Interview with a Punk Band by Tonia Jordan

On January 20th, we went to The Silo in Reading. The first band to perform was Dicky & The Jerkoffs, a punk band from the Reading area. We talked to Dicky after their set, and he gave us a CD. What happened the next day was what really made us want to meet with them. The band discovered that the kids who came to the show had to pay $9 to get in to the show. They felt it was unfair to charge so much, so they offered a refund!

I contacted the band, who were “amused” at the thought of being interviewed, and we set up a time to meet.

When we walked into Smokie’s Diner (which is a great place, by the way, if you want waitresses who ignore you!) it wasn’t difficult to spot the band. The 7 of us crowded into a booth and had a chat over an assortment of beer, burgers, coffee and pie.

One thing we definitely discovered while talking to the band - For a bunch of jerkoffs, they’re pretty nice guys!

Dicky & The Jerkoffs have been playing together for about a year, and they describe their first show together as “a drunken mess.” They snuck onto the bill and played four songs. Tim V, their drummer explains, “But like most of our other shows, everyone loved it. They were like, ‘You guys rocked,’ and we were like, ‘Wow, are you kidding me?’”

Some intriguing stories were shared, of injuries (Josh, their guitarist, told us about a show in Philadelphia, "I had to run backstage once to fix my strap because it broke, I jumped over a chord and hit my head on the ceiling. I landed on my back off the stage and fell to the floor. Then I came out and finished the show, but I had three cracked vertebrae in my back.”) and girls in wheelchairs…. I’m not sure I can share that story, but ask the guys about it sometime, and maybe they’ll share it with you!

The band describes Alexander’s in Fleetwood as their home away from home, and we got to see them perform there recently, with one of their favorite local bands, Black Moon, a punk metal band from Reading. At that show, Corey, the lead singer of another performing band, Before an Empty Throne, was involved in a fight. We were told by quite a few that it was the first fight to happen at Alexander’s. The reason behind the attack on Cory was apparently because “he isn't punk.”

In a response to this type of thinking, Dicky & The Jerkoffs started The V.P.C. Anti-Label, or The Vampire Penguin Corporation, which strives to bring all forms of music to the "World Stage". It calls for an act of unity between various genres, because the idea of separation and attack on others due to a difference in genre is ridiculous. As the leaders of this movement, Dick & The Jerkoffs explain, “It's the 21st century...There is room for Everyone!”

What we discovered in Dicky & The Jerkoffs is a band that’s not afraid of a progressive movement within the local music scene. They (and many of us, as well) are tired of hearing the same old thing, and are calling for harmony among musicians.

Pick up a copy of their full-length debut CD, “American Trainwrecks,” because as their new bassist, Adam (the quiet one) described when asked about the band, “They’re alright.” We couldn’t agree more!

About the Author

Tonia Jordan is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Writers.