Eugene Robinson was at many iconic hardcore shows in the 80s--as a musician (He played in Whipping Boy), as a journalist, and as a fan. The scene was not always a pretty place. He's been in enough fights that he wrote a book about it. Fight: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You'd Get Your Ass Kicked For Asking. But Eugene's latest book details his hardcore years and it's another mouthful. A Walk Across Dirty Water and Straight Into Murderer's Row: A Memoir. So we brought him on to tell his punk stories. 

This is easily the most intense episode of In Defense of Ska. There are many violent stories, including the infamous Misfits show in San Francisco in the early 80s where the band hurls homophobic slurs at the crowd and then Paul Caiafa (aka Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein) nearly kills a kid. Eugene tells this and other stories in graphic detail. 

We also talk about Dead Kennedys and SSD in Staten Island, Bad Brains' famous 3-day run at CBGBs, Whipping Boy's first show ever (opening for Circle Jerks), and the time Eugene got jumped on his way to see The Clash film Rude Boy. He also tells us how his love for The Specials inspired him to go to college at Stanford, how he made a lot of money arm wrestling a group of guys and how he went to high school with the members of early New York dance/ska band Urban Blight. 

Plus we talk about his band Black Face which he did with Black Flag bassist Chuck Dukowski, and how Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi) tried to get them to change the name to Black Velvet because "Black Face is a fucked up name." Eugene explains why he didn't take Ian seriously (Hint: It's because he wrote "Guilty of Being White.") 

If you’d like to support us and listen to early access, ad-free episodes with bonus content, check out our Patreon! 

If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and closing songs for our podcast. You can get both tunes from their Lives EP. Also, check out Dan P and the Bricks two LPs. They provided the mid-roll ad transition music. 

Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024. 

Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023. 

The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.

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