In downtown Gainesville, where energetic nightclubs and lavish restaurants meet, lies a passion for punk rock not only as a genre, but as a way of life.
Respite Events hosted a concert Wednesday at How Bazar, located at 60 SW 2nd St., aiming to showcase three punk rock bands and a performance from drag artists, “The Boheme Coven.”
Lovers of punk music trickled in slowly, adorned with dark eye makeup and bold clothing. By 8 p.m., the venue was filled with enthusiastic fans, Respite employees and musicians.
Even before the performers took the stage at 8 p.m., there was never a quiet moment. Chatter from nearly 100 eager fans accompanied a low drumming sound from various musicians booming through the speakers. Hues of purple and blue light reflected onto the performers’ shining faces.
Controlling the groups of fans walking through the front door were three Respite employees, one of those being Alex Roberts. After attending punk shows at a venue by the name The Roadhouse for about a year, Roberts found himself drawn into the punk scene. By his third month, he was offered a job of managing the entry points at local punk and metal shows. With many years of love and experience for this genre of music, Roberts said many Gainesville residents are uneducated in the deep-rooted history of the city’s punk scene.
“Most people just think of Tom Petty when it comes to [punk],” Roberts said. “It’s not as homogeneous as it seems here in Gainesville.”
Roberts cited the foundational punk band Roach Motel, which was formed in Gainesville. While punk may have a smaller mainstream presence compared to other genres of music, according to Roberts, punk has become more accessible to the public through the advertisements of events via social media.
The night opened with local death-metal band, “Fake Fags.” Despite the already noisy area, the sudden reverb from the bassist and the screams of the vocalist made the pre-show ambience sound like silence. The crowd was filled with chaos while the musicians raged on, with some beginning to mosh directly in front of the band.
One mosher, Rhaenys Balter, a 22-year-old Gainesville resident, felt a connection to the local queer band as she made her way through the crowd and danced with her friends.
“[Moshing] is very exhilarating. I’m kind of taking it all in, and it’s a nice communal space,” Balter said. “I get to talk to a lot of people that I don’t see all the time.”
For Balter, music is an obsession. She has been in the hardcore scene, a subgenre of punk rock, for most of her life and said she met many of her close friends through her connection to the Gainesville punk community. Local shows like these, Balter said, support punk music’s primary cause of anti-authority and anti-conformity.
Following “Fake Fags” was a drag performance led by “The Boheme Coven,” an organization of drag queens. Three artists from the local group entertained the crowd wearing mostly black, skin-tight corsets and elaborate spiked eyeliner. As the drag artists danced to punk music and passionately lip-synced the lyrics to songs like “Class Oppression” by The Chisel, the audiences’ eyes intently followed each move.
The second to last set was performed by “Academy Order,” a band led by vocalist Matthew Green, synth-player and vocalist Norelle Green, guitarist Henry Hall and drummer Chris May. Throughout the show, the band members danced freely to their songs’ rhythms while the crowd cheered loudly in between lyrics.
Thirty-three-year-old Matthew Green said he came up with his band’s name from an anti-authoritarian concept that further pushed the narrative of what punk truly is.
“An academy order is a coastal European governmental term when an overarching conglomerate decides that a mere school is not good enough, and they do a government order to sort of seize it for higher education,” Matthew said.
An academy order once demanded excellence, Matthew said, and to stand up for what you believe in takes courage. The band has a philosophy of demanding what they believe they deserve, which is reflected in the themes of their music.
Matthew’s wife, 30-year-old Norelle Green, said she believes she was made to perform. On stage, Norelle feels entirely in her element, and said the sensation cannot be compared to anything else.
“You’re sharing your music,” Norelle said. “You’re bearing your soul in front of a room full of people. When people are singing along... that’s like a huge deal because it means that they got something out of it. When we perform, it’s not just a performance – It’s an act of worship.”
Autumn Johnstone is a staff writer at The Independent Florida Alligator.
