. When we arrived, we parked on a side street a couple of
houses down from the house the show was being held at. I found out upon
walking up that the show was actually being held in the back yard instead of

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inside the house. There was a bonfire going and the house owner was in his
pajamas goofing around and jumping on a fallen tree branch to break it for fire
wood. I noticed at once how dark it was and how many people were already
there. Many of the members of this social group known as punks already
knew each other previously or so it seemed. The second show I attended was
on October 22nd. The environment of The Milestone was a little more inhibited
than the house show. Because it is a legitimate business, there were more
rules of conduct. At the house show, most people brought their own alcohol,
but at The Milestone this isnt allowed. I talked to the bar owner and found that
most of The Milestones revenue comes from alcohol sales. People showed up at
The Milestone much later than at the first show because shows here usually
start after 9PM. At both shows, people were very friendly with each other. Most
greetings consisted of close hugs and wide smiles. A few times, two people who
hadnt seen each other greeted each other in excited shouts, followed by very
tight hugs. No special spoken language is used by this group that I could find.
They are a very eclectic bunch of people despite many assumptions of
what punks look like. Their style of dress ranged from those wearing black
combat boots, paint-designed leather jackets, and tight ripped pants to a more
traditional jeans and a t-shirt. Many people wore jean vests that had a large
patches attached on the back, an assortment of smaller patches, and some had
metal spikes or studs on them. Though there was diversity, there was an
overwhelming presence of black clothing; Black hoodies, black jeans, black
bandanas, black band t-shirts. Many of the people there had at least one

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tattoo or piercing. A high number of people had their septum (spot inside the
nose to where the jewelry hangs down from the middle) pierced. A small
minority of this group had their hair styled or colored in unconventional ways.
The most common unconventional styles being a Mohawk or their hair that
was a flashy and bright color. Some members donned gauges in their ears.
Gauges are a hole in the earlobe, larger than the traditional ear piercing; the
hole has been stretched over time to accommodate larger jewelry or plugs.
When looking into a certain group, it can be difficult to find out about
certain aspects of their specific culture. The reason for this is that these
aspects may not be in plain view or you may have to look in certain enclaves to
find them. I chose to ask my friend if he would be an informant, so to speak,
about the local punk scene and answer any questions I had. He has been the
bass player in a local street punk (fast & hard punk rock that gained
popularity in the early and mid-nineties) band named All Rise for the last 4
years. He has also helped book larger punk bands to play at some venues such
as The Milestone. To preserve his identity, Ill call him Scott. He said he would
be happy to help me out.
One of the norms or rituals I noticed in the Charlotte punk scene is an
excessive amount of drinking before, during, and after the show. There was an
overwhelming presence of alcohol at the house show as soon as I walked up.
Many people either had cans of beer or mixed drinks in solo cups. It seems to
serve as a bonding ritual and helps group cohesiveness for punks to drink

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together. They can all get drunk and party together and just have fun as my
interviewee put it. Excitement centers on cheap beer such as PBR and
miscellaneous cheap whisky. Many people were sharing their alcohol with
those around them and not bothering to pour individual drinks. They would
instead take swigs off the shared bottle of liquor. When the bands started
playing was when it started to get fun. Some of the guys would run around in a
circle or dance. Unlike the mosh-pits youd see at heavier shows, these are
called circle-pits, where no one is trying to harm one another or slam into each
other. The multiple times someone did fall, everyone nearest to them dropped
everything to help the fallen person get up. The bands were very involved with
the crowd at both shows. This is a commonality because many of the band
members would be in the circle pit for the next band playing. I must note that
a special dance move called skanking is used at ska shows, but not at punk
shows.
Its interesting to understand how a group like this maintains contact
with each other, besides the common practice of using cell phones. Scott
confirmed my findings that most of the small venues that hold punk shows
have Facebook pages and send out invites to as many people as they can. It is
a very grassroots type of communication, where word-of-mouth is key in
getting people in this group congregated. Many of the local bands that have
upcoming shows will get someone to draw up a unique flyer for the event with
the date, time, venue, and bands playing shown. Members of the band will
then get copies of these flyers printed out and do something aptly named

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flyering. This includes leaving stacks of flyers around local niche businesses,
posting flyers on telephone poles, and attaching flyers to certain bulletin
boards where members of the group frequent (The Common Market, Lunchbox
Records, Manifest Records, Boris & Natashas). Another source of publication
that keeps local punks and other related counterculture groups informed is a
small local zine called Crowdsurfer. This magazine has interest stories, joke
editorials, and a full list of the confirmed live shows going on around Charlotte
for that month. It could be called a small version of Creative Loafing.
The Charlotte punk scene seems to be centered on mutual hanging out,
drinking, parties, and live shows. Many of the people I talked to had either
played in a local band at some point or at least played an instrument. The
punk bands currently playing in Charlotte seem to share a distaste for
authority and are very politically charged. Many times they express their
hatred or irritation with popular culture and those who ascribe to it. Ive
noticed that this group is very tight-knit with each other. They are friendly to
outsiders, but within the in-group, everyone knows everyone. I perceive it as
somewhat of an extended family. I believe that the purpose of this group is a
multitude of things, depending on who you ask. I posed the question why is
the punk scene important to you? to many people at both shows and got a
variety of answers. One girl in her late twenties said that this scene was like
family to her; that she found it when she was an outcast in high school and
they made her feel accepted. She went on to say that she had stayed in this
group ever since because of the sense of community. A male around age twenty

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one said hes part of the Charlotte punk scene because he likes the music and
that going to shows is a fun thing to do on weekends. My friend Scott recited
both of those answers when I prompted him about his reasons for being part of
this scene. He also included that he loved to play music and that this scene
gave him an outlet to play the kind of music he likes without judgment; also,
the free beer he got for playing The Milestone was nice.
Though the Charlotte punk scene is somewhat small and close-knit,
there was a time when being a punk was a very popular thing. Im speaking of
the birth of this movement. Punk rock was solidified in the late 1970s when
bands like The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, The Clash, and The Stooges became
popular. There were venues like CBGBs in New York that were known for
holding now infamous punk shows around that time. This period is where
many of the lingering stigmas about punk rock come from. There were many
crazy antics back then such as cutting oneself on stage and piercing your face
with safety pins. From what I read about the past antics of punk rock, the
Charlotte Punk scene seemed relatively tame. This could be something that
transformed over time, such as a shift in group roles expectations with everchanging context. Regardless, these punks know how to have fun and not get
in too much trouble. Its a group that can be perceived as childish or on the
underbelly of society, but I found them to be a charismatic and talented circle
of people.

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I didnt include anything about this in the bulk of my study, but a very
prominent man in the Charlotte Punk scene passed away in January of this
year. This study I wrote about is dedicated solely in his honor. The wonderful
Chris Peigler, who treated us all with care. He was in his forties and had been
in the punk scene almost from the beginning. He was in multiple bands, the
best known being My So-Called Band and The Rogue Nations. He organized and
promoted various shows around Charlotte and was and invaluable figure in the
local punk scene. For me personally, he was like a big brother. When my father
died, I came to the wake and paid his respects. He also turned a show he was
playing (that had been booked for months) into a benefit show for my family, to
help pay for the high costs of death. He was always a listening ear with friendly
support. Though he was sick for a long time, it never weakened his spirit or
hardened him. It was a tragic and early loss. He will be sorely missed by all of
us. RIP Chris Peigler, you were a freaking awesome bass player and front man.