Another Saturday Night

The crowd mobbed the side of the building.  There were Punks, with spiky, colored hair, black leather jackets stained & painted, studs like chain mail giving them a maniacal, silvery gleam that made the scene shine.  There were skins, tattooed oi! boys, with close-cropped haircuts, in bomber jackets or Harringtons, bleached blue jeans, large, steel-toed Docs, and thick, sharp braces.  There were goth kids in black makeup smoking their cigarettes as they talked about how bored they were.  The older Punks were smiling and chuckling as they told jokes and jostled one another.  The younger kids were stoned on speed, or pot, or dope, or something in between, yelling at the family men & women that whimpered around the corner.  Across the street was a group of skaters ollying and doing kick flips and riding the curb, in a mischievous tumble.  Some of them wore caps with the rims flipped back and written on the bottom was DRI or MDC or DOA or SOA.  They donned their flannel shirts like bum flaps, tight, cut-off T-shirts, tight blue jeans, and Vans sneakers.

It was Saturday night.

The doors of the club opened.  Cigarettes were snuffed out as the line seeped through the opening and the bouncer took the cash and the kids told him to fuck off as he stamped their hands and told them not to stir up too much trouble inside.

The room was dark, except for the bright, colorful hair and the silver studs and spikes and chains that sparkled beneath the dimmed overhead lights.  Outside was a fenced-in area where Punks and skins put their hearts on the line and conversed like mad hatters, smoking cigarettes, and the older Punks sipped cans of PBR.

It was Saturday night.

The younger kids continued to shout at the passersby strolling past the fence.  A crowd of six kids walked past the fence, turned and flipped them off, spitting and shouting: Up the Punks.  Inside the fence everyone cheered, smoke coiling upward and cans of beer sloshing foam as Punks and skins rejoiced in laughter.

There was an electric, electrifying screeching sound that would have caused goosebumps on anyone else, but tonight it was for these kids, and tonight the crowd opened up and in the center kids were swinging and moving circularly as they skanked and slammed to the music, pogoing when the time was right, getting knocked over and lifted up and thrown back into the mayhem.  The singer was stalking the stage, waiting for his cue, and when it came, a volume of ambient noise arose from the screaming fans as the band commenced to play their first song, which only lasted 30 seconds.  Their second song only 31 seconds.  And before long, the next band went on, building up to the headliner.

It was just another Saturday night.