I am sooooo excited for this.
Probably the most insane thing I've ever witnessed was a Murder Junkies show in 1996. I would venture to say that, yes, this was the craziest thing.
The show was in Philly in Northern Liberties at some rec center. Now, "NoLibs" is Philly's Williamsburg. but in 1996, it was nothing but tumbleweeds and open air heroin dealing. The other band of note that played that night was Antiseen. And to make things even crazier, in between bands were pro wrestling matches.
The crowd was insane. It was a hodgepodge of every kind of punk creeps of the era -- rival skinhead gangs, gutter punks, hardcore mooks, etc. I went with two of my friends from college. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones there who had a middle school degree.
It was insanity right from the beginning. The first band that played was Snail Trail. They were infamous around Philly -- urban legend had it is that they stole some instruments and instead of hawking them they decided to form a band. Their music made Madball look like Revolver-era Beatles.
The ceiling of this place was maybe 12 feet high. That didn’t stop Snail Trail from firing Roman candles off the stage. These things were bouncing off the ceiling and literally into people’s flesh. Naturally, people started throwing water and garbage at them and starting fights. This was within the first 10 minutes of this thing.
1996 was the peak era of Extreme Championship Wrestling, which was a Philly-based hardcore wrestling league that was emerging on the national scene. All of the wrestlers at this show were pretty much coked up lunatics looking to get an ECW contract. It was just chaos – barbed wire, chairs, etc. At one point, I saw a wrestler literally pull a glass shard from his eyelid. Literally, about 5 feet in front of me, some wrestler intentionally raked barbed wire across his forehead while laughing maniacally.
The Murder Junkies didn’t even headline. They were in the middle of the show. When they played, a battle royale (every man for himself match) was taking place. The Murder Junkies took the stage, it immediately descended into violence. And I mean VIOLENCE.
Some rival skinheads started brawling. Then some gutters started fighting. And then EVERYONE started fighting. People were whipping bottles at each other’s faces. Someone apparently pulled out a knife. My buddy and I stood on the top bleacher of the stands and pinned ourselves against the wall so no one could jump us from behind. It was THAT bad.
Mind you, the fake fighting of pro wrestling is still going on. So there’s dudes in pink leotards running around as people are literally stomping someone into unconsciousness.
The Murder Junkies’ PA got knocked out as this unfolded. Dino (the pink haired naked drummer) got out from behind the drums and stood at the front of the stage. Since TBS is family friendly, I won’t go into details. But Dino did something with his drumsticks while Merle did something to Dino.
We decided to leave during this – it was really late and that neighborhood was beyond frightening and so was the neighborhood my college was in. We embarked for the stairwell and there was just a mess of people and horrible screams and some blood. No thanks! We went out through the fire escape.
It was seriously nuts. The 35-year-old sensible adult in me really wants nothing to do with a Murder Junkies show. But… yeah. How can I NOT go to this?
