And no, I do not mean the value breakfast entree. In the summer of , a short, second video suddenly appeared on every popular internet platform. It soon transcended the scene to reach mainstream meme pages on instagram and the front page of reddit, solidifying itself as a quotable internet joke for punks and non-punks alike.
The band bobs and bounces to the bassline, edging towards a breakdown. The video originated from a set by the Houston hardcore band Live Without. Everyone knew this would never be allowed to happen again. Flash forward six years later: The concert was put on by Bryson Del Valle and his skate punk apparel company, Bastards Club , with promoting support from Natalie Cardos, a year-old punk from Newport Beach.
I met with Nat to get her perspective on the hectic night. We met at Piecemakers , where she gets products like thread and needles to sew patches on her jackets and crust pants. We quickly related to each other through stories of the crazy antics caught at punk shows. With the Orange County punk scene gravitating more to the cities, as opposed to the suburbs where they began, there has been a decline in backyard and park shows; correlating with the increasing difficulty in booking them and keeping them discreet.
Nat got into punk mainly through the backyard scene. But, like many OC kids she had an idea of the subculture from her uncle, who was an OC punk back in the day. Nat, like many punks, initially got into it through pop punk as a teenager. However, she always enjoyed a variety of music genres; from K-Pop to classic rock like Blue Oyster Cult, to trap, and even French music. Nat recalls the lineup full of OC bands including Raukous and The Sanitys , as well as the lack of a bathroom at the Beatnik.
Unfortunately for them, the closest bathroom was inside the neighboring Church of Scientology. Friends in the scene inadvertently got her a job at a record store, where she started learning about the legacy punk bands. The punk scene in Orange County is basically historic at this pointβin Southern California, period. She had hung around Wacko on a few occasions, mainly their bassist Luke. By the time they met, she had already been a fan of the band for 2 years.
