Dead City Punx

"Dead City Punx" - Directed by Roger Gastman - (Beyond the Streets/Wraith Films)

This documentary tells the story of how the Los Angeles-based punk band Dead City Punx earned a modicum of success through unconventional means and a penchant for anarchy. As Dead City Punx singer Mike says at the beginning of the film, "We're a band that comes and makes a crime scene and plays at the crime scene." All of the band members including Grumpy on drums, Lagz on bass and Meka on guitar are graffiti artists so they were already used to trying to stay one step ahead of the cops before they began their guerilla-style musical performances on the streets of Los Angeles. All of them have rough backgrounds, variously going to jail and prison, formerly being heavy drug users and coming from broken homes, all of which contributes to their "I don't give a f**k" attitude which is at the very heart of what fans share and admire most about them. The film tracks Dead City Punx shows held under bridges and in various industrial areas of the city, all drawing crowds based only on word of mouth and social media advisements issued right before the shows. Drawing anywhere from a few hundred to over a thousand fans, the shows were dogged by police but initially, being seriously outnumbered, the cops didn't take any action other than watching fans wilding, tagging everything in sight and burning stuff (mostly bonfires but also a few vehicles, no buildings) while Dead City Punx played their fast and thrash-y kind of punk music. Viewers will gain insight as to how the band pulled it all off, including using a drum set that was stolen (not by band members) from a church and building their own concrete stage with stolen cement. Mostly the guys got away with it unscathed but fans didn't; one guy jumping through a bonfire suffered severe burns when someone threw a can of spray paint into the conflagration that exploded on him while another got seriously wounded when shot in the head by a policeman's rubber bullet (cops eventually decided to crack down on the events.) The whole scene was born out of the COVID era and lockdown, so it is to an extent understandable that some would need this type of release. Viewers will also learn a little about the tagger's code and see some of the band members leaving their marks. Toward the end of the film the guys move their shows to Oakland for a bit, eventually going back to L.A. for their biggest show and biggest confrontation with police. Ultimately Dead City Punx record an album, released only digitally, and play a sold out indoor show at the historic venue The Regent Theater. With raids by ICE occurring throughout Los Angeles, some of the heat was shifted away from the Dead City Punx shows; today what the band may be getting up to is unknown. Gritty and glaringly honest, "Dead City Punx" serves not only as action-packed entertainment but also as a primer for the disenfranchised who need to be shown that they can be themselves while striving to reach their goals, loudly and on the edge of the law if need be. The film notably has among its co-producers Zack de la Rocha, the Rage Against the Machine singer who is himself no stranger to activism and confrontation.

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