Prior to '95, it was the skinheads who would show up and ruin punk shows, often employed as bouncers by the club. Then their girlfriends all went rockabilly and they gave way to waves and waves of hahdcaw meatheads. The uniform changed, the music changed, but the fact that I was regularly catching punches, elbows, and kicks by people who rolled 10+ deep at all times did not change at all.
I especially love the casual tone in which these morons can reflect on the past and say stuff like “You gotta understand, it was mayhem back then,” Wilson says. “There was 30 of us, and somehow, we’d always find 30 guys to fuck with.”
Somehow.
And more broadly, I didn't want to fight these groups' existence, or even their presence. I just wanted to come home from shows without chipped teeth, you know?
I met Elgin a few times outside of Righteous Jams shows and he was always super friendly to a kid that just liked his band.
EDIT: This part was always the craziest to me:
While part of FSU, using a tactic learned from the United States government,[3] James and other FSU members set up an "arms for hostages" scenario in which they traded handguns with inner city gang members for pit bulls used in dog fighting rings. The dogs would then be nursed back to health and fostered until safe homes were found for them.