The Aerie
Moldy is actually my oldest continuous friend (I've known my friends
from New York City longer, but we didn't have any contact for 30
years). He's the second friend I made after moving to Minnesota some
27 years ago (the first, his next-door neighbor, went insane and
dropped out of our lives).
He was a year ahead of me in high school and we were in a bunch of
plays together. At lunch one day I told a joke and he snorted a gummi
bear out his nose and we teased him unmercifully about that for years.
Once he was coming to pick me up to go see Vincent Price at the St.
Paul Student Center, and called to tell he he'd gotten not one, but
TWO flats. Blew out both right side tires racing over to my place (we
were out in the boondocks), and slid sideways off the road.
[1][P2110001.JPG] He's been in my car for two of my most major
accidents: the time I slid backwards through a telephone pole in my
RX-7, and the time I spun around on I-94 and ended up hung up on the
left guardrail. The latter time we finally had to do an emergency
blind U-turn into oncoming left-lane traffic off the guardrail, and
onto the opposite shoulder. Thirty seconds later a pickup truck hit
the same patch of ice and smashed into the place we'd just been.
Moldy and I shared an apartment from 1984-1986. Ah, those were the
good old days. Sitting in the living room with my girlfriend, watching
TV, and listening to Moldy have noisy sex with his girlfriend just on
the other side of the wall. (Here's a hint for all you roommates out
there: turning up the stereo real loud doesn't mask what's going on.)
Well, unfortunately a couple of years ago Moldy got skin cancer. He's
never been a rich man, and the treatments for skin, then brain, then
brain and now liver cancer have been hard for he and now his wife
Blondie to manage. So when I learned that some of the biggest punk
bands in town were gathering to hold a benefit concert for him, I knew
I had to be there. And Tuesday night's Punk Rock Benefit Concert for
Moldy Ramone was a hoot! [2][P2110029.JPG]
Now, walking into a punk club, I would normally feel nervous and out
of place. However Tuesday night I felt right at home. I was there for
Moldy, and I had as much of a right and responsibility to be there as
everyone else.
Guests of honor were Blondie (this evening with red hair!) and Moldy
Here they are with Emily and Ollie at the start of the evening. And
no, that's not Moldy's real hair! He looks puffier than he actually is
because of the treatments.
[3][P2110098.JPG] Emily, beside them in the picture, was lookin' sexy
in her punk schoolgirl outfit with saddle shoes and cigarettes tucked
in her bobby sox. Rrrowr!
She was also diligent and persistent in carrying around the donation
bucket for Moldy, so she's a good person, not just good-looking!
[4][P2110054.JPG] Ollie Stench, was emcee ("Hey you motherfuckers I
ain't gettin' paid to do this so shut the fuck up and put money in the
bucket for Moldy!!!"). At one point I yelled "Take it off!" and he
yelled back he'd take it off if I bought him a beer. So I bought him a
beer and sure enough, he took it off... < (And there's Emily, workin'
the donation bucket!)
[5][P2110059.JPG] Bernie the Trailer Park Queen earned my respect,
belting out not only a hilarious cover of "Only Women Bleed," but her
original songs [6]"I Don't Wanna Throw Up" (3.5M) and "TCPunk", an
anthem to a late-lamented punk website (covered [7]here)
[8][P2110067.JPG] Red Vendetta took the stage next. Mind you, during
this entire concert I could barely make out a single lyric (despite
the sound being loud enough to shake loose my kidney stones), but they
were everything a punk girl group should be, loud, angry, and spouting
obscenities. You can tell you're at a punk concert when "fuck"
replaces "love" as the most common word used.
[9][P2110078.JPG] The crowd was full of all sorts of interesting
characters, including the fellow on the right who I recognized from my
YWCA. And Moldy knew all of them and made sure to take a moment to
talk to everybody he could. [10][P2110092.JPG]
Finally it was time for Moldy to take the stage himself... but first,
Deanna and Molli stepped out to present Moldy and Blondie with a
special gift. Round-trip airfare, hotel, and rental for two to Los
Angeles to see the Rezillios reunion concert this coming weekend!
[11][P2110099.JPG] Deanna and Molli had never met Moldy and Blondie,
but they'd heard about his cancer through the punk grapefine and put
together the entire benefit!
[12][P2110048.JPG] Moldy accepted gratefully and took the microphone
to thank a bunch of people. It was funny watching a room full of
spike-and-leather hardcore punks get all verklempt when Moldy thanked
his wife Blondie, his "pillar of strength".
[13][P2110104.JPG] Finally Moldy took the stage with Plate-o-Shrimp,
and they really got the crowd going. At one point I got dragged out
onto the dance floor. Now, normally this would be all very cool, but a
punk rock dance floor is basically a tightly packed crowd of people
wearing metal spikes slamming each other around like pinballs. And I
had my enormous phallic Olympus 2100 [150046_l.gif] hanging around my
neck. So I kept my slamdancing to a minimum and quickly escaped to the
back of the bar.
Moldy was up on stage singing [14]"Hey Ho, Let's Go" (3Meg), and the
entire crowd who had shown up to support him was making enough noise
from the Seventh Street Entry annex that it was drowning out the
performers next door at First Avenue. It was time for me to go.
Moldy's got a tough and uncertain road ahead, but he's survived a lot
during the 27 years I've known him.. But I'll always remember him like
this: at the top of his form, surrounded by all his friends, rockin'
out at the top of his lungs in a punk rock bar.
I didn't know what to expect from a night of punk rock, but what I
witnessed was connection, caring, affection, strength and support.
[15]Last
Posted by Albatross at February 13, 2003 11:58 AM