"Brooklyn," as the current day manager of The Vagabond downtown is known, has done and seen it all around the South Florida music scene since arriving here from his native New York some 12 years ago. Younger types flitting around hipster nightlife know him as the improbably, heavily tattooed guy who has tossed their drunk asses out of The Vagabond and other venues such as Circa 28. But he has done a lot more than that, and he has gathered enough opinions along the way that he was finally able to persuade us to give him his own occasional column, in which he waxes poetic on the Miami scene. Read it in print here biweekly, and weekly every Wednesday on the New Times local music blog, Crossfade, at blogs.miaminewtimes.com/crossfade.
I'm funny, I'm honest, and I tell people the way it is. I'm 32 years old, and I've been around for a while. I've worked in clubs, worked security for shows. I worked at Circa 28, at Revolution. I've been on tour a bunch — with Poison the Well once or twice, and a band called August Prophecy, with Keith who used to do Hellfest up in Syracuse. I did a couple of tours with AC Cobra. I worked for Eulogy Records for, like, four years. It was just me and John Wylie, the head of the label, for a really long time there.
I've seen all the trends come and go. All these kids now, a lot of them were straightedge in the Nineties and early 2000s, all these jackass hipster kids. And now all of a sudden, they drink beer and smoke cigarettes and think that's cool now. But what's cool is being true to yourself and staying true to what you believe in.
If they just decided they wanted to drink beer, well, that's cool, but not if the only reason they decided they were straightedge kids, or punk rock was because it was cool. And now it's not cool, and all of a sudden this electronic crap music is cool — then they're following that trend.
As far as a straightedge or hardcore or punk rock scene, there isn't as much of one anymore as there used to be. But when I did the benefit show at Churchill's for Alex Del Bueno — which Poison the Well was so gracious to play — it really showed there still is some unity in this scene and everybody can come together for all the right reasons. But there were a couple of jackass girls who wanted to get in for free and wouldn't pay, so I told them to go fuck off.
That is a problem here, because most of these kids think that just because they know somebody, they're cool because they go to this fucking club or that fucking club and they know all these people. And all of a sudden they think they can get into someplace for free. But no, they fucking put their pants on one leg at a time just like everybody else.
Albums I'm listening to this week: (1) American Nightmare/Give Up the Ghost, We're Down Til We're Underground; (2) Avail, 4AM Friday; (3) Unbroken, Live. Love. Regret; (4) Embrace, Embrace; (5) a Ryan Evans mixtape; and (6) a DJ Ruen mixtape.
Quote of the week: "What do you wanna do?" Oh, and I love Chris Graham!
