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Music

Dallas' Punk Scene Is Gnarly, Diverse, and Takes No Shit

A guide to the bands holding it down in The Golden Triangle.

Modern Pain, photo by Gray Muncy

Dallas is a bit of a logistical nightmare in terms of coordinating a music scene. It isn’t like New York where the entirety of the city is separated by a handful of miles that are connected by the subway. It isn’t like Los Angeles where everything pertaining to the subculture worth a damn is limited to a handful of neighborhoods (everything from downtown LA to Hollywood). Dallas has three major population hubs that are separated by about 30 miles from each other. First, you have Dallas proper. Second, you have Ft. Worth which is 30 miles west of Dallas. Lastly, you have Denton which is 35 miles northwest of Dallas.

In Dallas, we refer to this as “The Golden Triangle” or the “DFW Metroplex.” They’re different towns but to outside eyes and ears, you’re from Dallas. That’s the point. My best friend, Hood, and I came from a Podunk town called Mansfield about 30 miles south of Dallas. All the shows we went to were in Dallas, all of our hangouts were in Dallas. It didn’t matter what suburb you actually came from, if you belonged, you were from Dallas.

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That’s the story of Dallas hardcore punk when I came up. We had to prove ourselves to everyone: the booking agents who passed us over for every tour, the other Texas scenes who thought Dallas was a laughingstock, and to the old heads in our scene who thought we didn’t know shit. My generation had a point to prove. Any time a new generation of kids inherits a scene, it becomes theirs. You have to look at everything as a new start. The three cities in DFW really only united a few years ago. When I came up, there was an intense segregation of the scenes. Today, the three work in synergy amongst each other. 1919 Hemphill, a DIY venue, is the capital of the Ft. Worth hardcore punk scene. Denton is a place where bands from all three locales go to play at the legendary Rubber Gloves or at house shows, party, black out, and pick a fight with normos. Dallas is still the big stage. The official venues and the bigger tours go through there; most of the time, they’re either at Club Dada or Three Links.

Today’s Dallas scene has a little bit of everything. Below is a list featuring 12 of Dallas’ finest hardcore/punk bands; check them out and, more importantly, learn from them.

Power Trip

To describe Dallas’ Power Trip’s rise to prominence, let me quote General William Westmoreland: “If you grab the enemy by the balls, the hearts and minds will follow.” Power Trip plays crossover hardcore in the vein of Leeway and Cro-Mags (and they do it well). However, the band’s national notoriety grew because of their insatiable party ethic and violent shows. A Power Trip show in Dallas can only be described as animalistic. I have a concussion that will vouch for that claim.

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Modern Pain

Residing in the heart of Dallas is the heir to No Justice’s throne, Modern Pain. The band is a throwback to the first wave of the USHC motif of not giving a fuck live. Guitarist Jay Chary is at odds with the world during a set. He throws his guitar just about anywhere (seriously, listen to the band recorded and time the guitar lulls, fair warning). Vocalist Noah Boyce launches himself into the crowd any free chance he gets while bass player Logan Holmes is just unpredictable, period. Modern Pain is one of the most exciting live bands in hardcore right now.

Sin Motivo

Show me someone who doesn’t like Los Crudos and I’ll show you someone who is false. Sin Motivo, fronted by Ramon Garcia, is DFW’s answer to Los Crudos. Garcia’s vocals are aided by the work of Ft. Worth punks Daniel Davis and Jeramy Allen, Denton’s Shea Michael Brooks, and Dallas’ Jared Lawson. Sin Motivo is the offspring of the three locales working together.

Tolar

Dallas has a strong crust punk tradition. So strong that as far as the world is concerned, Dallas is one of the premier crust punk destinations in the USA. This is thanks in large part to the crew of people who lived in Arlington’s Unit House. The group produced bands like Unit 21 (who became Wild / Tribe, now defunct) and Tolar. Tolar is metallic influenced hardcore ala Finland and Sweden. Any crust punk tour that comes through DFW is hopeful at the prospect to play with Tolar.

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Vulgar Display

Dallas’ Vulgar Display, whose name is an obvious homage to Dallas legends Pantera, plays a brand of metallic hardcore akin to older Hatebreed and Crowbar. The band has made a reputation for themselves that most bands of their genre bands would be envious of: violent shows, flanked by a squad, and having a second-to-none personality in their vocalist. Fronted by the larger-than-life and boisterous Brian Storms, Vulgar Display is a pipebomb on any bill.

Stymie

Denton’s Stymie has been around a minute while playing great pop punk. Imagine Screeching Weasel but with people you’d want to hang out with afterward: guitarist / vocalist Andy Messer is a walking microcosm of the Denton party scene with a beer koozie always on deck, drummer Whitney Wood is as rad as Stymie’s music, guitarist Dallas Shaheen looks like the lost member of the Descendents, and bass player Riley Cordova is an actual sweetheart. Pop punk is a precise genre. To this point, Stymie is on the mark.

Sick Symptom

Early 2000s USHC is in style with modern hardcore kids. A lot of the country doesn’t know it yet, but they will soon. Ahead of the curve is Dallas’ Sick Symptom who sounds like Grave Mistake Records’ roster and half the bands you’d have seen at Chaos In Tejas. The band features half of Modern Pain (Noah Boyce & Jay Chary), a member of Pulled Under (Ryan Hughes), and PA’s Justin Ogden (of Let Down).

Pulled Under

90s hardcore was famous for being straight-edge, vegan, and metallic (Earth Crisis, anyone?). For a lot of people who stopped there, they missed out on Disembodied, Morning Again, and Buried Alive. Dallas’ Pulled Under is a group of kids who took a time machine back to 1995 to find their identity and to remind audiences what the 90s were all about. The band’s riffs, message, and look are a living, breathing testament to the 90s.

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Video

Denton’s Video is a punk band whose claim to fame is vocalist Daniel Fried’s rampant antagonism of audiences. At Chaos In Tejas 2012, he told the largely crust punk audience they will hate Video because their name doesn’t start with Dis-. He once told a crowd in Chicago that the city was passed its prime and that Texas was doing them a favor by getting their bands to play the show. He usually refers to the crowd as “pedestrians.” Video is the ultimate pro wrestling heel band.

Radioactivity

When The Marked Men went on hiatus (or whatever you call it when a band only plays a handful of times per year), it was a tragedy for all. However, when one door closes, another opens. The loss of The Marked Men gave us Denton’s Radioactivity. Formed by Marked Men members Jeff Burke and Mark Ryan, along with Denton drum machine Greg Rutherford, Radioactivity is the same brand of Ramones-influenced punk that The Marked Men was so beloved for. It almost goes without saying (except for right now) that Radioactivity is one of the best punk bands in the game right now.

Night Crimes

Denton’s Night Crimes are the Metroplex’s best kept secret. If you find yourself at a house show in Denton, you will likely get to catch a Night Crimes set and watch them kill it. The band plays hardcore the way it ought to be played. Fast, loud, and hard a la Tear It Up, Shark Attack, and Violent Minds. Night Crimes’ best asset? Experience. Members Corey Duran, Jeramy Allen, and Dallas Shaheen have each put in a decade or so into the hardcore scene. Night Crimes is a band by lifers for lifers.

Wiccans

Denton’s Wiccans made a name playing rock ‘n’ roll-influenced hardcore crossed with the b-side of Black Flag’s “My War.” The band has been around for a while, seeing its fair share of releases (two LPs with a third on the way) and members (including Parquet Courts’ Andrew Savage). The juxtaposition of Adam Cahoon’s coarse vocals behind the playfully aggressive music played by guitarists Payton Green and Shea Michael Brooks as well as the rhythm section of Harpal Assi (bass) and Greg Rutherford (drums) makes Wiccans one of the more unique and catchy bands in hardcore today.

James Khubiar is a Texas-based writer and runs the blog Justified Arrogance. Follow him on Twitter - @JamesKSays