I have loved The Misfits, Samhain and the original line-up of Danzig for about thirty-two years. Yes, I am that old. I even saw the original Danzig line-up perform in San Francisco in October of 1992 and it still holds up as the best show I have ever been to. This is all to say that I have always seriously loved the music of Glenn Danzig.
My all time favourite album is November Coming Fire by Samhain. I love it so much that I finally sought out and bought a mint condition first edition US vinyl pressing of it. I got it the other year for only about £140.00 so I know I am a lucky bitch. Early Danzig is my next favourite era followed by the original Misfits. No, I haven’t been to any of the Glenn fronted Misfits reunion shows, mainly because I now live in Europe. However, if the original Danzig line-up ever tours I would fly to New York, Philly or even Boston for that. Just saying.
Here are my all time favourite songs from each band. I enjoy sharing music so I hope that you find something that you really like and connect with.
Going to this show was kind of like a pilgrimage for me because I had not seen the band live for about 25 years. This was due to a combination of living in places were bands generally don’t stop at and being perpetually broke. I saw them live twice in the 90’s when I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area so I at least got to see them perform before. I know how lucky I was. I currently live in the UK Channel Islands, which is far from just about everything. This means to see shows in England I have to fly into London, which isn’t exactly cheap. So for me to see a show there I have to really, really, really, etc.. be a huge fan of the band I am flying to see. Just saying this so that you know the viewpoint I am coming from; I am a huge fan of the band. I was diagnosed with MS about five years ago and I decided that I needed to see them again because I have no idea how physically screwed up I’m going to be in the future.
My husband and I were in the front of the line to get in, of course, and I met some very cool people and had some really good conversations about the band, the current state of goth music, the Dead Kennedys, Samhain and other subjects. I have forgotten their names because I suck in general at remembering such things so please do not be mad at me if you guys are reading this. You guys were awesome and it was very cool connecting with other people at a show.
The first band up was a duo named the West Wickhams who played a minimalist type of music consisting of guitar, a drum machine and some synth manipulation. I have to be honest, I am not the hugest fan of this type of goth music. However, the guitarist/singer was so earnest that they had me tapping my feet. That actually counts for a lot when you see bands live because you can instantly tell that they are really into performing their music and that they want you to go down a road of discovery with them. I hope that they keep at it and continue to do shows because their lyrics were really good.
Ghost Dance was up next and they were very energetic and looked like they were having fun. I only knew a few songs by them but they had me up from my seat and dancing, holding the railing for safety because my right ankle tends to give out on me. Anne Marie looked like she was having a great time and she interacted with the audience a bunch as evidenced by the photo above. She had some tech issues with her mic during the first song but that was sorted out and didn’t affect the performance at all. Their last song was Promised Land, which was a song that she originally performed with her earlier band Skeletal Family. I totally wasn’t expecting that so it was very cool hearing it performed live. Their performance was very good and if you have a chance to see them go for it because you will have a good time and not be disappointed.
Up next was Christian Death. Before they went on they had issues trying to set up their video on the screen that would be shown behind them. They ended up just removing the screen, which in the end didn’t really matter because their performance would have been great with or without it. I love their new album Evil Becomes Rule and they pretty much played the entire thing. The first two times I saw them there wasn’t a second guitarist so it was very cool getting to see both Maitri and Valor concentrate more on their parts within the songs. It enabled Maitri to put more emotion into singing songs such as Beautiful and it really showed off her vocals to a degree that I had never heard live before. In other words she was totally on fire during the show and she was more front and center than usual.
Valor also put on a really good performance because he got to concentrate on his singing and playing rhythm guitar instead of stretching himself too thin by playing lead guitar constantly. That is not to say that he didn’t play lead guitar at all, it just allowed him more of a choice as to what parts he wanted to perform. He has always been an excellent guitarist so I have absolutely no complaints about his playing at all. He even played some acoustic guitar which was very cool. Their other guitarist was Chuck Lenihan who also did an excellent job, along with their new drummer.
When you go to a Christian Death show you know that you are going to hear Valor railing against politicians, religion and the British royal family, and this show was no different. I actually really appreciate that side of his performance because too few musicians are using their platforms to say such things. He has always been outspoken and it is one of the reasons why I have always loved the band. It harkens back to how political punk was in the 80’s and it really shows the connection that he has always had with that music and subculture.
After they were done with playing the album they dove straight into Forgiven, This Glass House and then Sick Of Love. The audience was bouncing all over the place and there was such energy that you couldn’t help but join in. The audience was part of the reason that the show was so good. You could tell that all of them were into the music, and it was very awesome to see some teenagers in the audience also having a great time.
This next part still has me tripping out so please forgive me if I babble a bit about it and get disjointed. After Sick Of Love they left the stage for about five minutes and then came back out for an encore. I was very near the left hand side of the stage which was on the same level above the crowd. When Maitri came out she made a beeline towards me to the other side of the railing and asked if I was Megan. I responded that yes I was and she told me to come around the railing and get on stage with them. I was so surprised that I forgot my walking stick. I told her when I went around the curtain to the stage that I might fall and she said not to worry and reassured me that I would be okay. That relaxed me a bit which helped with my nervousness and it was a very sweet thing for her to say. I stood next to her while she told the crowd that I flew in from Guernsey; that I was a very supportive fan who defended them online and that I was very much appreciated for what I was doing for the band.
As you can well imagine by this point I was borderline teary but then something really astonishing happened. They announced that because of all of this I was going to get to join them in singing This Is Heresy as their encore. Holy shit! HOLY SHIT!!! I am not the greatest singer but by golly I belted my heart out! There were parts that I just let Valor sing because I previously knew that in live performances he sometimes goes off pace. However, by the last part of the song I was yelling ‘Soaked in the blood of men, not the body of Christ!’. After the end I gave them hugs, exited the stage and went to the merch area to wait for them there because they told the audience that they would come out for photos and autographs. Sure enough they did. My husband took a video on his camera of all of this, so once he figures out how to transfer it to me I will upload it in a new post.
I cannot overstate how much of a sweetheart Maitri is. She thanked me yet again, we got some more hugs in and I left her side just insanely happy knowing that I was able to make a difference as to how she is perceived as a musician.
Valor was absolutely no different. He is also a very nice and friendly person. We got to talking and I asked him if he had ever met Jello Biafra back in the early 80’s because there was a whole lot of cross pollination when it came to punk/deathrock type bands between San Francisco and Los Angeles during that time. Sure enough he told me about a car trip he took back then with Jello to San Francisco from Los Angeles. It made perfect sense since as songwriters they both write songs about pretty much the same topics. I mentioned Jello to Valor because him and Jello are the two lyricists who largely made me into who I am today; somebody who heavily questions politicians, religions and other such things. He was very grateful towards me for telling him that, which in turn meant a lot to me. The circle of life.
Without a doubt Valor and Maitri are the nicest musicians I have ever met. That is saying something because I met Henry Rollins over thirty years and he was a very cool person too. They definitely edge Rollins out to take the top spot on my list. If you have a chance to see this band live go for it because you will not be disappointed by their performance or by who they are as human beings.
Back in July the website tried to promote the very problematic band She Wants Revenge. Money is more important than the safety of women apparently. It was only taken down when enough of us complained.
I can well imagine that some of you are wondering why I am feeling the need to write out a post about such a peachy-keen site that promotes so many bands within the goth community. Well, sometimes things are not all that they seem to be; scratch the surface and sometimes you will find something very onerous underneath. Since I am not one to shy away from controversy I immediately knew that I has to write about this and tell people the truth as to what kind of website they are actually supporting.
So what kind of website is it and who originally started it? The original founder of post-punk dot com was Joshua Pfeiffer, and he started the site around 2004 to share information about the lesser known goth, post-punk and alternative bands that he was discovering. He couldn’t find a site online that was a repository of information about the music, so he scoured the internet, asked people, interviewed musicians and did a whole lot of independent research to create a site in which he could share his love of the music. He is also a musician and a DJ who has worked with a lot of people within the goth, alternative and punk communities. In other words the site was a work of love for him and the others who also participated in the day to day running of it. He did not do it for the money, and since it started to take more and more of his free time, which he didn’t have much of to begin with, he handed over the site to somebody who promised that they would run it in the same manner; Alex Baker, a promoter who was at the time living in New York.*
Who is Alex Baker? Where do I even begin; should I start off on what he claims he is or what he really is? Here are the basics. Our boy Alex is the son of a famous mainstream record producer. Who? At this point I really don’t care. I only know of this because our little Alex brags about it and shows 80’s photos of his dad with various famous musicians of the decade. I’m going to let Alex tell us what happened next, according to an interview that he gave in 2020.
In 2012 I started the process of taking over Post-Punk.com and relaunching it, which was done in 2014. Prior to this I had been doing event promotions in NYC, at clubs like The Limelight, Pyramid, CBGB’s, Knitting Factory and more, and had also ran a print publication.
Redakce / proti sedi
Funny how he doesn’t mention Joshua Pfeiffer, the person who actually created the site. Relaunching it into what exactly? Why would a website that is there to only share information need to be relaunched? Didn’t he promise that he wouldn’t change the site? Oh dear!
In the same magazine article quoted above he goes into how he moved to Berlin but it got too techno for him so he decided to move to Los Angeles part-time to be closer to all of the post-punk/alternative bands there. Oh, and he can travel to Europe to catch all of the music festivals there too. Needless to say the guy has a serious amount of cash. The kind of cash that you can’t make from running a website or from being a promoter within the subculture. He has to be getting money from his father to afford all of this. I’m not going to put him down for that because plenty of people that receive an inheritance or an annuity aren’t totally self absorbed liars. Rather, it is how he uses his money, or doesn’t, that I would like to have a chat about.
So, we have established that Alex is in no way broke and has a considerable amount of money that allows him to regularly travel to Europe. Since this is the case why does he charge bands for album reviews and always begs for money to support the site?
Let’s tackle the whole pay to play scam first. I know that some of you won’t know what this means, so I’ll explain. Back in the 50’s-70’s it was very common that when a music producer or record label wanted singles played on the radio they would quite often pay the radio stations to play the songs. So, whomever had the most money came up on top. It didn’t matter what they sounded like, as long as the radio stations received the cash they got played. Since I know all about how this pay to play scam works I was a bit shocked to see our little friend Alex pulling this shit right out in the open. Not only does he charge bands money to be reviewed, he also charges them money to get such things as an Instagram boost. As a person who has run my own blogs on and off for almost twenty years I know that you can link your site to your social media accounts so that you don’t have to bother doing it manually. Charging a goth/alternative/post-punk subculture band money for all of this feels as dirty as a rolled up dollar bill on the floor of a bathroom in a goth club. So, who gets the most coverage? Any band that has money. Right now that means all of the Joy Division/Cure clone ‘post-punk’ bands, because the youngsters really dig them and buy a lot of merch and music from them. I’m not knocking all of those bands, but how is it fair to the bands that are broke and trying to get their music out there? It isn’t and it sucks.
I took screen shots of the whole band submission process on post-punk dot com. Come with me on a voyage of greed on the HMS Post-Punk! I will post a photo and explain what you are seeing underneath.
Awwww……how sweet they want to give us high-quality video content. We are pretending we are a band right now so go along with it. We are in hiding.
I just picked that we wanted an article published about us. Why? Because we play good music and are cool. Don’t forget that!
Would we like our music reviewed? Of course we would because we play good music and want people to find out about it. Wouldn’t our review just automatically appear on their Instagram page when they post it onto their site? WHAT!!!!! A ‘contribution’ amount of $150 for them to write a review and create an Instagram post of us? Why should we be contributing any money to a website that was meant to just be a central repository of band information in the first place? Oh wait, that’s right, when our friend Alex took over the site he decided to turn it into something that his daddy would be proud of; a mainstream endorsed music website that is all about the cash and who you know, rather than simply being about the music. I have even heard talk from different people who ‘know’ that Alex is also only allowing bands on the site that he deems ‘attractive’, that they need to have a certain ‘look’.
This doesn’t stop out dear Alex from regularly asking for yet more money to run the site, even though the dude is loaded. So, not only is he a liar he is money hungry as well.
Awww….look at Alex. He’s started a fundraiser for the site even though he is charging for reviews AND is loaded.
He even tried to crowdfund over £20,000 to start a print magazine, and it failed. Finally some good news.
What is the real reason behind why he took over the website in the first place? He wants the power and clout that owning a popular site within the subculture gives him. He wants to be the person that the mainstream music press goes to when they want their questions about goth/post-punk music answered. He wants to be the person who appears on podcast shows talking about the bands that he ‘discovered’. He wants his head up on a post-punk Mt. Rushmore sandwiched between Ian Curtis and Peter Hook. For him this is all a means to an end, with the help of his dad’s money and connections.
The last thing I want to discuss is something that really cracked me up. Since I knew that I was going to be writing this I kind of paid attention to the website’s Facebook page. The other day the below post appeared, and by golly do I have a lot to say about it!
Can you imagine somebody being so out of touch with reality that they would think that posting about the Dead Kennedys would give them some punk cred? Wonder no more because Alex has struck again! This has proven to me that he has never actually ‘listened’ to the Dead Kennedys. Jello Biafra would verbally demolish him because he has ALWAYS been against the mainstream music industry and what they represent. So much so that he wrote a song on the subject called Anarchy For Sale, about how corporations steal ideas and try to sell them back to the subculture that they stole them from in the first place. Sound familiar?
More and more people are whispering about all of this and are genuinely scared to say anything because of the power that he is currently holding over every single musician in the subculture. I have no doubt that Alex really enjoys holding the sword of Damocles above their necks, In fact he probably gets off on it.
I’ve been into goth/alternative/punk music for over 35 years now. Over that time I have witnessed some very egregious shit go down, but I must say that this is the first time I have seen somebody with obvious mainstream ties try to buy their way into the subculture. You can have all of the money in the world, but that won’t make you ‘authentic’. Do you know the people who are actually authentic within the goth/alternative/punk subcultures? The people who actually ‘listen’ to the music and love it for what it is; not for some perceived clout. They can be broke as hell and dress in clothes they got from Walmart but because they actually ‘listen’ to the music that will always make them more authentic than our boy Alex will ever be.
I was originally going to make that last paragraph the end of this article but since little Alex seems to love posting about the Dead Kennedys without actually ‘listening’ to them I thought I would help him out. These are all of the songs from their album Bedtime For Democracy that really fit into this entire situation quite well! Remember, these songs are just from one of their albums. Enjoy Alex!
Anarchy For Sale (1986)
Chickenshit Conformist (1986)
Hop With The Jet Set (1986)
Macho Insecurity (1986)
I Spy (1986)
*I’m now told that Alex actually bought the site in an auction when Joshua couldn’t afford the website any longer. Alex still ruined the site, so this doesn’t make any real difference.
That is me on the left in early 1991. I painted and studded the jacket myself.
As most of you know I have been listening to punk music for as long as I have been listening to goth/alternative music. I refuse to use the term ‘post-punk’ for that time because we didn’t use it and punk was still fully alive and kicking. I am more in tune to modern goth type bands than I am with modern punk bands so these songs will be mainly from the 80’s. I like everything from UK 82 type bands to skate-punk and horror-punk so there is a wide variety here. If you always wanted to get into punk music but didn’t know where to start any of these bands would be a good jumping off point. By the way, the Sex Pistols would have appeared on this list but Lydon is now a supporter of fascist bullshit. Fuck him, he is now dead to me. Included is hands down the best Joy Division cover song ever made ; Day Of The Lords by Neurosis. I saw them do it live at the punk club Gilman in Berkeley over 30 years ago and it literally gave me goosebumps, it was that powerful. Don’t skip it, you are in for a treat. Also, some of these songs may be considered deathrock or metal but some bands don’t fit into just one box and that is a good thing.
These songs will not be in any kind of order because sometimes my top spots totally change. I hope you enjoy these songs and that you discover music that is new to you.
MISFITS – BLOODFEAST (1983)
BAD RELIGION – DO WHAT YOU WANT (1988)
GBH – I AM THE HUNTED (1982)
BODY COUNT – COP KILLER (1992)
7 SECONDS – 99 RED BALLOONS (1985)
CANCERSLUG – GIRLS CHAINED UP IN THE BASEMENT MAKING BABIES TO KILL (2013)
UK SUBS – LIMO LIFE (1982)
RAMONES – BONZO GOES TO BITBURG (1986)
JELLO BIAFRA WITH D.O.A. – FULL METAL JACKOFF (1990)
Don’t know who GBH are? They are a UK82 punk band that was formed in Birmingham England in 1978. They helped shape the sound of British punk and are still touring and making music.
GBH was my very first punk show in late 1989 so their music has always held a special place in my heart. They were seen as just a street punk band by many back then, however if you delved into their releases you would find two albums that did not sound like their others; Midnight Madness And Beyond and No Need To Panic. I actually remember the first time I listened to a Midnight Madness And Beyond tape in my car and being really surprised and pleased that they were singing about a lot of spooky stuff. I was also a fan of The Misfits, Samhain, Danzig, Christian Death, TSOL, Black Flag, Rudimentary Peni and other such punk and deathrock bands. I kind of straddled punk and goth back then, just like I do now.
No Need To Panic released in 1987.
Their album No Need To Panic also really struck a chord with me. What really tripped me out is that I never heard a single person back then mention these two albums. They’d mention one of their more famous albums like City Baby Attacked By Rats but never these two. The music mostly sounds punk but you can definitely hear some deathrock influences breaking though. There are a lot of very heavy baselines and lyrics about horror films, monsters and very unfortunate situations. They are seriously fun to listen to and are forgotten gems. Below are a few songs from the albums that are very good examples of what I have been talking about. Enjoy!
Horror Story
I love the keyboards in this song, and it’s about monsters!
Makin Whips
Love the beginning of this song, so funny!
Electricity Through Space
The intro is a lot fun and reminds me of A Flock Of Seagulls. Space alien takeovers are peachy-keen!
She Wants Revenge, whose members have been accused of perpetuating sexual assault. being supported by post punk dot com. The post only got taken down when people complained.
Have you heard about how the members of She Wants Revenge didn’t really give a crap when people employed in their wannabe goth club were sexually assaulted? Remember the LA Times article detailing what occurred in 2021? To refresh your memory here is a free version of the take-down. All of this is public knowledge and I remember this being discussed in tons of goth online spaces during the time the article was released,
Since all of this crap happened She Wants Revenge were effectively cancelled, as well as they should have been because fuck these assholes. That is until Post punk dot com got it in their heads that it would be perfectly fine to promote them. Why would they think that? Mostly because they care more about scene cred than anything else. They have to put up the latest ‘news’ to look like they are on the cutting edge of promoting whatever shit band they are calling ‘post-punk’ these days. Women sexually assaulted at a club that the band members ran? Who cares about that! What is more important is having scene cred so that all of your young readers will buy whatever crap music from whatever crap band you are promoting before they move onto something else.
This is not the first time this kind of the thing has happened. Time and time again musicians, DJs, and promoters within the goth subculture are given a free pass to do heinous acts.
Up next, let’s talk about the singer for the bands Bella Morte and The Rain Within; Andy Deane. The allegations against him are so many and so credible that some of his ex band mates have dropped him as a friend. He emotionally abused multiple women by cheating on them, stealing their money and giving some of them STDs. There were so many women involved in his web of bullshit that there used to be a website dedicated to telling their stories. I’m not joking, this asshole has a long and rich history of pulling this shit, and yet he still gets invited to play gigs and some goth musicians still support him. Remember kids, scene cred is way more important than protecting the lives of women. Fuck this guy.
Lastly I want to talk about a promoter in the Washington DC area named DJ Panic. I have first hand experience with this steaming pile of shit because I moved to the area without knowing anything about anybody back in 2003. We messed around a bit BUT he started ignoring my phone calls and pretended I didn’t exist. Seriously. When I went to his job once to ask him what was going on he started to call me crazy. Ummmm….I don’t know…..but when you are act like a gaslighting little bitch you deserve to be confronted and treated like the piece of trash that you are. This serial emotional abuser did the same thing to other women right after me. Imagine my surprise twenty years later when I learn of this asshole being in charge of booking goth/industrial gigs in the DC area. I’m being sarcastic, because I actually wasn’t surprised at all. He has claimed that he is a changed person and that he has apologized to all of the people he hurt. Funny, I never got one even though I am easy as hell to find online. It shows you just how much that area cares about the safety of women. They don’t at all.
What can we lean from all of this? That scene cred is much more important than kicking somebody out of the subculture. If the abuser has ‘connections’ with club owners and bands then they are usually deemed too important and their behaviour is excused away. The DJs and musicians who support these assholes are just as bad in my opinion because they know exactly what is going on but don’t lift a finger against them. This has been a dirty little secret going on in the subculture for decades and one that almost nobody tells baby bats about. If a baby bat asks me about going to goth clubs I always tell them to act like it’s any other kind of club because there will be predators there.
The goth subculture has never been a safe space for everybody, especially women and it’s about time that the truth comes out about this HUGE issue.
Somebody’s heavily pixelated photo of a Twilight Zone shirt and member pass. Not my photo.
This is a second list of the songs that I used to hear in ‘alternative’ clubs from 1988 to 1992. The shirt above is from the alternative club The Twilight Zone that was in Alameda California. You had to have a member card to get in because of the local laws and it was an all ages club. These songs were either played there, at The Edge in Palo Alto or at One Step Beyond in Santa Clara. The music was always very eclectic. Enjoy!
I added the khaki laces, they come with black ones.
Before I start I would like it to be known that I bought these boots with my own money and did not get them as payment to write a review. I don’t accept any free products and never will. With that out of the way let’s get to what you are here for; a review of Angry Itch boots.
These are quite honestly some of the best ‘alternative’ style boots I have ever purchased. I am not saying that lightly because trying to find a good quality ‘alternative’ type boot right now is very difficult since most are now made cheaply in China or companies have lowered their production standards. New Rock I am looking at you. With this being the case I literally searched high and low online for a brand that actually can last years instead of months. I saw a few mentions of Angry Itch and only one video of somebody actually sitting down and reviewing them. All other posts were only of people wearing them and that’s it.
So, buying these boots was a really big leap of faith on my part. What really got my attention about them was the fact that the brand is made in Poland by a German company. They are really proud of their product being made in the EU and don’t hide that fact at all. Another huge factor in me buying these is the price-point. Even though they are made of leather they are cheaper than brands such as Demonia; this pair runs from about £100-£140 depending on where you buy them.
Sewn, glued and screwed.
First let’s talk about the construction. As you can see the soles are stitched and also screwed in. On top of that they are also glued, so the soles are attached using three separate methods instead of just the one or two that the other well known brands such as New Rock or Demonia use. Historically I have only ever owned one pair of ranger type boots that had screws in the soles and those were bought at Shelly’s in London 25 years ago. I only had to stop wearing them because my feet grew and they became too small. Yes, your feet still grow as you get older, be prepared! If the soles of these boots wear down a lot in the future I can just get new soles screwed onto them which is a huge plus. The buckles themselves have a cool dystopian feel and are fastened to the boots with rivets instead of being sewn on, which means they will not easily break.
The buckles are riveted to the boots instead of sewn.
These boots are made of a nice quality leather. They are not made of plastic coated leather which makes it more easy to care for them. When I received them the leather looked a little dry. This is very common when you buy any type of boots online because they may not be stored in a climate controlled warehouse. This is in no way the fault of the brand because I have had this also happen with New Rock boots I have purchased in the past. I spent a little time moisturizing them and they no longer look dry so this is a very easy thing to correct. In fact you should always moisturize your leather boots at least a few times a year, because it makes them last way longer than if you do not moisturize them at all.
The zipper is robust and double sewn into the boot, as are the straps.
I always get a little nervous about zippers on boots, because often they will be of a very cheap quality. However, the zippers on these are very robust and not flimsy plastic. In the few weeks that I have been wearing these I haven’t had a single issue with them which is a huge relief! They are double sewn into the boot making them more strong and less likely to detach from the boot.
View from the front. Hidden from view are 2 slits in the tongue that keep it in place when laced.
Now on to the most important section of the review; the fit. I have a slightly narrow foot and calf and I am a size 6.5 UK/8.5 US. Since these boots only come in whole sizes I ordered a size 7 UK/40 EU. It is always more easy to make a slightly larger boot fit than to ram your toes inside a boot that is too small. Before I tried them on I inserted one foam insole into each boot and put on a thick pair of thermal knee high socks since doing both always makes my half size feet fit into boots better. I do this with every pair of boots I own. They fit my feet like a glove. No joke! My heel barely lifts inside the boot when walking in them. I think this is partly due to the adjustable buckle straps. I have slightly narrow calves and the buckles allow me to strap them in very well. I have worn them on several short walks and I haven’t gotten a single blister from them. None. The construction of these boots is so well done they could honestly go down a runway and nobody would think they are out of place. All of the decades of Frankensteining clothes together have taught me that the construction of garments is just as important as the type of material you use.
Meet our little pet xenomorph Cujo. I bleached the nuclear cloud on the leggings with a stencil and a bleach pen.
With that being said these boots would fit a narrow or regular foot better than a wide one. However, if you have a wide foot and are a whole size you might get away with ordering the next size up. I am not guaranteeing that so please don’t come at me if that doesn’t work out for you. Also, I would have to say that these will not fit you if you have larger calves. Zippered up the circumference of the top of the boot is 12 inches fully tied closed. The buckle straps are also for more slim or regular calves. You can add a hole or two on them and that’s it. If you are a slim legged individual that has issues finding boots that don’t gap at the top these may actually work for you.
Do I recommend buying these boots? Hell yes! This brand deserves way more attention than Demonia or New Rock. They are making very well constructed quality leather boots for not that much money. They are sold by mostly UK and EU dark alternative physical stores and websites, so if you are outside of those areas they may cost a bit more. They can also be found on Ebay and Amazon, but make sure you are getting the real deal and not fakes. The only reason why I am not providing links is because so many stores are in flux right now.
I will be reviewing quite a number of boots I own over the coming months because I have bought them all with my own money. I am not for sale so you will only get honest reviews from me.
This was the inside of the alternative club One Step Beyond that I went to from 1988 till it closed in 1991. I vividly remember that head painting! Not my photo.
I went to my first ‘alterative’ club in early 1988 on my 17th birthday, and it was called One Step Beyond in Santa Clara California. For whatever reason their age limit was 17 and up instead of 18, and I had a friend that had a car so I know I was very lucky to get to experience this. My friend had graduated in 87 so I was the only teen from my high school that went. My mom was/is cool and never gave me a curfew and let me go.
What did I experience exactly? It was the tail end of new wave, so the older songs were still played regularly. Radio stations refused to play rap songs by certain artists like 2 Live Crew or NWA and alternative clubs such as One Step Beyond were among the only places that you could hear those bands being played. The American government was trying to get such bands banned for offensive lyrics so playing such music in a club setting was actually pretty forward thinking for the time.
That is me on the left at the Twilight Zone in early 1991 when I was 20. Yes, I did the jacket myself, it had a Fiend skull on the back.
Rather than me droning on and on I am going to be posting some songs that I vividly remember being played during that time at One Step Beyond, The Twilight Zone and The Edge. Each place had it’s own unique vibe. The Edge was close to Stanford University so it was where the wealthy students would go if they wanted to go slumming, but there was definitely a gaggle of weirdos that also went there. The Twilight Zone was in an old movie theatre lobby and had the best venue I have ever been to. It has sweeping staircases to a second level where you could look down on the dance-floor and it was all ages. Finally, One Step Beyond. It had the most diverse crowd out of the three. There were punkers, mods, skins, etc… and everybody pretty much got along.
These are in no sort of order and are songs that I heard during that time in the clubs. Notice how eclectic this list is? It’s why I loved these clubs. I think something was definitely lost when the goth nights started to pop up in the early 90’s and left a lot of this music behind.
Desireless – Voyage Voyage (1986)
Red Flag – If I Ever (1989)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZlO_T71Ncw
Digital Underground – Doowutchyalike (1990)
A Flock Of Seagulls – Wishing (If I Had A Photograph) (1983)
Virgin Prunes – Pagan Love Song (1982)
2 Live Crew – Get It Girl (1987)
My Life With The Thrill Kill Cult- The Days Of Swine And Roses (1990)
Christian Death – Church Of No Return (1989)
Ofra Haza – Im Nin’Alu (1988)
Technotronic – Pump Up The Jam (1990)
Billy Idol – Dancing With Myself (1981)
Specimen – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (1983)
Fake – Another Brick (1985)
Laid Back – White Horse (1983)
Blancmange – Living On The Ceiling (1982)
Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel – White Lines (Don’t Do It) (1983)
