Punk Movie Night

The first UGZ Presents "Punk Movie Night" took place on September 15, 2001 at 924 Gilman in Berkeley, CA, four days after 9/11. This was years before I (Jay Unidos) was an official Gilman booker, and so for this show I had to work with Jake (who was an official Gilman booker at that time) to hold the date, and that was how we were able to book our two "Punk Movie Night" events at Gilman. UGZ booked and promoted the entire bill, and even paid for our own flyers. Jake was helpful in the sense that he liked what I was doing with my "Punk Movie Night" column at MaximumRocknRoll, and he could understand the concept of making that column come to life in the form of a live event every month or two or three. I don't know that we pulled that off exactly, but the first show had a huge turnout, thanks in large part to TRAGEDY driving down from Portland to headline the show. Martin Sorrondeguy from LIMPWRIST/LOS CRUDOS also drove up from Santa Ana to show his film "Beyond The Screams: A U.S. Latino Hardcore Punk Documentary", and there was even a Japanese jump on band.

The show is remembered for a lot of things, but one of the most sensational incidents to take place had to be the fire breathing drum circle performance that went up in flames - literally. At least the leader of the Troupe, Ben "The Crimson Baboon" De La Torre, did when a patron exited through the side door causing a draft to blow in, redirecting one of Ben's fireballs to change direction and reverse back down him and his very hairy face. It looked horrific, and it definitely sent a chill down my spine as I stood in the sound loft looking out at what had to be the worst case scenario for that kind of performance, and the show itself. Time stood still, and then someone grabbed Ben and pulled him down to the ground, extinguishing the flames so quickly that hardly anybody knew exactly what had taken place. Moments later I walked over to the Gilman office where Ben was seated, looking like someone had just bikini waxed his face. Of course everyone was uriging him to go to the emergency room, but he wasn't budging. As they say, the show must go on, and it did, barely even falling behind schedule.

Here are some videos from that night, but unfortunately or maybe fortunately there isn't any video online of the fire incident. What you do get are three of the bands that played our first "Punk Movie Night" at Gilman: TRAGEDY, FUNERAL, and the Japanese jump on band ENDZWECK. Remember when watching the TRAGEDY clip that this was four days after 9/11. Thanks to KILLTHATCAT for uploading these videos.