anna talked me into keeping my own promise to myself to visit the punk rock museum. located about 4 miles from our hotel i purchased the ticket about an hour before it opened. i'm not keen on hailing cabs or using uber. indeed, i tried to set up an uber account the night before & for whatever reason i couldn't create an account. ah well. anna said just take a cab. taking cabs in vegas is pretty fucking easy if it is on the spendy side. but hell, when in vegas! & when will i be back in vegas? probably never! or not for a long while.
so i walked out of the hotel to where the taxis are waiting. hopped in. told them my destination & 10 minutes later i'm deposited at the front door. now, this area of vegas is off the strip. it's a little seedy. a tad gritty. even a smudge grimy. there is even an ol' skool strip club, painted pink, next door. just the kind of area ideal for the punk rock museum! the young taxi driver saw me try to open the museum door. it was locked. still had a half hour before it opened. he rolled down the window. 'hey man! you want me to take you somewhere to wait?' he asked with concern. i guess he knew this area pretty well. i told him, no, i'm cool. i got tix for 1:00 pm. i'll be alright.
it started to rain. a hot desert rain. but i found shelter & waited for the museum to open.
the museum, at least for this old punk, was a treasure trove of artifacts, photos, instruments, fliers (usually handwritten & wheatpasted on all available telephone poles in town to advertise punk shows), & bits of history of the punk movement. i immediately started texting pics to my brother from another mother in poetry & punk, jonathan hayes. founded in 2023 by fat mike [no joke, that's what he calls himself] of the band nofx, this museum remains a work in progress. indeed, when i was looking at the display of fanzines one of the workers, long-time promoter & fanzine producer, brett, told me that they are acquiring more stuff by the day & that half of it was in storage. still, this museum is not a scholastic endeavor of the history of punk rock. most of the things contained within are primarily focused on west coast punk rock. but still, there's a goodly section of NYC punk, represented by the ramones, canadian punk as well as japanese & brazilian punk rock.
the museum has two floors. the first is fixated mostly on my generation's HC punk. there is also the obligatory bar. the second floor consists of artifacts of more recent punk bands like all women band bad cop/bad cop & more pop/punk like blink 182. on the second floor too is a tattoo shop where you can get some ink, & a room in which you can jam on donated, or on loan, instruments by your fave punk rocker. yes, you can ask to take down a guitar or bass & have a jam session.
even the amps are donated or on loan. usually, i'm pretty chill & respectful of museum artifacts but i did have to touch lorna doom's, of the germs, amp. i had such a crush on her when i was a screaming kid punk. i still love the germs! & i wonder why i never got a germs g.i. tattoo!
speaking of the germs you are greeted by darby crash when you enter the museum proper.
plus there is video of the germs playing in a deleted scene in the battle of the bands portion of cheech & chong's 1978 movie up in smoke. rare! i've never seen it before.
there was so much cool shit. when i was talking about the old HC scene in Sac with brett he didn't know about clear & distinct ideas, the promoter for punk bands in the 1980s headed by stu katz, but whoa! a little Sac was in evidence!
i was at that show! even my beloved tales of terror [one of the greatest bands produced by my beloved hometown] found itself on the walls of the punk musuem
can the punk museum adequately tell the tale of punk rock with a history of around 60 years? maybe, if it hired trained curators & academics. but this is fucking punk rock! DIY. the staff were cooler than fuck. i met some cool punks too, including a chap from the u.k., martin, who told me this was his second time at the museum. the staff were awesome. brett, for example, & morat who fronts the band soldiers of destruction, who both indulged my excited enthusiasm with grace & humor.
i've said before & i'll say it once again, punk changed my life utterly & completely. i shit you not. & the evidence of this museum made this old punk rocker happier than a kid in a mosh pit with his favorite band.
