There's a few things you need to know about this CD and this band. Everything I write is with a high level of biased because they are my friends, I met them at their first show when they were still called 13 Thoughts. I've been to almost evey show they've played and driven long ways late into the night to see them and I asked for these personal notes to be submitted along with the album to IAPWAA because of how I feel about them. But all of that being said, it doesn't make the band or the CD any less rad. I'd have thrown my full support behind them regardless of their friendship because they know punk and I'm so sad to see them end.
The Degenerates only played a few handfuls of small shows in garages and firehalls and never opened for any big named bands on Epitaph Records, and they never put together any fancy press packages. This CD isn't professionally pressed, they're all on CD-R's burned one at a time with liner notes printed on a computer and assembled in their practice space. They didn't want to be the next Propagandhi, they're just a bunch of cool as hell dudes and a close knit group of friends playing punk and doing it right. The Degenerates are that band I'll remember in 20 years and think man, they should have done so much more and gotten so much bigger. This CD deserves to be listened to as much as the next Aus Rotten or Anti-Flag does.
These guys are all in high school or college and have been playing for about a year and a half. Every show won them more followers and it would have only kept going. Their drummer Ian discovered a cancerous tumor in his knee and was forced to go under chemo and the band tried to fill in with another friend on drums, but it wasn't the same. In the end they decided to call it quits and play one more show before Ian started his treatments. This CD is that whole last show at Greensburg's infamous Blue Room, and I'm honored to say I was there.
The audio quality isn't half bad. Live albums don't always capture a band's live energy and the audio isn't perfectly fine-tuned and cleaned up but you can hear how tight they were. If you never got to witness a live Degenerates show you missed out. These guys will always be some of my fondest show memories. They played fast and tight like Pennywise and Bad Religion with some great breakdowns ala Bold and Judge. They played all of their greats on this night and some covers and the crowd ate em up. Front and center as always were the showmen, singer Ant with his Darby Crash meets CIV energy and his sidekick, the Vinnie Stigma-like Benny G. The atmosphere was energetic and powerful all night before turning bittersweet when they took a break to dedicate the night to Ian, before closing the set with Rancid's Avenues and Alleyway's.
As much as any of their shows or songs, my favorite aspect of The Degenerates happened the night of their first show, at the Legion in Williamsport. A girl they didn't know had come to see them, and right after their set she was hit by a car out front crossing the street. They sat with her until the ambulance came and sent her flowers and a card in the hospital with a free copy of their demo. After that they always told her she'd never have to pay the cover at any of their shows. Her name is listed in the liner notes of this CD in the thank you's. I'll never forget that class act, and I'll never forget the Degenerates. If you blinked you missed out on them, but they meant as much in punk to me as anyone else.
~Crazy Dave
