Condominium (Minneapolis) at the West Wing, Omaha After the touring band, I went to see two Minneapolis hardcore mainstays. Brain Tumors is fronted by Drew Ailes, an acerbic writer for City Pages and many other, saucier music blogs. Brain Tumors are wild live. I saw them at Memory Lanes – a stage suspended over a bowling alley, sprawling across three lanes. The floor was slick already, but when the crowd started moshing and beer spilled, it was impossible to stay upright. Drew jumped into the crowd and aggravated things by spitting in the face of a tall man with green hair and screaming, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOU MOTHERFUCKER!” In interview, the men of Brain Tumors were less scary than their stage counterparts. They viewed the band as an outlet for their unbridled animal instincts to escape from the monotony of their various day jobs. Condominium seemed younger than Brain Tumors initially, with their floppy haircuts and less-jaded attitudes, but turned out to be similar in age. Imagine my shock when I found that most of the characters at their punk house in Southeast Minneapolis were 26 or older. Condominium is an extremely tight hardcore band, practically relentless in sound. In interview, they made a lot of obscure references to hardcore bands that I had never heard of and probably never will hear, due to their music really only being available in limited run 7” pressings that sold out in 1995 in Norway, or something.
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I learned from Condominium that the market for hardcore and punk music is deep and full of niches that most people don’t really ever want to open. The tacit knowledge required to participate in most hardcore scenes is daunting for newcomers, as is the financial burden of meticulously collecting and cataloging vinyl records from unknown bands. Next up I headed west, to California. I started in Sacramento, to see the band G.Green. I love their album Crap Culture and was excited to meet my brother’s friends Liz and Andrew. Liz is an intimidatingly beautiful drummer with long black hair, bangs, and big dark eyes. She only wears black, yet she jokingly referred to some of her frenemies as “the dark crew” for their wardrobe choices. Andrew was shy, but had a big, yelping laugh and a passion for making music that was evident within the first minutes of conversation. I stayed with Liz and Andrew and found myself perfectly at home. Sacramento felt strangely like Omaha, maybe because the streets were wide and flat and the beer of the night was Budweiser. The next day, we went to Davis to see G.Green play at a house show. I met the other members of the band, Simi and Mike. Their performance was so on point. Andrew’s yelping vocals and their pop song structures really make for a new sound that is immensely exciting. After the show, I returned to Sacramento to stay with my second cousin Mary. The next day, my bus to San Francisco was leaving in the afternoon. Mary had to leave the house early,
