Many cities will claim a music festival like a badge of honor. Austin has South by Southwest. Memphis has The Beale Street Music Festival and the lesser known Gonerfest. Telluride has many music festivals, including bluegrass. But there’s only one Punk Rock Breakfast, and that belongs to Durango.
Punk Rock Breakfast is not quite a festival, but it’s been enough of a music event to leave a lasting impression on past attendees while inspiring different organizers to find a way to keep the event going, year after year. What began as a one-off morning Christmas party in 1999 at the now defunct barbecue joint/venue Storyville, grew into an annual post-holiday, Sunday morning throwdown, where attendees still in Saturday night revelry mode, kept it going, with one-time hardcore heroes The Thirteens providing the soundtrack.
While the event has had some off years, it’s seen a bit of a comeback, with most recent versions of the morning rock show serving as fundraisers for local nonprofits, and happening at Dante’s up at the ski area, The Garage and J. Bo’s.
Punk Rock Breakfast 2021 will take place Sunday at Animas City Theatre, and features Foul Tom, Acid Wrench, Immediate Family, Your Bones and Illegal Aliens. Proceeds from the event will benefit Compañeros, the Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center, and The Hive, the organization that provides an inclusive, safe space for youths.
It’s a bill of local and regional talent. The Illegal Aliens are a self-described punk and metal band from Santa Fe, while Foul Tom hails from Aztec. Your Bones, Immediate Family and Acid Wrench are all La Plata County local, the latter being the newest band to Durango’s small but energetic punk scene. Acid Wrench’s drummer, who simply goes by the name “Cranky,” boasted the band plays “old-school punk and garage rock with a fierce DIY sensibility,” and claims they “sound like the punk band you wished you had seen in 1978.”
If you go
What: Punk Rock Breakfast, featuring Illegal Aliens, Your Bones, Immediate Family, Acid Wrench and Foul Tom.
When: 11 a.m. Sunday.
Where: Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive.
Tickets: $12 pre-sale/$15 day of show.
More information: Call 799-2281.
The rhythm section of bass player Alex Vick and drummer Lucas Hess do double-time in both Immediate Family and Your Bones, a labor of love commitment and an at times necessary component toward building a working music scene.
“Sometimes that’s what it requires if you want to cultivate the community and your scene, you have to put in the work,” Vick said. “Sometimes that means stretching yourself out and putting yourself in two bands and making sure that you’re an individual thriving and building everyone else up around you.”
Punk rock is action and activist music, thus organizing and hosting shows that benefit local organizations is nothing new to the punk rock community. Punk Rock Breakfast 2021’s recipients are two organizations that thrive on community – Compañeros working with our immigrant community to build a life as they integrate into the community, The Hive giving healthy options of activities for our youth community. Helping someone find employment or a place to live or navigate through a world where English is not a first language, or simply teaching a teenager how to drop in on a skate ramp are some of the activities these groups bring to the public. Events like Punk Rock Breakfast will help these organizations’ mission while giving the public a nice soundtrack.
“We’re working toward building an inclusive punk rock community here in Durango and this is why we wanted to involve Compañeros,” said Vick, who is also a founder of The Hive. “It’s because they are doing the same work of inclusion and welcoming everyone into a safe space.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
