You Weren't There: A History of Chicago Punk, Factory 25's DVD on one of the most subversive movements in Chicago music.

Oft talked about and searched for, the illusive Chicago sound is hard to pin down. Producing bands as audibly diverse as Fall Out Boy and Wilco, a specific genre that our city could be notched into nationally does not exist. So maybe we're too eclectic to have a "Chicago Sound," but we certainly have scenes, and You Weren't There: A History of Chicago Punk documents the anything goes underground faction of musicians, artists, and journalists circulating The Windy City from 1977-1984.

For any Chi-town centric viewer, this documentary is interesting to watch. Middle-aged former punks talk about the clubs they frequented, the bands they saw, and who was doing what in terms of the evolution of this cutting edge group. A serious and early chunk of the film is dedicated to a club called La Mere Vipere, a hole in the wall at Armitage and Halsted that housed the beginnings of bands like Tutu and the Pirates and a whole lot of sex, drugs, and people dressed in tinfoil, cellophane, and ripped up t-shirts. Eventually burned down, La Mere Vipere's now chi-chi Lincoln Park location was in a part of town riddled by gangsters and prostitutes.

While the specific history of this movement is well chronicled, as the movie progresses it begins to feel a bit long, lingering on interviews with the now married, suburban, anything but punk musicians who share stories and rehash rivalries. The front men of Effigy and Articles of Faith talk trash to each other via the film-maker, and the watcher feels a little too deeply drawn into the politics of the era, as if the documentary is meant more for the very same middle-aged former punks than the population at large.

Though the content of this documentary seems a little ineffectual, even the interviewees admit that no broadly influential bands arose from this movement, the production value is impeccable. With pictures and video from the 70's and 80's, the story of this subculture is painted vividly, giving the viewer a window into a Chicago that is a distinctly different scene than it is today.

You Weren't There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977-1984 will be available tomorrow, October 27th, from Brooklyn, NY's Factory25 in a limited edition 20 track Vinyl LP/DVD bundle. - Erin Keane

Published on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:41:19

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