Three Chords and the Truth: Country, Punk, and an evening with Vinnie Stigma.
Still riding the high of the Punk Rock Bowling music festival last month in Las Vegas, I’ve been on a frenzy to get Outside Noise connected with as many festivals and music venues as possible. Independent music journalism isn’t the most lucrative profession, so we might as well take the press passes, right?
So when we were asked to cover the album release show for The Outlaw, the new alternative country record from New York hardcore veteran Vinnie Stigma, it was an instant “yes”. The event takes place on a Wednesday night at Philadelphia’s premiere DIY venue, Underground Arts. This intimate basement club has become a second home to us on the Outside Noise team, from their annual Subterranean Dissonance Music Festival to their regularly scheduled programming of major touring musicians in the DIY scene. Plus, it's easy to get to via public transit and the beer is cheap. What more could you ask for?
I stumble down the dimly-lit stairwell into the bowels of the venue and find myself surrounded by a mix of all ages, but mostly older folks. A guy at the bar tells me he’s known Vinnie Stigma for over 20 years since his early days in Agnostic Front. This is something I deeply appreciate about the punk scene; it’s a breath of fresh air from the mainstream culture’s obsession with youth, where you're considered expired goods past the age of 30. In these spaces, growing up doesn't mean sacrificing your mohawk on the altar of maturity.
The show was set to start at 8:00 sharp, but we’re running on punk time. At 8:49, the stage lights rise, and Eugene Hütz of Gogol Bordello emerges from the wings brandishing an acoustic guitar and a wide grin visible underneath his handlebar mustache. Alongside him, Sergey Ryabetsev follows in stride, dressed in nomadic garb and violin tucked under his chin. The audience erupts into cheers at the first strum of Hütz’ instrument, and we’re off. Their folk punk sound is infused with an Eastern European flair, and playing a selection of Gogol Bordello fan favorites, even these stripped-down versions of the full band songs inspire plenty of foot-stomping. The duo fills the room with energy, the crowd breaking out into improvised line dancing and singing along to each punchy chorus.
After the short opening set, it isn’t long before the main event gets underway. To the groove of 12-bar blues riff, Vinnie Stigma, the Gogol Bordello boys, and the rest of the backing band swagger onto the stage decked out in all black western garb. Skull tattoos peek out from under Stigma’s wide-brimmed hat, and his NYxHC insignia inked onto his fists serve as a visual reminder of his rough-and-tumble roots. But as the slow chugging Cash-influenced basslines roll in, Stigma fully steps into the character of cowboy crooner.
Playing his new record The Outlaw in full, it’s immediately obvious that these aren’t watered-down Nashville pop country songs. Drawing inspiration from the true foundations of country music, each track embodies a traditional Americana sound approached with punk sensibility. The genre fusion is especially prominent in songs like “I Lost My Dog Today”, a tearjerker eulogy that combines a proto punk songwriting style with classic country themes. “Jesus Ain’t Gone”, a tongue-in-cheek tune about meeting our Lord and Savior in the drunk tank, also plays with familiar tropes from both genres. And reminding the audience of the historical shared spaces between these two scenes, Stigma reveals that the eponymous location in “Black Jack’s Bar” is actually a stand-in for CBGB’s, the infamous Country, Blue Grass, and Blues bar that facilitated the emergence of punk rock in New York.
Between songs, Stigma casually chats with the crowd and his bandmates. He jokingly quips that ”Hardcore is easy, this shit is hard!”, but there’s undeniable truth behind his words. Coming up in the 1980s New York hardcore scene would have required an impenetrable aura of unfuckwithable masculinity. And sure, there’s plenty of testosterone in the country world, but there’s a lot of room for vulnerability, too. What’s notable is that the former hardcore kid isn’t putting on a tough guy act here. His genuine love for this style of music shines through in his performance, and his NY native accent takes on a southern twang with ease. The archetype of the outlaw is still rough around the edges, but he’s as much of a jokester as he is a sharp-shooter.
Nearing the end of The Outlaw’s live debut, fiddle player Sergey trades his strings for a long flute. He plays low, melancholic notes, the kind you hear at the end of western flicks as the hero rides off into the sunset. The band closes with “Bourbon & Blues”, a fare-thee-well ballad serving as the perfect outro for the cowboy crusaders. As the band plays on, Vinnie makes his way through the crowd, greeting each fan with handshakes and hugs. At first, I thought he just recognized a significant number of folks in the audience. But as he approaches me, a complete stranger, and reaches out for my hand with the same enthusiasm as everyone else, I realize he really was that grateful for each person in the room. It was a humbling moment and a stark reversal of the usual artist-fan dynamic.
The house lights come up, signaling that it’s time for the lingering crowd to start moseying on home. Back above ground, the warm summer evening air reminds me of growing up in Mississippi, spending late nights on the banks of the Sunflower river with a soundtrack of Charlie Daniels, Waylon Jennings, and Merle Haggard on heavy rotation. I often find myself returning to those same artists when I’m homesick. And so, walking back to the 13th St. subway station, I cobble together a short playlist for the ride back to my big city apartment, standout tracks from The Outlaw queued up with the same country legends that had brought everyone together that night. I’ll be spending the next week back home for the Bentonia Blues Festival, and through my travels I expect this playlist will be on repeat.
