The Rat's Nest is a venue I discovered in 1985 or so, located in Gary Brainless's basement. He was playing in a band called The Resistance at the time, and their brand of catchy early punk/oi inspired music kept the kids coming back. Over the years I saw some incredible shows there, from Mission Of Christ, No Means No, Shutdown, D.R.I., Problem Children, The Spores, and on and on it goes...It's also where I got my not so notable start, in a band called The Ratbags. As Rob Nesbitt said at the time (who later came to join me in Section 46 and AK-47), "They were the worst band I'd ever seen in my life". I have no doubt that was true. The Ratbags broke up during a show in The Rat's Nest, which ended up with me punching the lead singer in the head. He fell, got up and left, and I never saw him at another show after that. Soon thereafter, the first lineup of Section 46 were formed, I sobered up, Chris (on bass) left the band, Dan and Rob joined, and things got far better for us musically after that. But I digress.
I owe Gary a huge debt of gratitude for everything he's done for the local punk scene, and I don't know if I ever would have gotten to play live if it wasn't for him and that disgusting, wonderful, basement. Bands have recorded, practiced, formed and broken up there, and it's where I learned to stay sober while hanging out with maniacal fucking wastoids. So, it's with a bit of sadness and nostalgia (even though I hate that shit), that I view the passing away of a historic venue, at least to the punk community. It was great to be at a show there on Friday night, watching Dangler (Gary's current band), 24 hr. Standoff, Capital City Stalkers, and The Keg Killers, fronted by none other than Shwam himself. It was smoky, stinky, and gross, but that's how it always was. I think it'll be running until the end of May, and then it's goodbye forever. And thank you for everything you've done over the years, Gary.
