Editor’s note: Once again, I’m putting an old piece of writing on my Substack in order to keep all my writing in one, central place. This essay was published in my college radio zine last year.
I think LOUD!FEST 2018 was the first concert that ever made me feel something. Crammed into the tiny venue space of Revolution Bar and Cafe; moshing with a hundred other sweaty strangers and my best friend, I felt awash in the hardcore punk blasting from the band right in front of me. I had so many experiences like this in downtown Bryan, Texas, right here in Aggieland. Most students assume there’s nothing to do in Bryan-College Station (outisde of Northgate), and they’re not entirely wrong. I’ve lived in College Station since I was 5, and I was certain there was nothing to do.
Everything changed my freshman year, when I made the decision to stay in town and go to Texas A&M. My best friend Hope invited me to Loudfest 2018 - a three-day punk, hardcore, and metal music festival that happened every year in Downtown Bryan at Revolution Bar and the Grand Stafford Theater. 5 dollars got you access to over 50 amazing bands ranging from hardcore punk, shoegaze, indie rock, metal, thrash, and more. Having spent most of my teen years raging in the suburbs of south College Station, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had craved this imperfect, bloody knuckles, rough-around-the-edges alternative scene, and I thought I had to leave town or even the state to find it – yet here it was, right in my backyard.
I discovered that there was a small but vibrant punk scene that had been thriving here since the early 2000s. There was a local zine called 979represent, that focused on the underground music scene and going ons in the BCS community. I started going to shows at Rev’s and the Grand Stafford Theater when I could, and I made sure that LOUD!FEST was always on my calendar when the end of the semester would come around. I smoked some of my first cigarettes, learned to write poetry, and found my voice as a transgender woman in small-town Texas. When I joined KANM, I was so happy to see that people there knew about the scene in Bryan - we hosted Save the Music, our fundraiser concert, at Revs in 2018 and 2019. It was the first Save the Music I ever attended (and I can’t believe how few people were there!).
LOUD!FEST 2019 continued my love of the scene, and I got to see incredible bands like ASS, From Parts Unknown and Sykotic Tendencies, play at the Grand Stafford and Rev’s. For the first time in my life, I could tell people that no, BCS is not the boring backwater that you think it is. Once upon a time, Texas A&M and BCS were host to many music legends: Johnny Cash in 1965, who played for students off-campus, Elvis in the 50s when he played for the Corps of Cadets, Nat King Cole, Garth Brooks, and more. Punk acts like The Ramones and Fugazi, as well as rock bands like R.E.M and Green Day all played on campus or on Northgate in decades past. While that’s no more, and Northgate is a country music stronghold, there are things to do in BCS if you look beyond the confines of University and Texas Avenue.
All good things have to come to an end eventually; COVID-19 upended the local scene. Rev’s, which had already struggled with closure due to renovations, closed down in 2020, unlikely to ever reopen (knock on wood?). 979Represent closed shop at the end of 2021, with many of its founders moving on to other projects or out of state completely. LOUD!FEST has been canceled for the past two years due to COVID, although I have hope that one day, it will make a triumphant return. Nothing good can last forever, but I’ve always believed that the end of one era ushers in the coming of another. The punk scene that raged on for over 10 years is far from dead; many of the regulars of Revs live on at the 101, a bigger and cooler space founded by a former 979Represent writer. After the worst of the pandemic, KANM started hosting Save the Music again at The 101; where STM 2018 had maybe 50 total people show up, STM 2021 and 2022 had over 300 people. Not only is the scene alive and well, but it is strong. My hope and goal as the PR director of KANM was to support the local scene here, to build off of the success of the elder punks, emos, and weirdos who came before me. To show the bands that I spent my early college years moshing to the same love their music and culture showed me. To give all the misfits in BCS a place to call home, just like the scene here gave me that same warm welcome. Next time you think there’s nothing to do in BCS, take Texas Avenue past the part of town that you recognize, past the part that makes you feel safe in corporate suburbia, and rejoice.
Thank you to everyone who was a part of the scene; to all the Revs regulars whose names I never learned. To Hope Lascurain - even though we don’t hang out that much anymore, I’ll always love and cherish our friendship. You taught me to be my truest self and how to let loose - I’ll never forget the time we spent that summer before college. Thank you to the early KANM members who welcomed me into student radio - Cameron, Eren, Lillie, and the rest of you: I have no clue where I’d be without y’all. To my current KANM friends, to Paige, Deja, Lillie, Harmon, Julia, Nathan, and everyone else: Thank you for being the best friends I have ever had. Thank you to 101 for carrying on the legacy of the local scene, and for putting on fucking awesome shows every year. Y’all are the best.