Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Nerf Herder NO Big Drag

I love Nerf Herder. It's not really punk rock. It's bubble gum pop.
You know what... Scratch this...
I'd rather tell you about Big Drag.

If you listened to punk.. there were two places you couldn't have missed in San Antonio.
One was the Bone Club and the other was TacoLand.
TacoLand... that's a whole other entry. If you're from San Antonio-- you MAY know about TacoLand and it's deceased owner, Ram Ayala. TacoLand was quite possibly THE greatest place to drink, listen to music and get stupid in San Antonio. I loved the place. I had quite a few great times there.
When Ram was shot and killed a few years ago, the club closed down for good. And even though I hadn't gone in years, I felt a little part of my youth die then.

Right now, I'd like to share one of the bands that I loved going to see @ TacoLand: Big Drag.

Big Drag, well.. take the Ramones, take the Sex Pistols, take the Jesus and Mary Chain-- and sprinkle some Southern-Fried-Beach-Blanket-Bingo-Play-Me-Some-Songs-with-Lots-of-FeedBack-and-Make-Me-Dance Mojo and you have Big Drag.

It wasn't smart music. It was get drunk and dance music.
There was no pretension to aspire to something larger than loud and sloppy; they didn't need it.

I remember going to see a show--- walking out tired, drunk and deaf.
I haven't had as a good a time since and I doubt I ever will.

Not every Big Drag was a great show-- as a friend of mine said... sometimes they faxed in their performances. But I didn't care, even the crappy shows were loud and full of feedback and whine and lovely rhythm.

They broke up sometime in the late 90s. It was sad. But not as sad as Ram getting shot.
At least they get back together every so often.
None of us will ever share another drink of Ram's funky mix- a bottle he kept behind the counter that he drank from all night. Many of us shared in the back wash.

Good times.

Here is their myspace page... listen to the music


1 comment:

  1. Never heard of Big Drag but I did really enjoy the dirtiness of TacoLand the 2 times I went there before Ram was killed. Yeah, I know, all of 2 times but it's etched on my memory.

    ReplyDelete