When thinking about Salt Lake City in the early 1980's, punk is probably the last thing to come to mind. That is, of course, unless you are best friends Stevo and Herion Bob.
Played by Matthew Lillard and Michael Goorjian in the 1999 indie flick SLC Punk, Stevo and Herion Bob are two punks/anarchists finding themselves living in the ultra-conservative confines of Utah's capital. They avoid coming to terms with growing up by living the anarachist dream: partying, beating up rednecks, and of course going to punk rock shows.
SLC Punk featured some great characters, including a drug dealer who tried to stab his mom after taking too much acid (played by 90's teen heart throb Devon Sawa), a nerdy punk with a penchant for beating people and a love for rain forests (played by Jason Segal), and Heroin Bob -- the man who is afraid of needles, and refuses to take any sort of drugs other than cigarettes and alcohol.
Contradictions abound as the main character Stevo comes to deal with the fact that his world view might be a bit irrational, realizing that sometimes we try a bit too hard to fight a system, that we are simply to deeply embedded in to abandon. And that being a punk is as much about the fashion as it is a political statement, as pointed out by a pretty, rich, young girl.
The soundtrack featured some classic early 80's punk, really capturing the movement, bringing us back to a time when music was about making as much noise and causing as much destruction as possible, and maybe sneaking in a bit of a political stance into the chaos. This included classic punk bands like Minor Threat and The Dead Kennedys, some English ska revival from The Specials, as well as pioneers of punk like Generation X and the Ramones.
Go ahead and thrash to some of the highlights below.
