You Weren’t There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977-84–Thursday 8/7 @ Silent Movie Theater

This Thursday night, the Don’t Knock The Rock ‘08 film festival continues with a double feature at the Silent Movie Theater, this time featuring punk rock from the Windy City.  When we think of early punk rock, we tend to think of New York, London, and Los Angeles, and even the more obsessive among us probably then tend to follow our fandom in cities such as San Francisco, D.C., even Akron and Detroit.

But Chicago also had a scene that included some pioneers in punk, both in the form of arguably the first punk-only club, La Mere Vipere, as well as “the producer who made grunge,” Steve Albini, whose pivotal industrial punk band Big Black appears here in early archival footage in tomorrow night’s feature documentary, You Weren’t There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977-84.

Following the film will be a DJ set by Terry “Dadbag” Graham (Gun Club, The Bags), and then the second half of the night’s entertainment will be brought by DFW Punk, a film all about, you guessed it, punk rock in Dallas and Ft. Worth (title says it all, really).  There’ll be director Q & A stuff, and probably giveaways, and likely you’ll see Hadrian Belove floating around with drinks and keys and stuff.  For the obscurantist who wants to be able to brag about early scenes in every city, this is your night.