Itâs your old friend Paddy here with an important PSA, and no, I donât have your money yet, but Iâll get it next week, trust me. We have more important things to discuss anyway, like what the hell happened to the concept of forgiving and forgetting? Everyone moans about how there arenât any good shows in the area, and then turns around to bust my balls when I book an act thatâs been deemed âcancelledâ by some basement-dwelling party poopers.
We can still have fun and enjoy artists whose ideological outlook doesn’t exactly align with the majority of punks, right? So letâs all take a deep breath, count to three, and un-cancel Michale Graves because I just booked him at Ottoâs Shrunken Head next week.
I said donât freak out! Look, I get it that his political views go against everything punk is about, but if weâre going to break everyoneâs artists’ balls when they get caught endorsing the Proud Boys, then is the scene really as inclusive as it wants to be? I knew Joey Ramone because he punched me in the face at Bowery Ballroom once, and iconoclast or not, he was pro trickle-down economics, and you donât see anyone shunning his work.
And before you ask, Michale was with me on January 6th in Washington, admiring the paintings at the National Portrait Gallery and nowhere else.
Seriously, he was in the fucking Misfits for almost as long as Danzig! Thatâs gotta count for something, right? So come on down and see him play âDig Up Her Bonesâ probably! Come on, just un-cancel him for two hours next Thursday and see how it goes. Hey, you can even volunteer to bartend since the staff is refusing to show up if Michale plays!
Donât think of seeing him as compromising your values, just look at it like youâre supporting a local business on open mic night, but itâs $34.99 plus taxes and fees, and I get a 40% cut. If you do this for me, I promise Iâll book a band that is still in everyoneâs good graces and will return my calls. Deal?
At the end of the day, this is a business, not a purity test. So put on your adult pants and adult studded belts and cut him some slack, because neither of us can afford to lose money on another show cancellation and have to go back to working minimum wage.
