Oh! The Scene!

I Navigate the Hardcore Community
like Donald O’Connor and Gene Kelly
Dancing with Concrete Shoes

You could stick your entire fist through that gauge
in his ear. If you did he would breakdown
and punch you in the gut. Fighting
is just as much a staple of the hardcore scene as dancing.
Pay the fee, aquire a wristband,
that’s your ticket to punch someone in the face.

First band, three incidents, two bleeding faces.
Bodies collide with the force of a shotgun of considerable gauge
The only constants that mark competitors are wristbands
and the fact that they choose to be present for the breakdown.
All these kids look like Gene Kelly with their dancing
they just don’t know it. They’d rather be fighting.

They go at it tooth and nail fighting
not afraid to take a kidney shot or kick each other in the face.
No tap, salsa, ballroom, or waltz dancing,
just hardcore. I step back to try to gauge
the crowd. The positive vibe suffers a breakdown
and Mikee helps make someone else get their own hospital wristband.

An hour before the show in a garage a dozen kids make fake wristbands
and sneak in to the show. The promoters nearly start fighting
but cooler heads prevail. Reason, rhyme, melody, and harmony breakdown
only while the bands play. At least they should. Face
the facts, this is the scene. The only gauge
suitable to tell who’s who is how hard the music plays and how much the kids dance.

I wasn’t lying when I said that when the kids dance they dance
like Gene Kelly. If the scene watched Singing in the Rain they’d exchange their wristbands
and two stepping for calmer pursuits and take their ears and un-gauge
them, become peace makers and priests instead of fighting,
and really love each other instead of breaking each others face.
Gene Kelly has the potential to single handedly make the scene breakdown.

It isn’t likely though. All the musical parts in his movies don’t have breakdowns
which is well known to be the only way to a scene kids heart. No amount of dancing
could ever make up for that, not even the prettiest face
on earth could entice the warrior wearing a wristband.
They’ll keep showing off, one uping each other, and fighting
and we’re still tempted to put our fingers through that gauge.

Stand back, gauge the momentum, watch structure breakdown
but continue fighting for relevance as the kids continue dancing,
wristbands on hands and troubled hearts while they punch each other in the face