15 Pink Shoes/Punk Shows

This episode Scot dives into the world of compliments, via the story of a pair of pink shoes. What’s so special about pink shoes? Scot explores how they act as a magnet for compliments, and what is even going on there. 

 

Scot also ventures into some new territory by going to a local punk show and meeting a band there. Hear his voyage into live music for the first time since college, and discover a strong connection between pink shoes and punk shows that wasn’t obvious at the beginning.

 

Special thanks to listener Steven, Jeff Clemens (https://twitter.com/jclemy) , and of course Nicole, Jerry, Julio and Israel, aka Rival Squad for the interview and introduction to punk.

 

You can find them online here:

https://linktr.ee/rival_squad

Bandcamp: https://rivalsquad.bandcamp.com/

Spotify: https://sptfy.com/LDLD

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_rivalsquad_/

 

Other music from this episode by:

 

Mikesville - https://www.fiverr.com/mikesville

 

Brrrrravo - https://www.fiverr.com/brrrrravo

 

Avishka31 - https://www.fiverr.com/avishka31

 

Steveaik7 - https://www.fiverr.com/steveaik7

 

Gelyanov - https://www.fiverr.com/gelyanov

 

Trappy 808 - https://www.fiverr.com/trappy808_

 

Dawnshire - https://www.fiverr.com/dawnshire

 

Bastereon - https://www.fiverr.com/bastereon

 

Nearbysound - https://www.fiverr.com/nearbysound

 

Aandy Valentine - https://www.fiverr.com/aandyvalentine

 

From the Free Music Archive and used under a Creative Commons License:

 

Komiku - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Komiku

School - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Komiku/Captain_Glouglous_Incredible_Week_Soundtrack/mall_1328/

 

AI-Generated Transcript:

Speaker 1: 0:22

Hi and welcome to the Perfect Show. I'm your host, scott Moppen. I'm what you might call a perfection prospector, sifting through life looking for little things or experiences that could be considered perfect. Join me each episode as I examine one topic that I'm presenting as a little nugget of perfection. I'm tremendously fascinated by compliments. Not in the way where you compliment me I drop everything and like go on, tell me more, but in the way that I contend a successful compliment pulls off the closest you can come to a real magic trick. Now, I don't believe in magical powers, but I do believe in the power of compliments. I've seen them change moods or shift whole situations. I've seen compliments stop fights and also open locked doors kind of like magic words. Actually, on today's episode of the podcast, I want to explore compliments and the energy they produce, and one surprising lightning rod I found to attract that energy A simple pair of pink shoes. So what am I talking about with compliments producing energy? Well, I'm saying what happens for me anyway. When someone gives me a compliment, especially when it's unexpected, it gives me a little, almost literal zip of energy. It feels like a little extra charge just runs through my system. That term brightens someone's day, that is what it can seem like, and after a compliment you might see someone perk up, some walk a little straighter or smile in some way. That's why I compare them to magic words. You say them and sometimes there's an immediate, noticeable real world effect. But some physicists out there may be shouting, scott, that would put you at odds with the law of conservation of energy, which says energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only converted from one form to another. And that's a good point. Also, thanks for listening, weird pedantic physicist guy. I don't think we're at odds with the law of conservation of energy because I think it's not actually creating any energy, merely transferring it, like the law says. All genuinely human compliments start with one thing in common attention. That attention is then the energy that gets transferred to the other person through the compliment. You notice someone's new haircut or nicely matched outfit, pay attention to a child's work at school or some artist's new creation. It takes a little effort, it takes a little time to learn how to always be looking for those things, but you translate that attention into some kind of a compliment and when it hits its destination it can actually lift the spirits of whoever was on the receiving end. They're not the only one affected either. I mean, if I land a compliment and I can tell it was successful, I get a little zing out of it too, sort of a positive shrapnel that radiates off the compliment and gets you as well, which I guess speaks to how powerful the thing attention is and how much energy is really involved in it. So, as always when I need a little infallible wisdom on a subject, I turn to the world of Hollywood. We're talking big budget studios, rooms full of award winning writers, people who can and do work obsessively over a screenplay until every last letter and punctuation mark are perfect. So then, when I Google the best compliments in the history of movies, what comes up? I mean, it's a pretty subjective thing, but there does seem to be a consensus for number one. Actually, I think this one gets noticed in part because it's got big actors. They did pretty good with awards, nabbing Oscars for leading actor, leading actress, supporting actor and best picture. And well, it not only gives a compliment, but that compliment happens during a discussion about compliments and then it gets commented on directly. So I think it's especially highlighted in people's memories. I'm speaking of the 1997 movie, as good as it gets written by James L Brooks, starring Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, both of whom won Academy Awards for their roles. Like I said, in the film, nicholson is a prickly writer who is rude and downright awful to everyone around him, and Hunt is a waitress with far too much patience for a person like that. But there's a famous scene in the middle where they're having dinner together and it starts like this Okay, now I got a real great compliment for you, and it's true.

Speaker 3: 4:51

So afraid you're about to say something awful.

Speaker 2: 4:54

Don't be pessimistic. It's not your style. Okay, here I go. Clearly a mistake.

Speaker 4: 5:05

I've got this. What Ailment.

Speaker 1: 5:15

And then Jack proceeds to ramble about himself and not wanting to take a medication His doctor prescribed, while Helen stares at him. And then he finally gets to this destination.

Speaker 4: 5:25

Well, my compliment to you is the next morning I started taking the pills.

Speaker 3: 5:37

I don't quite get how that's a compliment for me.

Speaker 1: 5:41

Yup, I'm team Helen here. It's not a compliment for her, okay, so what do you have to say to that Jack?

Speaker 2: 5:50

You make me want to be a better man.

Speaker 1: 5:54

Ooh, okay, helen, let him have it.

Speaker 2: 6:01

That's maybe the best compliment of my life.

Speaker 1: 6:04

What? No, helen? I mean, they sell it. They are great actors, but that's a terrible compliment, helen. That's when you should be saying this one again.

Speaker 3: 6:16

I don't quite get how that's a compliment for me.

Speaker 1: 6:19

All right, we need some help here. The definitions I get when I look up compliment are a polite expression of praise or admiration and to politely congratulate or praise someone for something. So when Jack pulls out the you make me want to be a better man thing. It's not congratulating or praising anything about Helen's character, he's commenting on himself and I know some people will be like, yeah, that's the point they're making, because he's such a self-centered guy that that's all he can muster and it's a huge thing for him and sure, fine, but it still is a terrible compliment that still makes it all about him, and Helen shouldn't have said that's maybe the best compliment of my life because it wasn't even a compliment. Can you imagine telling someone about it? Like trying to tell someone about the compliment you just got? Wow, you're not going to believe the compliment I just got. Oh, tell me. Well, you know that awful guy, the one everyone hates. Well, he just said I make him want to be better. Better than awful, yeah, I guess, but not even good. Just better than completely awful, yeah. And then he gave you a compliment. No, that was the compliment, oh Right. But Nicholson and Hunt were on top of their games, delivered their lines like real pros, and it worked. I'm not saying it didn't work, just that it doesn't make sense and I think it sort of should. If it's going to get marked down as the best compliment in movie history and I'll argue, it actually took that crown from another famous romance relationship movie that came out just one year earlier, the Cameron Crow smash hit from 1996, starring Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger. I'm talking, of course, about the film Jerry Maguire If you haven't seen it. Jerry Maguire, tom Cruise is a sports agent who leaves his big agency to go at it solo, and Zellweger plays a single mother who doesn't know if she and Maguire are partners in business, in romance in both or in neither. It's a great movie. Tom Cruise is doing his thing and Renee Zellweger kills it. Cubic Coding Jr Pulse down an Oscar for his role. Regina King and Jonathan Libnicki are perfect, and everyone starts quoting Jerry Maguire all over the place. Two of the most famous lines are actually in the clip I want to play In the movie. At a time when they have been apart, an emotional Tom Cruise comes to see Renee Zellweger and gives a manic, impassioned speech to win her back, which culminates in this I love you.

Speaker 4: 8:58

You Complete me. I'm not just Shut up, just shut up.

Speaker 2: 9:03

You hate me, I'm not. Just Shut up, just shut up, you hate me, I'm not just Shut up, shut up, shut up.

Speaker 5: 9:12

You hate me at hello, you hate me at hello.

Speaker 1: 9:23

Okay, renee, fair enough, jerry Maguire could probably have me at hello too. I mean, we're talking about Tom Cruise in 96. That, the peak of his Tom Cruise-iness. He could probably have at hello most of us, if we're being honest. That's not where my qualms is. I'm talking about this part.

Speaker 4: 9:40

You.

Speaker 1: 9:43

Complete me. Okay, Helen, can you come here real quick? What was that thing you said?

Speaker 3: 9:51

I don't quite get how that's a compliment for me.

Speaker 1: 9:55

Right, you complete me. Is that a compliment? Let's run it through the simulator again. Picked up another compliment, this time from Jerry. Oh, what did he say? Well, he was giving a big speech and then at the end he said you complete me and that's the compliment. Then, yeah, why? What's he complimenting about you? Well, he's complimenting my yeah Ability to complete him. But honestly, it didn't matter what he said, he already had me at hello. Totally fair, it's Jerry Maguire, I get it. But yeah, that's another one. It's like as good as it gets where it's not really a compliment at all. It's totally about the person saying it, completely self-centered and just pretending to be a compliment, and if these are the best examples that movies have to offer, well then maybe this topic needs a bit of attention so we can define the bounds of what is actually a compliment and then also maybe explore what the flip side of that would be. All of this compliment talk got me to thinking about the best compliment I've ever received, and once I decided to get into the story of what that was, I actually wanted to reach out and see what other good compliment stories I could find, so I made a mini episode about it a few months ago with a number to call in and tell me stories of your best compliments, and now I'd like to play one listener story that I received.

Speaker 2: 11:23

Hey Scott, this is Steven in Silver Spring, maryland. So my story of the perfect compliment that I received was from my now wife, and the story was we went on our first date, but I had a lot of baggage because I had been married previously and my previous wife had died a year earlier, and so I talked about that in our first date and maybe I talked about it more than I should have. And so after our first date, we had a really good time. We went on to ice cream after dessert afterwards, which was usually a sign that people want to spend more time together and then I followed up with her and continued our email correspondence and let's meet up again this weekend. And then that coming weekend, I think, was a long weekend, and I went through the whole weekend and did not hear anything back from her and was getting very anxious because I had I'm not going to call it love at first sight, but I knew that this was a person. This was the person that I wanted to be with. I just knew. I didn't hear from her over the weekend and I was heartbroken. And finally, on the Monday of the holiday weekend, I got an email from her saying thanks, I had a really nice time, but I think we're just not meant to be together. I think this just isn't going to work or something. Something very sort of simple and bland and non-explanatory. And so I was heartbroken by that. I wasn't sure what to do, and then, finally, I got this idea. I remembered this sort of humorous letter that had gone around, sort of a viral thing. It was a humorous letter that was written by a hypothetical job applicant who had been rejected and they rejected. They wrote a letter rejecting that rejection, using the same language back at the original. Anyway, I decided to write a rejection of her rejection letter and my basic premise was if you're not into me, that's great. You know I'm not great. But if you're not into me, you know, I understand I'm not going to try to change that. But if it's about these other things, this baggage that I'm bringing, then let's talk more. You know, let's explore this a little bit. And so I wrote that. I worked on it really hard, I thought about it. I'm sure I did multiple drafts before I sent it, and then I sent it to her and about a day or two later I got a response saying essentially okay, let's talk, let's meet again and it's all worked out. Since then. You know not that there haven't been some bumps along the way, but it's worked out really well. And she told me later. She said it was your writing. It was your writing that really got me. I really I really loved your writing and I think that's the best compliment I've ever received.

Speaker 1: 14:33

So, piggybacking off that my perfect compliment came when I was living in Japan, and it's much less the result of my own actions than Steven's. Actually, it happened when I was with my friend, jeff Clemens, who was on the Park Golf episode with me, but we also sat down and talked compliments when he was here too. I'm back with Jeff, my friend from Canada, who I met in Japan. Jeff Clemens hi, hey, how's it going? What's happening? So I wanted to have, while I was here, I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to talk about an experience that I'm putting into one of my episodes, but I'm thinking back to you. You were a key part of the best compliment I've ever gotten. The experience I'm thinking about is back when we had this. You reminded me it was an international. What is it? The International Society?

Speaker 5: 15:23

Oh yeah, it was the International Association of Takikawa. There you go, or some. I can't remember their correct words. I don't know if they could, because they were wonderful. They are wonderful people.

Speaker 1: 15:35

And it was run by the CIR in Takikawa. While we were there, Matthew Caesar and he had grouped together a bunch of some English speakers and then a bunch of Japanese native speakers to have lunch together, and the loop for us was like your lunch is going to be paid for and then the appeal is that you can. Then They'll talk to people at our table or whatever. We'll have practice English conversation.

Speaker 5: 16:01

Well. So it was funny because Matt had always invited every English speaker. Matt was like this is an open invitation to every English speaker, Please come for lunch. And most people were like, well, I teach so I can't. And for us we were like, yeah sure, We'll just make sure that we have that time open. I think it was once a month, every Tuesday, or once every two weeks, every Tuesday we were like we will keep that open for free lunch.

Speaker 1: 16:26

And I didn't go to that many because of what you're saying. I was. Usually I had to do something at the junior high schools that I was working in, and for some reason this time I didn't, and I was free and I don't know if school was out or I didn't have classes or whatever, but I was able to go to the lunch with you all, and so I showed up and we went and it's this. Revista was a farm restaurant. It was kind of like a large log cabin and they served kind of really nice delicate pastas and just different dishes is what I remember. I don't know, I don't know what else to when I was here, I feel I always got soup curry because they did.

Speaker 5: 17:00

They always did a really good soup curry and they always put whatever the freshest vegetables were into it. Well, that's cool. And interesting enough is we almost always went to Victoria for English, like English shout was almost always at Victoria, which is steak Victoria. Yeah, I would always get the hamburger Hamburger sitting on rice with cheese melted on top the hamburger Doria. So usually we did that. So you actually have on the best one.

Speaker 1: 17:26

I came on the best one we went to like a special place. Because now I'm like in my brain that's the one you went to every time, but that sounds.

Speaker 5: 17:33

I think we only went once.

Speaker 1: 17:34

I'm learning that's the only time. Okay, well, this is a special occasion, but I was. I remember being seated at a table across from two nice older ladies. So I had a haircut much like I have right now, and that is, I had like shaved my head all the way down I'm sure it was summer or something and I just go short so that I don't have to think about it. So I had like a buzz cut, maybe a little bit longer, and I have kind of like a light, dirty, blondish color of hair. And so the lady sitting across from me and the Japanese lady sitting across from me said you look like Brad Pitt. And I stopped for a moment. I was like whoa, did you just say I looked like Brad Pitt? And she goes yes, you look like Brad Pitt. And then she holds her hand to her forehead and she goes from here up. And she holds her hand to her forehead and goes from here up and I go from here up, mentioning basically my short hair, that is, brad Pitt hair colored. I go, yeah, and I go what about here? And I hold my hand into my forehead, I go, what about here down? And I move it past my face and she like gives me a stern look and then she's like, no, here I go, but here up. And she's like, yes, and I'm like one eighth of Brad Pitt said I will take it, I will take it. That is still the best compliment I've ever received, likely ever will receive. I'll take it. So I was officially. I, without prompting. Someone said you look like Brad Pitt. There are some contextualizations to it, but that doesn't always have to be part of the story. No, it's just I was doing like Brad Pitt and I was like, oh, and from here up, but I'm like I will take it. That's good. That's the best compliment I think I've ever gotten. It happened there. I was just so tickled I remembered it still to this day very much.

Speaker 5: 19:26

So so I always found that interesting when they would compare us to celebrities Like you look like this celebrity and that similar group. One of them said you know, you look like Daniel Craig. And I looked at them and I went and I don't, I don't think you do Like I don't. I think our eyes might be similar color and I think that's where she was getting it is that our eyes were similar color. And she goes you look like Daniel Craig. And they all kind of nod like yeah, yeah, and I'm going, oh, that's good. And one of the others goes or Jack Black, and that's a that's a pretty good one. That was not bad, that one's not bad, yeah. And I was like, wow, you went on either end of the spectrum of who I might look like.

Speaker 1: 20:11

Yes, yeah, all right Well this is great. Thank you for letting me sit you down on Mike.

Speaker 5: 20:17

Yeah, no thanks. Thanks for inviting me to. Yeah, cool, bye, success.

Speaker 1: 20:25

One of the things about doing a podcast that I love and also didn't ever consider before starting is that it gets me to research some strangely specific things sometimes and this episode I spent some of that time going through photos of each and every Brad Pitt movie because I really wanted to figure out exactly which one my hair was making her think of. Now I'm sure this was only necessary for me. Really, everyone else probably already has the history of Brad Pitt's hairstyles locked in their long term memory still rattling around from those late nights in the quad studying to get their Brad PhD degrees, which of course stands for Brad Pitt hunky dude degrees. Brad is. Brad is a long hair boy, sometimes Troy legends of the fall interview with a vampire. He's got a short scruffy cut more often, like in seven or 12 monkeys in the oceans movies, but he's only done that buzz cut like I had a couple of times. And that means this kind old Japanese lady was most likely thinking of the movie Mr and Mrs Smith, the Doug Lehman flick, where Pitt starred alongside Angelina Jolie as competing assassins who also had the hots for each other or something, I don't know. I think it was mainly an excuse to film beautiful people in large explosions with movie cameras, but that description actually applies well to a ton of films. So we're talking Mr and Mrs Smith, brad Pitt. The timing works out. That would have been a movie in circulation back then and the only other option for a buzz cut Brad Pitt at that time would have been like the last third of Fight Club. So I think the Smiths are a safer bet. So this lady did look like a pretty strict rule follower. So if she wasn't a Fight Club, I imagine she wouldn't have told me about it. Per Club rule number one, the end number two. Now, was there a reason I was telling you this? Yes, is it partly to tell people that I was compared to Brad Pitt once? Yes, does it help that this is an audio medium and people can't see what I actually look like as I'm telling them this? Maybe, but there is a larger point to why I'm bringing this up. It was a momentary thing, completely unprompted and sort of silly actually, but it has stayed with me all these years and thinking back on that small momentary thing still brings a smile to my face, as it has many times since it happened. It was a gift she gave me that I still have the power to tap into and mine little bits of real positive energy out of. So I maintain a pretty basic wardrobe. I wear jeans most of the time. I have t-shirts with different things on them, but I usually am wearing a plain long sleeve shirt over the top covering it up. That's my usual look. I've been sticking with it for a while now. I don't do too much to accessorize no necklaces or piercings or pins but one thing I have come to enjoy immensely is a pair of colorful shoes. Now, colorful or crazy shoes on someone whose whole outfit is also crazy can be too much for me. That might be a person to avoid for any number of reasons, but someone with an exceedingly normal outfit, except for one fun accent like colorful shoes, well, that's just some good, clean fun. Right now, the shoes I wear for this purpose are all the same make and model. My habit of owning several different colors of the exact same article of clothing extends, of course, to my shoes too. The shoe I go with, my regular shoe, is the Chuck Taylor All Stars by Congress. They're the classic canvas high top shoe with a thick white sole and a white shell toe. There's a circle with a star and a Chuck Taylor signature is on each ankle. In fact, the shoes are often just called Chuck Taylor's or Chuck's All right, I knew I'd get a chance to paraphrase from Wikipedia to you. So okay, here we go. I had thought Chuck Taylor was just a famous basketball player from before my time. I mean to get his name on the most iconic tennis shoe of a generation. It had to be, and he was a basketball player, but Wikipedia lists his name with the word salesman in parentheses afterward, taylor was born in 1901, only 10 years after basketball was invented and five years before they switched from using peach baskets to metal hoops. He played in high school and then went semi pro. Pro basketball wasn't at all like it is today. There was no NBA. That wouldn't start until 1946. So Chuck Taylor played on his first team and then that team disbanded after his first season. He played on a bunch of other teams and by the 20s he was a shoe salesman for Converse. He would eventually become the player manager of the Converse All Stars, a basketball team based out of Chicago that would put on traveling clinics and exhibitions sponsored by Converse, like kind of like the Harlem Globe Prodders, I guess, but they would go around and show off and sell their shoes. A shoe that, with the input of Chuck Taylor, would eventually become the Converse All Star that we know now. A shoe that became so famous and unrivaled that most basketball players wore these shoes for 50 years, from the 20s through the 70s, and they were the official shoe for the Olympic Games from 1936 to 68. At their height in the 60s, this one model of shoe accounted for 70 to 80% of the entire basketball shoe market. That's astounding, but I didn't know anything about that when I decided this was the tennis shoe I wanted to wear. I saw this shoe in movies like Back to the Future, Rocky, in comic books and cartoons. To me this shoe was the shorthand for tennis shoe. When I drew my own cartoon characters, if they were in tennis shoes they almost always wore chucks. Once I unlocked the high school achievement of being old enough to work, drive and buy my own clothes, I found a Converse Outlet Store near where I grew up. I got my height later, but my flippers were large early and Converse All Stars have always been the same, at least as long as I've been wearing them. So once I knew and liked the fit of my size in that shoe. I've been able to buy new shoes confidently, without needing to try them on at all, ever since. It saves me time, it saves me hassle. It's honestly one of the things I appreciate most about this long-standing tradition of mine, and I appreciated the memory of it even more when I moved to Japan. My shoe size jumped from 13 to 31, and the selection of footwear available to me fell to zero. There were rumors people would swear that this one store had huge shoes and they may have had one pair of 28s, or we should go to this bowling alley because they carry every size, which ended up meaning they topped out at 29. By the time I moved to Hokkaido, I had all but given up on finding shoes my size in Japan at all, just wore what I had, which had been holding up until then. They would not have held up the whole four years in Hokkaido, though, but from the amount of time and the regular wear and tear itself, hokkaido is rough on shoes. Whether it's the summer spent hiking and exploring nature, or the winter sloshing around the snow, ice and road salt, my shoes wore out there faster than any place else I've ever lived. Strangely enough, it was an outlet store that again came to my rescue A whole outlet mall actually. We found a huge outlet mall with many Japanese but also American stores and brands in Chitose, hokkaido, a suburb city next to Sapporo where Hokkaido's main airport is, and this mall had a Nike outlet store. Inside. I found two pairs of shoes, my size, I think. One was a plain shoe that would be good for some boring Japanese office work situations, but the other pair was actually how do I describe it? They were white and green and blue and yellow and, I think, a little purple in a few places, probably. Yeah, they were really colorful. I did buy them, but only after a bit of hesitation. Me, the person in desperate need of footwear, debating whether or not I could wear a pair of loudly colored shoes. My reasoning was that I had actually never worn a pair of shoes that intentionally stuck out before. Prior to this, I had focused my shoe energy on trying to fit in or at least blend in the best I could. In most situations, no shoes that say notice me would have been the last thing I would want to wear. But now I was in a world where blending in wasn't ever an option. I was never going to fit in, no matter what in Japan, and anything I wore on my feet would have to get in line behind a lot of other things about my whole look. That said, notice me constantly. I know I started out by saying I love a pair of colorful shoes, but it's because of these shoes. This was my first colorful pair, but first it was a situation of beggars can't be choosers. I needed shoes. These were my size. There was no telling when or if I would find other options in my size without going across an ocean, and back then online shopping wasn't what it is now. But the more I wore them, the more I enjoyed them. I liked seeing the little flash of color out of the bottom of my peripheral vision as I walked. I liked seeing them on a shoe rack and a lineup of super similar black and brown shoes. I mean that was hilarious anyway, because my shoes always looked comically large in those situations and usually stuck out the back of the shoe rack or some other thing. That would make me basically feel like a Sasquatch on a daily basis. But I loved those bright, colorful shoes. I loved having them. I wore them to schools. I wore them part golfing, I wore them walking around on the snow and playing basketball. I wore them when I moved back to the States and I wore them until they wore out and fell apart. During all that time I picked up random compliments all over the place, just out and about. Kids and adults alike would sometimes comment on my shoes, and they proved at times to be excellent icebreakers and conversation starters, all on their own. Meanwhile, back in the States, after the demise of my colorful Nike's, I'll admit I bought random shoes for a while until I happened to discover that I was once again close to my old friend, the Converse Factory Outlet Store. I switched back to Chuck Taylor's. Before Japan, I had always gone high tops, but a stretch in Japan and then also in California, where taking off shoes to enter houses is a more common occurrence, made lacing the high top chucks up and also taking them off a huge pain. So I started mixing in the low top version of the shoe as well. The way I understand the outlet shoes that don't sell at other stores are cycled out and make their way to this outlet store, where they are then marked down further and then also put on sale. On top of that, at least in my size, it's usually chock full of bright and colorful options that have fallen through the whole system getting to this final stop. So after discounts and coupons, I usually walk away with a new pair of chucks for $10 to $30. I mean, I can come in and be done shopping in only a few minutes because, again, I literally never have to try the shoes on. I know exactly what my size is and exactly how it'll fit. I find comfort in that, buying the same thing over and over again. Maybe it's the pleasure of efficient shopping, maybe, but maybe it's also the safety and security of knowing that anytime something wears out, gets damaged, destroyed or fails in some way, I can replace it easily, quickly. But more importantly, exactly, I have found shoes to be the place to come out of my shell in an outfit. It helps that the wacky and bright colored shoes are usually the cheapest in the store. I didn't document this, but anecdotally I feel like I've seen that the more out there in odd colors and styles usually sport the lower price tags too. So I tried a few low tops with fun colors and I really liked the accent. I also got random compliments, many from kids and even teens, which, I'm not gonna lie. When a teenager compliments your clothes. It feels sort of like okay feather in my cap there. I've noticed shoe compliments while wearing brightly colored yellow, purple, blue and green chucks, but I got decidedly more when I wore my pair of pink low top Chuck Taylors. The shoes that I'm placing at the center of this whole thing I'm trying to describe here are about compliments. I got some non-bright colors from time to time over the years too, like black, white and gray, but the colorful ones are by far my favorite. Now I've gotten to a point where when I go in, the more colorful or wild the design is, the quicker I lock it up. Those are the ones I look for exclusively the weird statement shoes or the ones that are going to prompt some sort of response. I guess A pair of bright pink shoes instantly gave my usual outfit just the right amount of personality and made it look good. I thought the difference in compliments I got when wearing these shoes versus any other that I had ever tried was undeniable. It had to be the shoes. They were the only variable I changed in my regular uniform. These pink shoes sparked comments often and at a variety of places the gym, the grocery store, a restaurant, a doctor's office. Honestly, it could be anywhere really, and any random compliment would genuinely give me just a little boost, which would last different amounts of time, but still it was always there. That's why I talk about compliments in terms of generating or transferring energy. That's what I would feel happening to me in those shoes. Stop getting a random compliment out of nowhere. Is there a way to measure how much renewable energy that produces? I mean, it's not nothing. But there were also the other comments. I've talked about the compliments, but the pink shoes also served as well. Let's call them crab detectors. The same way that when I wore my pink shoes, there was a noticeable uptick in people saying nice things about them, which was most people, to be fair. There was also a noticeable uptick in people who would use a man wearing pink shoes as a chance to show well, what a crab they were. A crabby person might look at my feet and say something like oh hey, really nice shoes or something. I mean it wasn't always exactly that or the same thing, but you know, and in that way they actually functioned really well for me on the crab detector front. Does that work? I mean, a lot of times you might be a few minutes into a conversation before a crab says something crabby and outs themselves, but this puts it up front. Crabby people who are going to say crabby things about my shoes usually open with them. By the way, the best response when someone gives you a sarcastic comment like that and I've tested this a few times in these shoes is just to take the sarcastic compliment as a genuine one. So when they give you a hey, really nice shoes, you can reply back in the most genuine way possible oh, thanks, yeah, I really like them, or something like that. You have to play it completely straight, but I found that this sort of deflates the crab and puts them in the spot where they have to either drop it or then try to stick their heads back out to explain their crabby joke. And well, crabs don't like to come out of their shell when they know someone's there waiting for them, so usually just ends there, problem solved. Oh, and extra compliment received double points. The pink low top chucks quickly became my go to pair, and even though I had a few more on the shoe rack next to them, those only really went into a rotation when I was running late and couldn't find my pink ones or something, and what happened was that I literally wore them out. So much that I literally wore them out. At the end I had worn the treadway down. The soul was coming. Apart from the rest of the shoe, at the sides they were cracked and dirty in a bunch of places and well, I'd gotten much more than my original $14 worth out of them. That was probably back over a year ago now, and there have been two major factors in play since then. The first is I finally started acknowledging my backlog of converses pairs that are in really good shape or even new, that I should wear before getting a whole bunch more. But the second factor is that X factor that's in play whenever you're dealing with outlet stores. The inventory is constant but unpredictable. If something is there, it may be the only one of that style, and then it's only there until it isn't. When I went into the store for a really long time, I didn't see the same style of pink shoes. I mean, I only went on occasion, but I saw lots of wild style, some even louder than my bright pink model. But having had so many pleasant experiences with my color and style, I had sort of convinced myself that they were the perfect shoe. So that's what I wanted to find. And then earlier this year I walked in, expected to scan the shelves for a minute and turn back without finding my price. But this time was different. This time I found what I had come for Size 13, converse, chuck Taylor, all Stars in low top and the exact same bright pink that I had before. After markdowns and discounts, we're talking well under $20, like my first pair. So I grabbed them and made the purchase. Pink shoes were back on the menu. Well, actually I still had that backlog of previous shoes I was working on, so the pink shoes went directly into the closet. It was like that famous short story for save pink shoes never worn. But I've been wearing the other shoes out slowly, two by two, and I've really been anticipating getting those pink ones back into the mix someday. Looking for the perfect time, looking for a good excuse. Did I spend countless hours making a podcast just so I could justify wearing a pink pair of shoes a little earlier? Well, actually I was looking for a lot of things with this episode. I mean I wanted to talk about my pink shoes, yeah, but then what I mean like after I say I had pink shoes and the compliment stuff, where do I go next? And so I googled the topic and my city to see what came up. Actually, this is a step that pretty much every episode of the podcast goes through, where I Google relevant words or phrases or the topic and check to see if there's anything semi local that I don't even know to be looking into. For this episode, that meant searching a few terms, but among them was pink shoes, oakland. Now I hit enter, but then Google must have done a double take and been like, oh, this can't be right, let's help this guy out. So it took my search for pink shoes, oakland and served me up right right at the top in blue. Did you mean punk shows Oakland? Because then there's no way what you searched for is what you actually wanted to search for. That must be some mistake, and I hesitated here. But ultimately this show is about me having new experiences Well, really about me trying to have old experiences again, but also new experiences related to those old experiences. So my response no, I did not mean punk shows Oakland, but I do. Now, I wouldn't say that I'm any kind of a punk person. I mean, I think I've said this before, but I'm not much of a music person in general, I've only been to four concerts really, not counting small performances or, like my friend's high school band, carnivorous grass, but four real concerts ever. Number one was in high school when my sister, the exchange student from Belgium, we hosted one summer. My best friend who I had a crush on, but I couldn't tell her and I all went to Starlight Amphitheater in Kansas City to see my first real concert ever Hootie and the Blowfish. It was good. They played songs I knew from the radio. I got to stand there while they played, hold my hand, wishing I was holding the hand of the girl next to me whose hand I was not holding. It was great, but yeah, a bunch of hits. Nice outdoor concert, it was a good time. My second concert was a festival in Lawrence, kansas that I went to my freshman year of college when a girl on my dorm floor that I had a crush on invited me to go with her. I'm sorry, more accurately, there was an open sign up sheet for anyone on our floor and she was the one organizing it, but I mean, that's basically the same thing, right? So I went to a hot outdoor field where a couple of stages had been put up and wandered around with some various people from my dorm floor wondering if I was going to run into the girl I had signed up for. I didn't, and caught some bands in the process. The one I really remember being there for multiple songs of was Everclear, who I was pretty into. But after several hours of not accidentally, on purpose running into the girl I liked and realizing that there were really only three options of what to do with myself, which were walk around a field, stand still in a field or sit on some hay bales, I decided to head back to the dorm at that point and probably watch a law and order rerun or something else more my speed. Our dorms at KU were only a short walk away from the lead center where the university put on lots of concerts and shows, and I was able to get tickets at a student discount to see Beck open up for the flaming lips in a pretty awesome show. That was concert number three, and my last concert was also in college when I went with my girlfriend. See, I finally had a girlfriend for one. They aren't all sad boy things. We went to see Coldplay, which actually might be the most sad boy band. There is Easily the biggest concert I've been to yet indoors in a proper Kansas City concert venue, and I did love it Actually. It was really great. So, yeah, hoody, ever clear, beck, the flaming lips and Coldplay no one really even remotely punk. I guess early ever clear maybe, but I was more into their pop songs and ballads. Also, I genuinely did a thorough search for pink shoes, oakland too. I didn't just see the punk shows suggestion and completely stopped looking, but I didn't really find anything interesting there. So I decided that the best excuse to break out my new pair of pink chucks and see if they still have the same compliment getting power could be to just go to one of those punk shows in pink shoes and see what happens. But which one? Where? How do I find it A little bit of looking. Later what I found was a Facebook group called East Bay punks that would post events and flyers for local punk shows all over the SF Bay area, and there were a lot. I was a little overwhelmed by all the options, things happening most weekends and also sometimes during the week. I finally posted asking the group for advice on what show to go see and got a bunch of helpful replies. One was from someone named Nicole who just so happened to be in a band performing at a punk show in Oakland soon. The band she's in is called Rival Squad. They're a punk band from San Diego and Nicole sings vocals. Rival Squad's show was going to be at a place called Stagold Deli in Oakland. Since joining the Facebook group, I had seen tons of flyers for shows at Stagold. It looked like a pretty decent venue that was always putting on all ages shows with cool lineups of local and out of town bands. So on a Sunday night in September I got ready to go to Stagold Deli and see Rival Squad perform at one of their punk shows in my pink shoes. All right, I'm wearing my pink shoes, got them out of the box for the first time and we're taking them on a, taking them on a trip. The other thing I'm dressed to fit in as best I can.

Speaker 6: 43:54

I did my best anyway.

Speaker 1: 43:55

I've been looking at a lot of different punk stuff, researching and trying to figure out what show to go to, and I think I see a lot of black shirts with white lettering on them and that works. I actually have one black shirt with white graphics on it and so that's what I'm wearing, but it says Star Laboratories on it. It's a little faded, a little distressed now because I've had it since the beginning of the CW show for the Flash. I'm a huge comic book fan, grew up reading, collecting comics, loved the Flash and so when they made a TV show of it, I was on board and got t-shirts at the beginning with the Star Laboratories logo, which is kind of like a flash shirt, but not overtly flash. It's kind of incognito nerd stuff where sometimes people will see it and be like, hey, and if they don't, no big deal. But that's what I'm wearing. I think I fit in. I think I'm wearing just some jeans, my Star Lab shirt, pink converse and I've got my coat up. So here we go. I contacted Nicole when I knew I'd be able to come for sure, and asked if the band would have any time to talk with me for the podcast. So we decided on meeting up before their set out back in the large patio area that Stagold has.

Speaker 6: 45:26

All right.

Speaker 1: 45:29

So welcome everybody. Thanks for joining me. I'm here with Rival Squad and I'm at my first punk show ever. So we're at Stagold Deli and yeah, so this is exciting. I'm just sitting down with you guys and could I get you guys to maybe introduce yourselves one by one for the show.

Speaker 6: 45:51

Of course I'm Nicole. I do the vocals for Rival Squad.

Speaker 7: 45:55

I'm Jerry. I play the guitar. Julio, I play bass.

Speaker 3: 45:58

Israel play drums. Awesome, awesome, thank you.

Speaker 1: 46:03

So how long have you all been together? What's kind of a quick history of your band, I guess.

Speaker 6: 46:08

Quick history we came up during COVID and we started just practicing. So we've been together for three years. First year and maybe the second year we didn't really play too much just because of the COVID restrictions yeah, we started right before COVID. Yeah, right after COVID.

Speaker 1: 46:22

Right on. How would you describe your music? I don't know genres and subgenres, but is there a specific way or how would you describe your music? That's a Jerry question.

Speaker 6: 46:31

He's a master at this one.

Speaker 7: 46:32

I think it's just it just comes from whatever I'm feeling, I guess. Okay, so you know anything like kind of Crust Punk, hardcore, db, subpensive, mech, we call each other like an umbrella turn of like Hardcore Punk, but in reality there's many songs that like.

Speaker 6: 46:50

There's songs that differentiate that a lot and that sound very fast paced crust, yeah, and then there's other songs that are actually even slower than that and sound more slug sludge like. So it's kind of it's a mixture of a lot, but I think we use the umbrella turn of Hardcore Punk just because it can fall into it's, yeah, a big umbrella turn. Yeah, sure.

Speaker 1: 47:08

I'm new to the whole genre. I asked my music friend to make me a playlist like a while back when I was starting this, and so he made me punk that started with like surf rock.

Speaker 6: 47:17

Oh, love it. Yeah, yeah, so many subgenres, this is all punk. He's like this is all punk, this is all punk. I'm like great this is cool.

Speaker 1: 47:24

So it's really cool. That's excellent. All right, you see, how did you all get into punk music? Is it something you grew up with loving and then turned into musicians, or I don't know how that works. I'm not a musician myself.

Speaker 6: 47:37

Yeah, Personally for me. I grew up in a really rough neighborhood, so you could either like gang bang or not, and if you didn't, you're probably a punk Gotcha. There was a little what to call a venue down the alley from me and it was called the Yard in San Diego and it was an all age spot. I started going there when I was 13 and just met a lot of really cool people, people that had this little release that I did, and I chose to kind of stray away from like what I would say most of my peers were doing at the time and decided to just go a different route. That's how I got into the music, just actually because I stumbled upon this venue.

Speaker 7: 48:15

Awesome, Very cool After me. I just I was a teenager in Florida and had nothing else to do, so I started playing guitar because I had nothing, you know, I learned how to play and it started with, like, you know, like pop, punk and like the popular stuff, like the thing that whatever's on TV, yeah, like the easy riffs, but then it kind of, you know, I got more into it, you know, eventually, like metal and stuff, and I started going to shows, yeah, ever since.

Speaker 4: 48:42

Oh yeah, what do you think For me? I got into it at a very early age because of my sister. She was really into like metal and all that. My aunts were too.

Speaker 1: 48:53

Older and younger sister.

Speaker 6: 48:54

Yeah, so yeah, they're all older on the youngest one.

Speaker 4: 48:56

Yeah yeah. So she introduced me to like Guns N' Roses and Iron Maiden. Yeah, my aunts favorite band is Mega Death, which is weird here and then, like you know, cleaning the house and music. But yeah, that's pretty much how I got into music and everybody in my family's a musician, so just being around everyone Very cool. Yeah, it kept me out of trouble.

Speaker 1: 49:17

Yeah, I can that seems excellent.

Speaker 3: 49:21

With me. Same as my brother. He's my brother. Same thing in Florida. I just listen to pop, punk, stuff like that, and then we just trail them to metal and stuff like that. We're not from Florida, by the way, we're from Chicago.

Speaker 6: 49:34

For the record, not from Florida.

Speaker 3: 49:36

We didn't grow up in Florida.

Speaker 7: 49:39

We lived a year there.

Speaker 1: 49:42

Has Rival Squad had any wild and crazy stories from shows? I mean, that's one of the things that strikes me about all the punk music I was listening to. It's just there's so much raw energy just right under the surface and I was going to ask. I was like, does that? I mean that's got to pop out of the surface sometimes and just get great.

Speaker 6: 49:58

It really does, honestly, yeah, sometimes it's really good.

Speaker 7: 50:02

Sometimes, you know, some people get a little. Of course, they enjoy a little too much and you know it gets out of control.

Speaker 6: 50:07

Yeah, it does Especially. You know it's a drinking and whatnot. But I mean, for the most part we don't really have wild stories. If anything, we have actually really good stories. Yeah, throughout our whole tour we've met nothing but people with pure love for us, like have like put us up in there, like in our houses, have, like you know, brought us out to breakfast, have, you know, everything. It's just it's been really great.

Speaker 1: 50:29

Just really awesome people across, the across all the different stops. Yeah, yeah, just complete love and just complete support.

Speaker 6: 50:35

That's fantastic yeah we've been very grateful to have gotten that experience, because I know sometimes it does get kind of crazy with bands. So yeah, we've been a little lucky. We've been a little lucky For being our first tour.

Speaker 1: 50:44

A string of good stories is excellent. That sounds great. That sounds great. This might seem a little cliche, but I did wonder what's your favorite part of performing? Like what I don't perform, I don't. I don't get like a crowd. My thing I do, and then I go back into my cave and create it. I don't really get a live reaction. But what's your favorite part of that? What's your favorite part of performing?

Speaker 6: 51:05

I would say that my first, the first part in general, is even just being allowed to have that platform, because I don't think I'm ever really able to speak about things that I, you know, that things that bother me, or things that that I feel that are like crazy, that we overlook, that you know daily things, lives that we overlook, like how is it that we live like this and these, like these injustices are happening right under our noses, things like that that I really feel like. Even just having the platform to shed some light onto those things being that I have most of my families in Mexico, I make it a point to also shed light on, you know, injustices that happen in Mexico as well Just to. It really is kind of just like an overall platform for, like my, for my experience, what I have lived, whether it's racism or just pure right, like just in human rights that you know we have either in the US or Mexico. Just having that and people agreeing and or even people saying, oh, I didn't know about that, that's crazy. That brings like even just bringing awareness brings me all the joy.

Speaker 7: 52:12

Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's one thing, you know, that's an important thing. But I guess, music wise, I, whenever anybody like digs, like the, you know the raves, the noise that we make. I just can you know something that I think it's just we're making noise. It might sound like music at some point, but if people dig it, it's always feels cool when people like it.

Speaker 4: 52:35

The things I get out of shows is just being able to, you know, be creative and just express yourself musically. I mean that's the best satisfaction I get everybody seeing everyone having a good time.

Speaker 7: 52:45

You know, that's the best feeling in the world. That's awesome.

Speaker 3: 52:50

Favorite part of performing, just like having fun, just be out up there, like just don't even think about what's going on, just have fun and hopefully everybody else is having fun with you. That's pretty much it All right.

Speaker 1: 53:04

Here's where my terrible memory kicks in. Who is the drummer? Again Me this guy. Okay, because that is extra impressive to me. Because my rhythm skills are zero to negative.

Speaker 3: 53:14

Yeah, when you're just sitting down, I have to entertain myself. You know I can't walk around and you know, try to pump up the crowd.

Speaker 7: 53:21

I'm just sitting down in the background, I'm just going to try to have fun with myself. If there's a good job, I keep it on track. Yeah, sometimes.

Speaker 1: 53:28

It's really good, awesome, awesome. And then just I just had some kind of fun questions like what was the first concert you ever went to or favorite concert, just kind of talking concerts, I don't know, I don't know I can't remember my first concert like big concert, but I did go to a lot of backyard shows.

Speaker 6: 53:44

One of my favorite one was actually the ska band from San Diego called Esqueda and it was like an all ska lineup but it was just so fun, how like it was. Nothing but like. Sometimes, at like some shows, people can get like too rowdy and fight and whatnot. This particular show I remember just everyone being like happy, everyone just being like giddy and stuff like that, and then that was one of my favorite shows and it was at the yard and then till this day actually I still know like some of the band members and they still come to our shows and stuff like that. So it almost brings up like another, like just like really good community sense, like hey, I grew up going to your shows and now you're coming to my shows, right, right, cool experience.

Speaker 7: 54:25

That's so cool. I don't remember my first concert, but the most favorite recent, I guess was I got to see Merciful Fate in Vegas a couple of months ago and you know, they haven't been to the States, I think, since the 90s or early 2000s, so they they're here, so I got to see them and that was pretty cool. I've been a fan for a long time.

Speaker 4: 54:49

Mine. I don't remember my first concert concert, but my favorite one had to be the Damned in San Diego. Yeah, that one was really good. They're really good. Live, to say hold up pretty good.

Speaker 3: 55:01

I think my first show was a leftover crack show, I think Nice. I was in high school.

Speaker 7: 55:07

At the epicenter.

Speaker 3: 55:08

Yeah, epicenter, epicenter and Merciful, Something like that, yeah.

Speaker 7: 55:11

A recipe no longer there. It's a fun show.

Speaker 1: 55:16

Well, how can people find you or find your music, how can people catch up to you online or in?

Speaker 7: 55:22

person. We're pretty much everywhere All the streaming YouTube. Yeah, some people uploaded our stuff on YouTube. Okay, yeah, spotify Bandcamp.

Speaker 1: 55:33

Bandcamp. Yeah, bandcamp is where I was listening.

Speaker 7: 55:36

Apple music, I think. And you have Instagram. Yeah, underscore, rival squad, underscore and then, yeah, we're also on tape. We're not just all digital.

Speaker 1: 55:50

Analog and digital. It's covering it all. Yeah, Very cool Right on. Is there anything else?

Speaker 7: 55:54

you guys want to talk about. What do you feel? You know what the songs represent.

Speaker 6: 55:59

Our songs are purely just really politically charged, like just we. Most of our songs are in Spanish. We try to kind of keep it half and half, just because you know, but yeah, it's just mainly, yeah, politically charged. A lot of really heartfelt stuff, just things that we tend to overlook sometimes, or even things that are normalized and we kind of just seem like, oh well, there's no way out of this, this is just how life is. But I think we kind of just try to bring some hope into people that there is a better way of life and that there is a chance of change.

Speaker 1: 56:35

Okay, when you're coming up with a new song, does that start with like the political idea, and then you're like I want to form music around it, or do you have music kind of forming and you're like, I think I know an idea that can fit in here.

Speaker 6: 56:50

The music happens first. This guy. It's maybe a mixture, right, maybe a mixture. I kind of tend to do the music.

Speaker 7: 56:57

We do the music first, and then Nicole has some stuff written down and we try to like connect, you know, find a way to make it fit.

Speaker 6: 57:06

Other times, though, I think like I'll hear something he's doing and it'll just feel like heavy air will feel dark, and I'm like, okay, I think I know what to do. Is this not go like a certain route?

Speaker 1: 57:17

Start to match that.

Speaker 6: 57:17

Yeah, yeah, like that Other times it's like, hey, we need to work on a new song and I'll be like, okay, well, like this political event just happened, like abortion rights like being overturned we were that's going to be probably one of our new songs that we're working on, just because it's like a relevant case and that you know we need, you know exactly. But then at some times it's more of like a political thing happens and then we're like all right, this is our next song. Other times it's like Jerry just has a really cool riff and I'm like all right, all right you know like I'll work with it. It's a mixture, it's a mixture, but yeah, just wherever it comes from.

Speaker 1: 57:50

Yeah right, it's a train of just whatever, yeah, whatever happens. That's so cool. Okay, well, thanks. I should probably let you get ready for your stuff too, but I'll thank you.

Speaker 6: 58:01

Definitely I'm happy to be having you. I appreciate it. Yeah, definitely I appreciate it so much, thank you guys. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 58:10

Rival Squad was so cool. Check out the show notes and website for all the links to all their things. But Rival Squad on Bandcamp, rival Squad on Spotify it'll all be in the show notes Just Rival Squad everywhere. Like they said, I bought some nice merch from their table too a shirt, pens and patches. I would have gotten a tape, but I literally have no idea how I would play it, so I'll opt for the digital versions. But the shirt was you're not gonna believe this black with white graphics on it. I know my poser days were almost over. I now owned the real deal. So while they talked to fans and got ready, I buzzed around and checked out the other bands on stage Tonight. The punk bands were all led by female singers, some absolutely ferocious hard-rocking ladies, and while they switched, the band set up getting ready for Rival Squad to close out the night, I took a break from all that sound and stepped outside to talk about how it was going so far. This was really fun. I was really fun. Actually, I did do the old man move and saw that they were offering ear plugs like at the same place where I paid to get in, and so I asked if I could get a couple ear plugs and did and put them in, and it blocks out a chunk of the noise, not everything, and actually that puts it right in the zone where I can get in and get down with it. It's great, so I'm happy about this. I got them in my hand right now and I'll put them back in before I go to hit up more music. Yup ear plugs. They were just what I needed inside Stay Gold when the bands were playing. It did make it harder to monitor the audio. I was recording, though, but spare the ear and spoil the recording or whatever. I also by the way, I definitely don't think the mic picked this up because the music was blasting it up, but I picked up a straight up compliment on my shoes immediately. While I was in there. The first thing I did was go in and wait in line to use the restroom and in line the dude who was in line before me while we're over there. He leaned over and he was like, hey man, nice shoes. I was like thank you. So I doubt it picked it up, but I'll check it back on the tape. But there you go, I already got one. I wasn't expecting to be able to hear any of what I just described at all, but when I listened back I was able to find it here. I've dropped the music way down and if you're listening for it, you can make out him saying I like your shoes and then me saying thank you. But how great is that? Right? I went there hoping to get an unprompted compliment on my pink shoes and I totally got one. I was stoked that that actually worked out, and then it was finally time for Rival Squad to take the stage. I got their blessing ahead of time to keep recording during the show, and I did. But, man, their music overpowered my recorder at first until I eventually got dialed in. But here are some moments from their set.

Speaker 6: 1:01:25

Here are Rival Squad in San Diego, California.

Speaker 1: 1:01:34

Rival Squad played for 23 minutes of fire. The energy in the place was palpable. There were people dancing, people mashing, people singing along in places. I was there recording with my your Plugz in really enjoying the first ever punk show.

Speaker 6: 1:01:56

This next show is about being something. We we're going to call it Burnout. We're like, oh, I'm so burnt out, I can't do this but things I actually enjoy.

Speaker 5: 1:02:05

I'm so burnt out we're going to explode down a little bit, but this next song is going to be a bit of a navigate.

Speaker 6: 1:02:38

I'm so burnt out, I'm so burnt out, I'm so burnt out.

Speaker 1: 1:03:22

And then after their set, rival Squad got a huge ovation and everyone cleared out to the patio to meet all the bands, buy their stuff and just hang out until last call. At which point I made my way from the Stay Gold patio back to my car and I want to play that part a little later, but first, here I am driving home as I process what I had just seen and heard. One of the things I really liked I didn't know this was coming One of the things I really liked was I felt like I knew there was energy in the punk. There was just raw energy. I said that to Nicole and the band. I was so angry at stuff. Everything is anger. That's when I grew up. There were songs that got to the radio, which is how I engage with music a lot of times. There were songs that got to the radio that were anger songs, but for the most part those songs, the anger was very vaguely directed. It was I'm angry at, I'm just angry. I'm angry, I feel bad, I'm angry, or like I'm angry at love or I'm angry at very vague concepts, very vague concepts. And this felt the anger was there and you can feel it and it feels directed. It feels directed at not vague things at all, very specific things. It's like this is because of I'm angry at this injustice or about this platform, and this was in all ages shows. So that includes people who are 18, people who are under 18. I saw teenagers in the mosh pit doing like moshing with everybody else and that was cool. It's cool to see that much energy focused very specifically. I found it very engaging, it was very cool. So, yeah, that was a really cool experience. So, yeah, I thought about this some more. The bands I'm thinking of, I mean the ones that had that punk sound at least my ears and made it to major radio play where I would hear them, were like Green Day, the Offspring, blink 182, some 41. And they were, for sure, angsty and putting that emotion on front street. But, like I said before, it's like mad at love or mad at life or mad at growing up, whatever. But they were pretty clipped politically and I still love Some 41. So no disrespect is there, but I don't really clock their music as in any way political. I guess the exception, though, the notable one that got through even to my pop and top 40 self, was rage against the machine. They have been strongly political throughout their whole career, while still topping charts and putting on humongous shows all over the world. Even now, you can see online people discovering the lyrics and complaining that they've gotten political now, and it's just hilarious because that's who they've always been. The anger and rage songs isn't vague or inert. It's specific and directed. It's free speech and protest in the form of music, and that was the vibe I had gotten at Stagold that night too. The songs I heard were more like protests and marches, just in a different form. You know what I mean the same energy, the same thing I'm bringing from people. And also I saw overlap of different groups. I saw people who, to me and I'm not good at doing this by sight at all, nor should people by sight but I saw people whose clothing made me think that they're punk, that they would say they're punk Minor threat shirts and different logos and stuff on things that I've seen. I saw people who, when I was growing up, I would classify as goth. They had different makeup and aesthetic you know, studded leather things and different, just a different aesthetic. And I saw people who were just in t-shirts or tank tops and jeans or shorts, just like I was Everybody overlap and it was really cool. Yeah, very. A lot of young people, a lot of overlap, the dad and me, these people pushing and shoving in a mosh pad.

Speaker 2: 1:08:27

It's like no, no, no, no, no, no, no no.

Speaker 1: 1:08:31

But they work it out, it works out. I saw people get knocked down and I thought, uh-oh, is this going to be a real fight? Like I mean, after my cruise ship experience a couple of months ago, the uh-oh, is this going to be a real fight? It does actually happen in my brain more often. But you know, hey, he got picked up, they kept going. I think there was mutual respect, mutual consideration and everyone I it. I don't really talk about this a lot, but I do jujitsu, and I don't talk about it because there's already a podcast, uh, centered around comedy, that talks about jujitsu heavily. And I don't I don't need to be that guy either, but what? But the mosh pit most closely reminded me of jujitsu, where you're engaged in this intense physical activity that, for people who are not initiated, seems terrible and like something you would never want to do, which is true. Try to strangle someone while they're trying to strangle you and be the first person to get to the finish line. But you're doing that in a way that from the outside, looks like two people wrestling and savagely fighting each other at times, or whatever it looks like, but it from the inside, I'll tell you. There is a care and a compassion. At least in good gyms, good gyms with a good, healthy vibe, there's a care and compassion between training partners when you're doing jujitsu. That I think I saw. The same thing in the mosh pit is what I'm trying to say, and that was really cool, because jujitsu is not for everyone, just like mosh pits aren't for everyone, and for me mosh pits are not, at least tonight. You know what? No, I'll just say it. I will make the blanket statement that mosh pits are not for me across the board, but that's okay, because I saw them tonight with a different set of eyes than, honestly, I've ever looked at a mosh pit before with, and that's kind of cool. None of my other concerts I ever went to had mosh pits the there's no mosh pit in Hootie, the Blowfish no mosh pit at Coldplay yeah, this might have been my first one. I noticed that I keep talking about the energy, the energy I was seeing and feeling all around me at the show, and that's where this whole thing started, with compliments to feeling like they generate this palpable extra energy out of nowhere, but really it comes from directed attention that someone turns into that energy, and I think with punk music what I'm seeing is the exact same reaction, just in reverse. I mean, it was a random chance that I went from pink shoes to punk shows via a Google suggestion, but I do really think that they are actually closely tied together. What I had just experienced was people with energy and tons of it, directing that energy into attention. Attention on themselves, sure, but attention on different issues, on human rights, attention to the plights of people in need, attention to just being political and paying attention. Just the hopes, then, that the attention turns to action, the energy continues to move forward and things eventually get better. Punk music, at least what I heard, is commentary that is trying to direct action, to address problems and to make change. Compliments are things you notice that you say that become energy also through a commentary. From the outside they may seem opposite, but the compliment path of attention turned into energy and the punk commentary path of energy turned into attention are just opposite directions on the same highway. So what then? What do we do with this information? Well, I think you sort of look at where you are on this line and see what you can do to better the world around you. I mean spoiler alert, that's always my answer, but in this case, it means assessing and reassessing frequently, because energy changes. But see where you are on that line. Do you have extra energy that you're able to direct into attention on things that needed or could use it? Or maybe you don't. Maybe even the idea of extra energy is an insulting one, especially if you feel like you hit empty before your day is even over. Well, in that case, I'd say you can use your attention, which we all have complete control over, and turn it into energy by finding a chance to compliment someone in a real way, a way that turns your attention into energy for both them and you, because remember from my experience that little jolt of good zings in both directions. And I just want to close with this tape from earlier, when I left the show and walked to my car.

Speaker 6: 1:14:23

It's last call.

Speaker 1: 1:14:39

What a cool place. Yeah, man, that was more fun than I thought I had more fun there than I thought it would. But I'll be honest, that's not my usual type of music. I mean, this probably is zero surprise if you've heard anything with my music or anything I make. I put, like chill, low-fi beats, stuff you would find on the YouTube, study beats channel, that sort of stuff under. But that was very nice man. They artisted energy in a room. It was super cool. Please suppose this door geoledственnet, okay, okay, okay, I can't heard from that. It's talking. Okay, okay, I'm right on the spot. I guess I have a new favorite punk band, red on.

Speaker 5: 1:15:58

See.

Speaker 1: 1:16:35

And with that, pink shoes and punk shows become the next entry into the Perfectorium, the index of perfect things. Visit PerfectShowPodcastcom to see pictures and videos related to this and each episode For this one I'll have pictures of my pink shoes, me interviewing rival squad, pictures of their show at Stagold, and more. You can see all the entries to the Perfectorium at the direct link for it PerfectShowPodcastcom. Slash Perfectorium. Special thanks to Nicole, jerry, julio and Israel, aka rival squad, for sitting with me. You can find them on Bandcamp, spotify, apple and just wherever you are to get your music. You can also find the info and links for all the other musical artists in the show notes and on this episode's webpage too. As always, if you'd like to contact the show, you can email PerfectShowShowcom at gmailcom and connect on Twitter, youtube or Instagram to the name PerfectShowShow. This episode was recorded and mixed at Marina Studios in Oakland, california. Please be sure to rate, review, subscribe and all that jazz, or rather all that punk this time, but mostly, if you know someone who you would think would enjoy the show, let them know about it. Word of mouth is still the biggest driver of people finding a new podcast and remember, think of a compliment as a weapon that's always with you, like a samurai sword in feudal Japan or a six shooter in the wild west. You can't control when you get a compliment not really but you are in complete control of when you dish them out and you can look at it like you're a compliment outlaw, roaming across the landscape ready to quick draw and ooh, sharp outfit, or this really beautiful work at a second's notice. Anyway, until next time I'm Scott Moppen, and thanks for listening to the Perfect Show.