They know, they will play to nazis, but they do it anyway? - Green Room (2016) Discussion

[–] tbchico7 9 years ago

Well the guys were pretty desperate for money at that point. Definitely not an ideal gig but I don't think a lot of bands in that position would care.

I'm not sure how many bands allow their political ideologies to affect where they play or how important that stuff is to them.

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[–] astevo 9 years ago

It was kind of weird. I can't imagine any left wing punk band playing in a right wing place. But...they never really said, they were a left wing band.

tbchico7 - In the punk world, politics are very important and few bands would do that kind of gig for the money. It could be potentially dangerous and even if nothing happened, the punk police would spend years of their lives slagging the band off on the internet! :)

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[–] tbchico7 9 years ago

Thanks for clearing that up :)

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[–] Rob-O-Cop 9 years ago

I think they made the point in the movie that the band were out of money completely because the first gig of the movie fell through and they only got a few dollars for it so they were screwed to continue. They took it for the quick cash and that it was an in the middle of nowhere gig that no one would know about playing to a punk audience. What harm could come of it, right?

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[–] astevo 9 years ago

If I remember right, Tad warned them that they would play to a right wing audience and it could be dodgy. He tells them to play their old stuff, I assume their old stuff was heavier and would suit the audience more as a lot of neo-nazis these days listen to thrash, death and black metal.

Believe me...the punk scene and the right wing music scene don't mix. It usually ends in violence to one degree or another.

Simple as this...imagine a group of anarchists or communists going into a neo-nazi pub (or visa-versa), what do you think the outcome would be?

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[–] disinter 9 years ago

There's no way in hell skins (especially the red laces) would allow that band to perform another song after opening with "nazi Punks". They would have gotten each other all worked up until the band would have to try and fight their way out of that shack.

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[–] astevo 9 years ago

Absolutely.

We've been discussing whether a punk band would play at a right wing skin gig...but not really thought about what would happen if they did actually go. They would probably get battered before they even hit the stage, unless they were a right wing punk band and the audience knew that.

From a recent white power/KKK rally (ignore the 'metalhead' in the link, the guy was a punk:

https://coedmagazine.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/metalheads-kkk-fight-video.jpg?quality=88&w=656&h=369

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[–] blahdyblahdyblah 8 years ago

So I had a little confusion of whether or not this was an actual outright skinhead venue or an all ages venue run by skinheads on the DL. Like, when Patrick Stewart came out to shut down the show, he talked to everyone like they were children. But there were a lot of under explained plot points I was struggling to keep up with so I didn't have time to really think it through. I wasn't sure if they were keeping their skinhead nature on the dl or not. Because to me, that would explain why nobody attacked them. Cuz these were normal punk kids, and the skinheads knew to be cool so as to not arouse any suspicion.

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[–] Moucherot 9 years ago

Thanks for sharing the insight.

I play in a rather punky band myself and have lots of friends who do too.
But from what you write it seems to be pretty similar in germany as in the US.

There sure would be problems if even non-political punk-bands would play in the presence of (nazi-)skins.

I was wondering about that particular point, because the rest of the movie shows, that the director loves the punk-scene and has knowledge of how people in that scene act, talk and so on.

All in all I really liked the movie.

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[–] astevo 9 years ago

I'm from the UK, been into punk for 28 years or so, lived in 4 countries and been part of the local scene wherever I have been...and I think the idea is weird all over. I just don't see it happening.

But...a small grumble really. It's a film, and not a bad one, and if it was realistic, there would be not much of a story to tell. :)

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[–] Rob-O-Cop 9 years ago

The right wing bit is in the lyrics. The music, hardcore punk sounds the same, so if you can't hear the lyrics (or don't care to listen) and the singer isn't preaching between songs it would be easy enough not to notice, so long as the overall sound was tight,
I've been at punk gigs and not known (or cared) about who the band was, just another sound. It would matter to me, if they made it obvious though.

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[–] blahdyblahdyblah 8 years ago

I suppose it varies from place to place, because in New England there seems to be way more overlap. We don't have a specific punk scene really, most people listen to lots of different genres, shows will consist of different genres, people listen to what is good over what is in line with their political affiliation. Unless there are a ton of nazi venues that are super secret, I don't see anything like that around here. And I used to travel all over new england for shows.

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[–] vicky_lc2001-1 8 years ago

I thought punk bands in England in the 70s were very very racist actually especially to new immigrants.

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[–] MrBelette 8 years ago

NO they were NOT. You get it all mixed up with oï bands . 70's punk bands were not racist, did you ever listen to the Clash for God's sake ? I can't let you say such a blatant *beep* lie ! You get it all wrong

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[–] vicky_lc2001-1 8 years ago

Sorry just basing it on a documentary on Rock music I watched on yt.

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[–] kuronox 9 years ago

What really bothered me was the fact that they are against social media presence because THAT "goes against their values" but playing at a notorious neo-nazi venue is acceptable?

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[–] WalterSoprano 9 years ago

Yes he did. After Tad told them Tiger responded saying "there are some at every show", so even though they may not like there views they've definitely performed around skins before.

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[–] Mosquitha 8 years ago

I also thought that was quite weird they would go on and play DK and especially that song in that kind of club. I could not understand if they did as a provocation, or if they were just naive and did not understand yet what kind of club that was. I would go more for the second though.

But anyway I thought the music in general in club, although it added to the atmosphere, was not really skinhead music, more death metal, I could make out Slayer, and Cannibal Corpse for example.

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[–] Laserseightoclockdayone 8 years ago

Wasn't Cannibal Corpse, was a band called 'Corpus Rottus'. But goddamn do they sound like a CC cover band.

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[–] I-theDamnedThing-I 8 years ago

It was made clear through dialog that they chose that song on purpose to *beep* with the skin heads.

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[–] Thought_Criminal_J62377 8 years ago

To me it's not about political affiliation, that wouldn't necessarily be obvious. But the band had to be suicidal to choose to perform "Nazi Punks *beep* Off". That seemed stupid and hard to believe.

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[–] davidwest44 8 years ago

I thought it was a good writing choice to have the band play the DK song knowing the audience, with minimal response.. It gave you the sense that this particular group of neo-nazis were not hardcore enough about their believes to turn violent or even kick them off the stage. The crowds response seemed to be 'that's not cool, but oh well, they're still tight so we'll enjoy it anyway'. This created a false sense of security for the viewer and for the band, so when the threats/violence escalated it was somewhat unexpected.

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[–] mobocracy 8 years ago

I think for 99% of "Nazi punks" the Nazi part is mostly a fashion statement and a way to show a rebellious attitude.

They may give lip service to some dumbed down version of Nazi ideology, white supremacy and other related political ideas but I think very few of them go past that or even take it too seriously.

As polarized as the news media makes America seem these days, I don't think Americans have nearly as much ideological identification as people have in Europe.

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[–] adamwarlock 8 years ago

They were out of money and needed to cross the country back to their home town of Arlington, Virginia. I'm not surprised they did it but to play an anti-Nazi song seemed to invite violence on them. I'm surprised the skinheads didn't rush the stage or the management cut them off and not pay. I guess they weren't worth fighting as the rest of the set was fine and the audience slammed to it. If the murder hadn't happened they would have gotten away with it.

Punk bands like this one who steal gas and probably break other rules aren't above taking a gig they hate for money. Punks aren't proud like hippies would be.

if man is 5
then the devil is 6
if the devil is 6
then God is 7
and if God is 7...

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[–] blahdyblahdyblah 8 years ago

If I remember correctly, the guy kinda underplayed their nazism. He described them as right wing.

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[–] adamwarlock 8 years ago

True but I'm sure they could see the signs once they arrived at the club.

if man is 5
then the devil is 6
if the devil is 6
then God is 7
and if God is 7...

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