Smells Like Teen Spirit

Posted on February 26th, 2005 | by admin |

The year was 1996 and grunge was everything for a happening 8th grader. My cool friend Matt and I were totally going to throw down at the Battle of the Bands at William and Marry on First Night, Williamsburg’s annual new years eve party. Mom and Karen were going to be in the Chesapeake room at the University Center all night for the Ballroom Dance, but Matt and I had dreams of rocking out to local punk and grunge garage bands and picking up mad chicks. We were 14, we could dream right?

One big problem, and this one was a show stopper. While mom was putting on her face and Karen was getting pretty in her ballroom dance dress, Matt and I were going through our pre-party ritual of throwing on our best flannel grunge shirts and making sure we were wearing DO. Matt was decked out in a skater shirt and some Jnco’s, the coolest denim any 8th grader could sport. They rode low on the ass and had plenty of baggieness, some sporting 30” legs. Unfortunately I hadn’t convinced the parental units to get me such ultra hip jeans so I was sporting some totally un-cool Levis 501’s. While I could have been totally rockin’ as a euro punk I wasn’t going to get so much as a mini-prop looking like a dork at this awesome festival.

Jokingly I told Matt that mom had a pair of bell bottoms that would put the best Jnco’s to shame. … He didn’t get the joke, and next thing I know I’m sporting authentic 60’s womens bells. What had I gotten myself into? I could barely breathe in these things, but my long flannel shirt covered me up, and as far as anyone could tell I was sporting the most ultra hip denim.

I don’t remember much of the actual Battle of the Bands, aside from head banging to out of tune metal and punk from garage bands formed just the week before. That might have something to do with the lack of memory. I do however remember meeting Heather Hempstead, a.k.a. Weerdwun, at this party. Heather rocks. I was just reminded of this story as I’m hanging out at her place in VA Beach waiting to go to the movies. I just whipped out the lappy and low and behold there is an unsecured wireless access point next door just waiting to route my packets. Free Internet access kicks ass.

Anyway, you’ll find an interesting picture of Heather on the moblog.

Rock on… Grunge will come back, just wait.

  1. 7 Responses to “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

  2. By Karen on Feb 28, 2005 | Reply

    And if you ended up with Mom’s authentic 60’s bellbottoms, please know that on Ebay and in Japan they go for mucho grande dinero.

    It’s also evident that you spend way too much time obsessing over clothing.

    Grunge sold out long ago.

  3. By Darren on Feb 28, 2005 | Reply

    I don’t have the bells anymore, bummer. And yes, I may obsess over clothing from time to time. At least I’m not still wearing leather pants.

    What happened to grunge of yesteryear is the same thing that’s happened today with Punk and Goth. See Hot Topic pushing Princess-Pink-Punk and Baby-Batt-Goth.

    Whats even scarier is that techno-savy, trance listening, starbucks drinking, macintosh pimping, elitist wannabe-nerd is “in”.

    It seems that those without originality or individuality seem to follow the trends and assimilate cultures until they are “uncool”, but to tell you the truth I don’t give a F about that stuff anymore. If I could go back to 1997 I’d prolly slap the shit out of myself.

  4. By Karen on Feb 28, 2005 | Reply

    I myself am fond of the leather pants. I wish I had a decent pair. Really when all is said and done you have to be true to you not a slave to fashion. And that’s probably why my khakis and button down blouse hasn’t changed in years. On the flip side sweatpants outside the gym should be outlawed, and you should have to carry a permit to be seen in short shorts or a thong.

  5. By Darren on Feb 28, 2005 | Reply

    Spandex… Its a privledge, not a right.

    If they have an Up Against The Wall or Forever 21 in your local mall, might want to check it out. Leather pants are nice, but not for more than 8 hours.

  6. By Karen on Mar 1, 2005 | Reply

    D, I live in Alaska. And though Anchorage is the largest city, the Dimond mall (yeah, Dimond is spelled wrong here) is the LARGEST mall in Alaska with a Gap, Baby Gap, and Old Navy. I now admit that I miss good ole ghetto Patrick Henry.

  7. By Danki on Mar 1, 2005 | Reply

    Patrick Henery Mall….know to the local williamsburgites as, “The Mall.” I dunno how I felt about the leathers D, but the shirts were cool. I was always weary of the pants cuz I was scared that they might cut circulation off to my manlyhood, and that would just be really not cool. Plus, Geek maybe Scheik (sp?) but not the real stereotypical pasty complection scragly hair and WAY out dated clothing. More of a metrosexual, wallstreet geek is the in now.

  8. By Darren on Mar 14, 2005 | Reply

    Wallstreet geek in leathers on a Honda scanning for WiFi?

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