Agent Orange and Old Man Winter

So Old Man Winter decided to drop a big frosty dump on Denver the day before we were supposed to drive over the mountain passes to play a show in Carbondale Colorado with surf/punk legends Agent Orange. Normally a crusty thrash band like CLUSTERFUX probably wouldn’t get a change to play with a band like that or even really fit on a bill like that, but my good friend Joe McCumbee set up the show and invited us over. Thanks Joe.

Anyway, the official snow depth at my house right before we left was 18 fucking inches of frozen water particles. That’s a foot and a half of snow my friends! A foot and a half! We had been himming and hawing on whether to take the van with all of our gear or opt to drive my wife’s car with 4-wheel drive and borrow amps and drums when we got there. After much deliberation and watching all the traffic cameras on I-70 we opted to go punk rock style and take the Bonaventure for this icy adventure. As it is right now we are forging our way through the slush and snow and moving along at about 45 mph.

I’m glad we decided to go all out and make this trip. Agent Orange is playing in the town where I grew up at the bar my Dad used to own. That would make sense maybe if Carbondale wasn’t an old coal mining town on the western slope of Colorado that when I moved away only had a population of about 2-3 thousand people. But ya see, Carbondale is nestled in the Roaring Fork Valley snuggled in between Aspen and Glenwood Springs on Killer 82 (that’s the name of the highway since so many people have died on it). The Valley (as we refer to the area as) has always been a special place in many ways, one of those ways being punk rock.

How did punk find it’s way to the area? Who knows, some say it was the Miller brothers from Glenwood who were California transplants. Joe thinks it had something to do with Dan Schneider discovering it, but for me it was Brian Kimbrell and Dave Wright in Carbondale. Dave used to ride his skateboard in an army jacket with combat boots on and a gas mask listening to his walk-man jamming to Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedy’s and the Sex Pistols.

Punk rock blossomed in the area and a real scene was born. In Glenwood EOS and Legion of Faith were the hardcore Punk bands that influenced many of us and inspired us to form our own band FIA. Although we dreamed of someday playing with EOS we rebelled against them as they adopted a more 7-Seconds type sounds we tried to mix our influences of Filth, Destroy and Aus-Rotten. We recorded a couple of tapes and traded with a few of the afore mentioned bands. We wore spikes and leather, charged our hair and went to war against the “All punks” as we called them, they listened to All and we thought that was lame.

There was a time where you could go to the pizza place in Carbondale on a Friday night and see 20-30 hardcore punk rockers hanging out drinking, skateboarding, fighting and cranking the music of the Exploited, Filth, the Subhumans and Nausea. To someone from out of the area this sight was too much to behold and they snapped pictures like tourists in London’s Kings Row.

Carbondale wasn’t ready for a punk scene but that’s where we lived and that’s what we were about whether they were ready or not. With our “fuck it all” attitude we ruled the streets and hills. At least we thought so anyway.

As the years went on most of us moved away, but a scene always thrived there with Joe McCumbee often at that helm playing in bands and booking shows. Now 15 years later we are pushing our ’88 Chevy van through the snow to play with Agent Orange in Carbondale. When I was an 18 year old punk rocker raising hell on the empty streets of Carbondale I would have never dreamed that Social Distortion would ever play in Aspen or that Agent Orange would play in our town, Carbondale. It’s the power of music, the power of punk rock! UP THE PUNX!!!