BENEFIT SHOWS

Benefits were held in ultra-hip locales like Rutgers' Scott Hall, hosted by earnest young bleeding hearts, and featured performances by a bunch of bands that couldn't have cared less. Okay, not always: Frozen Concentrate played benefits because they believed in the cause; the Shock Mommies played them because they and their underage fan base couldn't get into the Court Tavern. That's a key point: benefits gave the underage an opportunity to experience the local scene that was otherwise unavailable to them. I saw my share of C.I.S.P.E.S. shows, and if you know the lyrics to P.E.D.'s "C.I.S.P.E.S. Woman," that's great, since I'm not repeating them here (P.E.D. played benefits to piss people off). While not all benefits were the product of campus activism, many were, and it gives one pause; they received far less scrutiny than such on-campus functions would today. I don't think we'll see a return to those times, but I've been wrong before.

Here's but a small sample of promotions. The Blood on the Saddle flyer is a typically hasty David Aaron Clark design. It looks like a copy of a copy, the lettering beyond amateurish and mercilessly truncated by the copy machine's over-generous no-print areas. But such great flourishes. The Braineater Bug Music "logo" at the top right references NB legend Bryan "Braineater" Bruden, and the emphasis on Annette Zilinskas' former role in the Bangles hearkens back to when the Bangles were still embraced by the punk set. John T. Quinn III's Chrome On Fire poster (top right) is perfect in its Court Tavern characterization. But given his current role at Disney, I'd say he went a little far with the mouse in the lower right.

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