You Weren’t There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977 – 1984 DVD

By Noreen Sobczyk

You Weren’t There sheds light on the consistently underrepresented punk scene of Chicago. It wasn’t only in New York and Los Angeles that American freaks gathered together to listen to the latest records by punk bands in sweaty dive bars. This well-made and engaging film conveys the excitement many in Chicago felt about the new music bursting forth from the underground.

The late ’70s are documented with interviews of bar owners and patrons, and clips of local punk band Tutu and the Pirates. Also touched upon is the contemptuous relationship between Midwestern punks and their heavy metal and jock peers, as well as the difficulty of keeping a punk club alive in a city where the political wheels allegedly had to be greased. The Chicago bar scene had previously consisted solely of cover bands, and successful bookings of punk acts, as well as profitable loft parties, eventually gave way to the proliferation of live bands playing original material.

The film intercuts interviews with local scene players and band members with rare live footage of bands like Naked Raygun, The Effigies, Big Black, and Articles of Faith. It’s sad to note the animosity expressed between Vic Bondi (Articles of Faith) and Steve Albini (Big Black). Even in a small scene rivalries were bound to emerge, but it’s sort of pathetic seeing these supposedly mature men still speaking about one another with scorn. To be fair to Albini, the bile is mainly spewed by Bondi who comes off like a testosterone-fueled teen. Albini merely seems pretentious, whereas Bondi looks like a moron.

Not only does he appear visibly angry speaking about an incident involving Albini decades ago wherein he wishes he’d have “whipped his ass,” but in a very Vince Neil vs. Axl Rose moment, offers to do so now. It’s an embarrassing display. No one in the film had to join hands and sing “Kumbaya,” but one wonders what these guys thought they had to gain by displaying such pettiness and macho posturing. The other disappointment of the film is that the participants are almost exclusively male. The brief mention of female band Da was particularly interesting, and the film would have been well served focusing a bit more on them, and female scene participants in general.

You Weren’t There shows how every generation feels that their glory days were, well, more glorious. Even in the early ’80s, the older punks felt that the scene was already irrelevant. The film also portrays how lack of press coverage for early Chicago underground music was both a blessing and a curse. While band exposure was limited, it allowed for experimentation unfettered by label interference or commercial concerns. Perhaps due to that freedom, Naked Raygun made some of the most relevant and exciting music of the time period spanning any musical genre.

The film hints at the question: is the Chicago punk scene’s lack of visibility in the annals of history some sort of anti-Midwestern conspiracy, or is it because most of the bands the scene birthed weren’t all that memorable? The interviews and performances (along with a limited edition vinyl soundtrack), give viewers enough information to decide the relevance of Chicago’s punk scene for themselves. And it brings the time period to life in the most interesting and informative way possible, unless of course, you were there.

You Weren’t There, written and directed by Joe Losurdo and Christina Tillman, is available directly from the Factory Twenty Five website. The site also provides a link to order a limited edition package including an LP featuring many of the songs from the film’s soundtrack.