3. No One Should Promote Violence At Punk Shows (Unless It's Directed At Themselves)
In Todd Phillips' (yes, the Hangover guy) documentary Hatred: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies, Allin's drummer states that Allin's performances - violent affairs where the singer would often inflict self harm, fight with the audience, and defecate on stage - were Allin's way of representing a world consumed by violence. Due to a punk performance being as much performance art as it is music, there is a certain amount of controlled violence to be expected. If You were to go to a GG Allin show, you would have to expect to get punched in the face at least once. Go to a F*cked Up show, and you should expect to find your head in Damian Abraham's armpit. But there are limits to this violence. The mosh pit is meant to be a safe, if not harmless, way to release aggression, and a performers behavior sets the tone for how far is too far. Most of my friends in bands have shared stories of when things got out of hand because they pushed the audience too far, and vice versa. so what happens when your band is selling knives at their show? Ice Age did just that on one of their American tours. In terms of setting the tone, this seems like a way to create bad situations all around. What makes this different though? For one, it seems like tough guy posturing, a way to be 'harder' than their contemporary. It's not transgressive in a way that's illuminating or at least understandable, and without the band's response on the matter, it just seems thuggish. And that's the second problem: the band has refused to bring up any sort of political or social context to their actions. This speaks to most of their behavior, and may be one of their biggest difficulties.