Punk, Chicago style: Documentary explores local music history

It wasn't always easy for Joe Losurdo to get to punk-rock shows in the 1980s.

First, his mom had to drop him off at the Barrington train station, where he'd catch a ride downtown. Then, he'd have to figure out which El train to take from the Loop to whatever rock club was hosting the show.

"The whole thing could take 2½ hours," laughed Losurdo, who split his childhood between Glen Ellyn and Barrington. "And I'd have to make sure to get back in time to catch the last train back home.

"But it was definitely worth it."

Losurdo explains what made it worthwhile in "You Weren't There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977-1984," a documentary film he wrote, produced and directed with his wife, Christina Tillman.

The film, now available on DVD, explores the birth, growth and what some would say was the death of the Chicago-area punk-music scene, one that Losurdo feels has been ignored so far by critics and music historians.

"Really, just about everything that has come out about punk has focused on London or New York or Los Angeles - the major media centers," Losurdo said. "But there were so many other things happening, and Chicago was a great example of that."

Losurdo, a Barrington High School grad, immersed himself in the Chicago scene after his sister gave him the first record by local punk band the Effigies.

"That record blew me away," he said. "They were the first Chicago band I was aware of who could hold their own with punk acts from all over the world."

Losurdo haunted city and suburban rock clubs after that, trying to see and hear as many punk bands as he could. He played for a short time in a punk band called Life Sentence in the latter half of the 1980s, and later owned a chain of record stores called Hi Fi Records.

During that period, Losurdo became familiar not just with the music Chicago was producing, but the people producing it.

"I got to know some of the bands. I knew there were so many great stories and characters in the scene, but no one was telling them," he said.

As documented in "You Weren't There," punk rock took a while to take hold in the Chicago area, which was culturally more conservative than New York or Los Angeles. A number of the musicians interviewed in the film talk about how local Styx and Who fans would insult them in the late '70s and early '80s with derisive catcalls of "Devo!"

Punk devotees found a place to gather, though: La Mere Vipere, a North Side club that set aside certain nights for punk music and its small but growing number of fans. Local punk bands began to emerge, led by pioneering groups like Tutu and the Pirates and Silver Abuse.

"You Weren't There" explores these and other key bands of the era - the Effigies, Naked Raygun, Articles of Faith, Big Black - with a combination of sit-down interviews and archival performance footage.

Many of the bands hailed from the suburbs. Members of Naked Raygun, for example, came from Naperville. Negative Element, a band that emerged in the latter half of the scene, came from the Downers Grove/Westmont area. Other bands had roots in the North Shore or farther-flung areas like DeKalb.

"It really did attract people from all over the metro area, not just the city itself," Losurdo said.

"You Weren't There" also pays tribute to the various clubs that provided a home for these bands, often in the face of pressure from cops, politicians and average folks who didn't like the music or its leather-jacketed, mohawked fans. (The film includes a hilarious clip from the old Phil Donahue talk show in which straight-laced audience members take turns castigating the freaky punks on stage.)

"It wasn't easy to keep the scene going," Losurdo said. "And none of these people got rich and famous doing what they did. That's unfortunate in the sense that a lot of the bands deserved more attention than they got. But it helped us because we didn't encounter any 'rock star-ness.' The people we talked to were very enthusiastic about the movie, about getting their stories out there."

Losurdo and Tillman, who together run Chicago-based Regressive Films, are working on a narrative feature film as their follow-up to "Your Weren't There." Losurdo said he hopes the documentary will open local fans' eyes about the bands that came from their own backyard, and offer some perspective on what "real" punk music is.

"The term 'punk rock' has gotten so diluted," he said. "Do today's kids even really know what punk is supposed to say and sound like? I mean, you can hear Avril Lavigne described as punk. That's pretty frightening."

<p class="factboxheadblack">Which one to get?</p> <p class="News">"You Weren't There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977-1984" is available at online retailers like Amazon.com as well as brick-and-mortar movie and record stores. Indie film and music label Factory 25 has released it in two different formats: a standard DVD release and a limited-edition DVD/LP package.</p> <p class="News">• The DVD ($20) comes with a few special features, including deleted interviews and performance footage.</p> <p class="News">• The limited edition ($30) combines the DVD with a 19-track vinyl record of often hard-to-find songs from bands featured in the film, along with a poster and extensive liner notes. </p>