Do you need a change?

Once upon a time I had some friends that make some of my favorite music in the world, and here's why:  being a person on this planet is complicated, and at times incredibly difficult.  RVIVR voice that anguish, and frustration beautifully.  For as difficult as it can be to be a person on this planet, being a queer person is harder.  Even being a queer punk is difficult.  Our subculture is supposed to be so wild, free, and accepting, yet often has the same rigid rules and norms as anywhere else in the world.  How often do we talk about how our little subculture was created by weird misfits who were born into ill fitting skin, and in turn had few places in the world where they felt at home, or safe in their bodies?  Read any book on the beginnings of the punk subculture, it started as a weird, misfit, scene, that a lot of queers were involved in, and in this writer's opinion, hardcore came along and changed all that.

Of course the advent of hardcore was long before I was involved in punk so this is all speculation,on my part but I know what I feel.  I've been involved in Punk for well over half of my life at this point.  That's seventeen years at last count.  A long enough time.  I've been to countless shows where punk was seemingly defined as those who were the biggest and baddest, and danced the hardest.  Remember all those nights when it seemed like four huge dudes were ruining the show?  Or all the times you were smaller, and shoved to the back of the room, so a mass of sweaty, violent men could take up space at the show, with the same entitled impunity that they take up space in the rest of the world. 

The truth is, as I get older, I grow more and more tired of this nonsense.  It's exhausting having to constantly, aggressively defend my personal space at shows, from drunk dudes who are there to "have a good time", and to have to claw out queer space in the subculture I became a part of to get away from the straight white male dominated world. 

Which brings me to how much I appreciate the music RVIVR makes, how much I appreciate that I feel like it's made for everyone, and not just the boys.  I appreciate that they are just so punk, but spend so much time talking about growing and changing, while staying punk, and not doing the same ritualized shit, over and over.  How they do their best to carve out space for the queers, for the ladies, for the nerdy short people, for the people who don't fit conveniently into any definition or box. I appreciate the effort they put into making every one of their shows a safe space.  How they make it easier to be a queer punk, if even only for a night sometimes.  Thanks friends, for real.   

Here.