I bet that everyone in the local punk rock scene was hyped to see The Stitches live for the first time in 10 years!
A lot of things have changed since then. I used to boycott the Autonomous Center (AZ), for several political and personal reasons, but when I returned to the city after my studies and several years of working as a music journalist, I found friends in the scene again and was welcomed as if I’d never been away. Two weeks ago, my friend and I even had our own reading show at the AZ.
One of the rules in AZ is that performers can’t take their shirts off. The prohibition sign on the wall backstage basically says that women are being judged when they go topless, so men shouldn’t go topless either. Respectfully… Is this real life or a dystopia run by our almighty Instagram overlords?
When sound and lights were turned off during the encore, I initially thought it was a power outage. But no, a sweaty punk rocker pulled his shirt up, that was the emergency. The show was over. There was no after-show party anyway, because one of the DJs has been banned from AZ (which is a whole different story for another time).
A few women, including me, took their shirts and/or bras off in solidarity, and a few men put on bras to cover their nipples. We wanted to show how ridiculous this policy is.
I will cherish this memory of feminist direct action at a punk rock show, but this is far from over. What the actual fuck happened to the local scene and our venues ?
Dear activists, artists, anarchists, friends… We’ve got to talk about this!
-MK-
PS: The concert itself was great. I hope to return to writing actual music reviews in the future, instead of having to discuss very basic shit like this. Fuck the nipple police!
MKAY 