There's Something Hard in There: Hanging out at The Punk Rock Museum with an Avenger, a Germ and more

Sunday, June 11, 2023

Hanging out at The Punk Rock Museum with an Avenger, a Germ and more

Penelope Houston with a photo of herself. (Andy photo)

By Andy

A few weeks ago, I had a flashback moment to when I first heard the jagged punk riff and searing vocals of the Avengers' formidable classic "The Amerikan in Me" on the Rodney on the Roq radio show in SoCal some 40-plus years ago.

That's because on a recent visit to The Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas, there was singer Penelope Houston strolling through the massive display of artifacts, fliers, photos, instruments and more at the two-story, 12,000-square-foot building two days after her club gig at the Punk Rock Bowling Music Festival.

After passing by a late-1970s photo of Houston by Jenny Lens adorning a nearby wall, I asked Houston if she would pose for a modern-day picture in front of the back-in-the-day one. She agreed, and there you have the lead photo in this entry.

During our three-hour stay at the museum and in the adjacent Triple Down bar, our crew tagged along with Fishbone's Angelo Moore on a guided tour, absorbed a few punk stories from Agnostic Front's Roger Miret and CJ Ramone on their tours and checked out a mini-acoustic set by Me First and Gimme Gimmes' Spike Slawson playing some yacht rock.

While taking a break outside on the patio, I discussed glam rock with the Germs' Don Bolles, and later I strummed guitars in the jam room that belonged to Fletcher Dragge of Pennywise and Chett Lehrer of Wasted Youth. Funny thing, I used to hammer out a few riffs on one of Dragge's axes after watching his old band Con 800 practice in Manhattan Beach, CA, in the days of my youth. Another full-circle moment.

In the bar, Cat imbibed a drink named the Fletcher, which features rum and coke poured into a Pringle’s can with those very chips on the side. She's still waiting for him to repair her Love and Rockets cassette that he ruined one night after a Pennywise gig in Hermosa in the band's early days.

Bonus points for me spotting a flier of my old band Sorex for a gig that was unfortunately cancelled.

And... I even answered a Minor Threat question when two fellows were checking out a photo. Not bad.

So, here's some photos mainly taken by me during our visit to the museum, including one of me manning Dragge's guitar by McHank, a colossal Bad Brains photo originally taken by Naomi Petersen and snapped recently by Lisa Johnson, a Moore tour group image courtesy of Kevin Legnon and Alison Braun with her GBH photo. Special thanks to Braun, a member of the museum collective, for getting us on the guest list for our visit.

https://www.thepunkrockmuseum.com/