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Rolling Stone, 18 Jul/01 Aug 1985

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This article, which appeared in the 1985 midsummer double issue, belatedly recognizes punk's "second wave" and focuses principally on SST bands.
BY MICHAEL GOLDBERG
e are in a warehouse turned punk-rock dance hall in the shadowy industrial section of Las Vegas, Nevada, across the highway from the
gaudy, neon-lit strip. Here, away from the MGM Grand and Circus-Circus, far from the middle-aged gamblers and the $4.99 buffets, most of Las Vegas' punk-rock fans — all 400 of them — have assembled to see Arizona's highly touted Meat Puppets, a newer outfit called Tom Troccoli's Dog, and Black Flag, perhaps the most infamous punk band since the Sex Pistols.
      There are teenage girls in mohawks. There is a boy who has greased and twisted his long hair so fifteen spikes rise at odd angles from his head. There are guys trying to be Sid Vicious, in their ripped T-shirts, tight black jeans and black-leather jackets, handcuffs dangling from their belts. Girls flaunt the Bride of Frankenstein look. Someone is wearing an Iggy Pop T-shirt. To wit, nearly everyone here looks as if he or she just stepped out of a punk documentary, circa 1977.
      Only something is wrong. It's not punk. Onstage, Tom Troccoli's Dog is in the middle of a psychedelic jam. The drummer has dreadlocks. The guitarist, sporting long, curly brown hair and a Grateful Dead T-shirt, coaxes feedback from his amp. The punks watch, bemused. Some complain about "the hippie music." A few try to slam-dance to the languid rhythms. Others sit on the floor, staring at the stage as San Francisco hippies used to do at the Fillmore Auditorium about twenty years ago.
      What's going on here? What happened to Loud Fast Rules? Two-chord punk rock? Beat on the brat with a baseball bat?
      Primal punk is passé. The best of the American punk rockers have moved on. They have learned how to play their instruments. They have discovered melody, guitar solos and lyrics that are more than shouted political slogans. Some of them have even discovered the Grateful Dead.
      The reinvention of punk rock began a few years ago when Black Flag, at the time a fairly typical punk band, underwent a metamorphosis. Singer Henry Rollins, who used to shave his head, let his hair grow down his back. Slow, heavy-metal dirges and jazzy, psychedelic instrumental jams were integrated into the group's sets, as were intense guitar solos. This caught Black Flag fans off guard. Kids with shaved heads and KILL THE HIPPIES painted on the backs of their leather jackets suddenly discovered that their favorite band now looked like a bunch of hippies. Help!
      In Las Vegas, driving in a dusty black van with white rats spray-painted all over it, Henry Rollins, 24, and (soon to be former) Black Flag drummer Bill Stevenson,
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