Seeing Gorilla Biscuits
When Punk Rock Bowling XXIV (PRB) released the music festival’s lineup, seeing Gorilla Biscuits on the bill was a huge motivator for me to pull the trigger and head to Vegas for my first PRB experience. I had missed out on GB’s sold out shows last year in Jersey City, Philly, Atlantic City, and Brooklyn. I put it off.
Gorilla Biscuits at PRB-All Photos by ©dickslaughter.com
No more excuses - GB was the one band that I was going to watch up close and personal, with no obstruction. I’m relatively short at five feet (1.52 meters), and if I’m not directly on the rail, my view is usually the T-shirt on the back of the guy in front of me. I know, from experience, that Civ is super interactive, sharing the vocal duties with those of us upfront. Singing along together, loudly, has always been part of the magic of going to hardcore shows for me.
Gorilla Biscuits at PRB-All Photos by ©dickslaughter.com
There’s a handful of beloved albums I studied like I was going to be tested, and the LP ‘Start Today’ was one of those records. Around 1990, I bought it from a straight edge kid, Dominic, who lived in my town and was dissolving his extensive record collection. I had probably forty dollars in my piggy bank, and I ended up buying ‘Start Today’ on black vinyl (with embossed lettering on the cover), ‘UpFront- Spirit’, a ‘Straight Ahead’ LP and a ‘Crippled Youth’ 7” from him… that’s all I could afford. By thumbing through his collection, I was introduced to the positive “youth crew” subgenre of hardcore. The rest was sold to Vintage Vinyl, a record store in Fords, NJ, for a fraction of what the lot was worth. A few years later, in that same store, I would stumble upon ‘Start Today’ on purple vinyl. It was priced $7.99. I guess they didn’t bother to look inside, maybe because the cover didn’t have the embossed letters.
The first time I saw GB live was in Trenton, NJ, at City Gardens. I was 15, and I managed to find a ride with some high school “scene-iors”, newly licensed to drive. I spent the show up front, in the human lasagna, where we’re all just layered close together, about six deep, before the pit opens up behind us. Stage divers pass overhead like rolling meatballs. I sang my heart out a full foot below the sweaty bodies, creating a canyon around me. Similar to the PRB XXIV set, the last song at the City Gardens show was Start Today. Before it was over, I scrambled to float above eye level, where Civ finally saw me and put the mic in my face for the end of the song. My voice, being very high at the time, was a comical contrast to his. The older kids laughed and patted me on the head before we headed back to Cranford, NJ. It felt great to share in being a part of the show. 34 years later, the drive to participate still energizes me, and I feel like a kid again when I make the time to do it.
Gorilla Biscuits at PRB-All Photos by ©dickslaughter.com
After watching Madball demonstrate their style on the “Street Party Stage," I asked my husband, Pete, to hold my bag and phone. Madball made a new fan out of my husband, who did not grow up with the NYHC scene like I did. Pete headed over to the “Monster Stage” to check out Billy Bragg and I weaved my way forward to get a good spot up front. We would soon learn the fun fact that, in 1992, Civ tattooed a 15-year-old Freddy Madball pirate-style (out of his apartment).
Gorilla Biscuits at PRB-All Photos by ©dickslaughter.com
The rail was populating around me. It was just a handful of us Gen X-ers peppered among mostly twenty- and thirty-somethings. A young man already had on the Kelly green T-shirt that GB had as their only merch item, sold alongside a wall of Descendants options. You could easily miss it. I’m psyched for the band, seeing that their music holds up and is connecting us, across generations.
Gorilla Biscuits at PRB-All Photos by ©dickslaughter.com
While waiting for the trumpet to sound, I overheard that a woman behind me had her throat tattooed by Civ. I couldn’t help but turn around to admire her collection. A traditional owl on the front of her throat met my gaze, you could read it from 10 feet away. Billy Bragg plays in the distance.
The trumpet announces GB! It sounded just enough like the intro to ‘New Direction’ and I think the brass player, with a full head of liberty spikes, ran out of wind before finishing the intro. It was charming, ushering us into 40 minutes of thrashing out to Gorilla Biscuits in 2024. “WHADDYA MEAN!… IT’S TIME… FOR ME TO GROW UP?!” The singalongs erupted right on cue, second nature for a whole lot of us.
Gorilla Biscuits fan with PRB staff-All Photos by ©dickslaughter.com
PRB’s Street Party Stage is big for hardcore show standards. 3 strong bouncers were spaced 8 feet apart in the trench. They were a class act. Assisting, with grace, crowd surfers who made it over the barrier. Civ challenged “the big guys, two-fifty and up” to float up to the front and give security a good workout. Only one guy, who fit the description, took the frontman up on it. He traveled a good distance forward before he made it over the barrier, just to my right. “Yeah big man!” Civ commented his approval before continuing on with their oldie, ‘Big Mouth’, which first appeared on their 1987 demo, later re-recorded for their self-titled EP.
Before slipping into ‘Sitting Around At Home’, described by Civ as their “slow and sexy dance number”, the throat-owl tattoo, six feet into the crowd caught the frontman’s attention. “I did your throat? We’ll talk later, I’m working, I love you though.”
Gorilla Biscuits at PRB-All Photos by ©dickslaughter.com
In my opinion, their self-titled anthem is GB’s most fun song. I remember listening to it, with Dominic, and laughing together over the silliness of the lyrics. Before the second verse one of the backup vocalists contributed a funny monkey sound. Civ hovered the mic right over my mug at that part… And I blew it! No one in my earshot did the monkey call - a missed opportunity! Civ, I got you next time with the OOh-OOh AH-AH!
Fast Ali on the rail for Gorilla Biscuits at PRB-All Photos by ©dickslaughter.com
“Fast Ali” owns and operates Lost & Found Tattoo Studio with her husband, Pete, in Cranford, NJ, where she specializes in paramedical tattooing after mastectomy. From 1996–2001, Ali fronted the NJHC/punk band, Fast Times, on Smorgasbord Records.
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