3. The DickiesThe Incredible Shrinking Dickies
31 October 1979 was the first time I ever saw a punk rock band, the Huns at Raul’s near the University Of Texas campus in Austin. Prior to that night I had read an article that said something about how the Huns were in some kind of battle with Dallas’ Vomit Pigs or some such malarky. So, my roommate and I put on skinny ties and headed north of the river to Raul’s punk rock club on Halloween night. The Huns’ guitar player was wearing a Leif Garrett t-shirt. The keyboard player was dressed as a druid. And the singer was naked except for a jockstrap and his entire body, head to toe, was painted silver. They were loud and noisy and fast and confrontational. Everybody in the packed little club was pushing and shoving each other and pogoing. I was awestruck! It had never occurred to me that music could be this aggressive, violent and exhilarating. I could seriously feel that this was a life changing affair. When the band was done playing, I asked the bartender who it was that we were hearing over the PA, he told me it was the Buzzcocks. The next morning I went to Zebra Records to get me a Buzzcocks record, but they were out of stock. The nice feller suggested The Incredible Shrinking Dickies. I quit college and started a band.
