Lately there’s a nostalgia trip circling '80s punk in Washington, DC. The scene’s central label, Dischord, has made numerous reissues and archival releases in the past few years, including an LP of Fugazi’s first demos just this week. There are also three documentaries in the works related to DC punk: Punk the Capitol, Salad Days, and Positive Force: More than a Witness.
Producers from all three films have recently come knocking on the door of Sohrab Habibion. Besides being a musician with a DC hardcore history–he sang and played guitar for post-hardcore outfit Edsel–Habibion also happens to possess a trove of live video shot around the Nation’s Capitol in the mid-80’s. A few days ago he began uploading his tapes to his new site DC 85, with plans to host his entire 35-show collection there.
Habibion shot all these concerts himself, with a Sony Betacam camera his mother bought with inheritance money. "There are some gems, despite the fact that I was 15 and had zero idea what I was doing," says Habibion. "It speaks to the quality of the bands, really." So far those include DC stalwarts Soulside, Scream, and Government Issue, as well as two of Dave Grohl’s early groups, Mission Impossible and Dain Bramage. Still to come are shows by Half Japanese, Descendents, Lemonheads, and more.
DC 85 showcases a scene more stylistically diverse than its legend might suggest. The bands were high-energy and physically hyperactive, but there are no two bands in Habibion’s posts that sound alike. His videos also capture the excitement of the times, when high school kids were eager and resourceful enough to find any possible place–a church, a community center, a basement–to put on a concert.
"I remember wanting to go to every show, and then putting on other shows of our own"” says Habibion, who convinced his local community center in Burke, Virginia to let him host gigs there. "We were from the suburbs and were inspired by Dischord. And we just figured we should probably try to do it."
Although these were raucous punk gigs with sweating musicians and flailing kids, and Habibion was often shooting from a static spot in the back of the room, there’s something oddly intimate about his videos. The settings are so unassuming, the bands so uninterested in showiness that it feels more like spying on some private party than watching a show. "There were very few people shooting video," says Habibion. "I don't really know what my impetus was other than the camera sitting in my parents' suburban townhouse."
Now that all of Habibion’s tapes have been digitized (a favor from Roswell Films, the company producing Grohl’s current HBO series), his collection has been moved to the "Punk Archive" section of DC’s Public Library. "I honestly can't believe it," says Habibion, currently guitarist for Brooklyn’s Obits. "This teenage thing I did is now part of a historical archive. My mom is thrilled."
If you want to a place to start with Habibion’s DC history, here are three clips from lesser-known groups that demonstrate the scene’s breadth.
One Last Wish
Featuring future Fugazi members Guy Picciotto and Brendan Canty, One Last Wish only played six shows in their four-month existence. The set Habibion captured at the Chevy Chase Community Center features a curtain opening and a hand drawn sign proclaiming "ANIMAL LIBERATION." It also shows a band as interested in guitar interplay as punk speed. Jump to about 12 minutes in for some choice Picciotto stage-running, including a full fall.
Marginal Man
Marginal Man is not a name that gets thrown around much in DC history conversations, and that’s a shame. Their music was an excellent example of how to create punk drive without being hemmed by it’s conventions. Habibion’s shoot of their set at George Washington University’s Marvin Center is engaging simply for its non-stop motion.
Honor Role
Honor Role weren’t from DC–they resided in Richmond, Va.–and they weren’t really a punk band, but the tense music they created shared a spirit with hardcore and influenced a score of bands including Jawbox and Superchunk. It’s also nice to see footage from d.c. space, a tiny venue around the corner from the more-famous 9:30 Club that historically hosted some of the city’s most interesting, unpredictable lineups.