Paseo Las Palmas and close to the mythical shop "Rock Shop" full of young rockers, a Saturday to noon, I took to photography in the early nineties, I think one of the last times I went to these meetings.
Set amidst the shopping district of windows in Providence, called Paseo Las Palmas, which is actually composed of the passage Santa Magdalena and the diagonal Las Palmas there is more or less from 1978, when it was converted in marginalizing pedestrian vehicular traffic that existed before. Type are palm trees which give the name. The buildings of the Pan and Two Rulings (so called because it is between Providence and New Providence Avenue, then called September 11), plus entry into the circuit of the underground station Lions in the early eighties, where he is also Zone Gallery, he brought vitality preserved until now. Then came the cafes, ice cream and, of course, the store "Rock Shop" that was spearheaded changes radical tastes among Chilean youth of those years.
To complete this post, I'll have to start running gear that they seemed petrified by rust in the memory, as they pertain to personal memories of the Paseo Las Palmas who have served more than 20 years and that life is not me had been forced to light again, but so far, for my own self-imposed challenge. Let's see how's my cerebral data bank, then.
never know how he had curly metalheads as loyal to the meetings on the beachfront Las Palmas every Saturday morning, the myth out there "Rock Shop" , next to the entrance of the Metro station. Some arrived early, about 9:30 am and were there, often coming from very distant sides of the city. Others, dealing with bad reed and the dream of a youth sparse, appearing only sporadically and very rarely before 11:00 hours, which was the agreed hour. In principle, the meeting ran until about 14:00 or 15:00 hours later, it was easy to find even a few stragglers until about 19:00 pm every Saturday, from where they were going to a gig or to to satisfy hunger bowling Plaza Baquedano. A true ode to leisure.
passage Galleries Santa Magdalena. Observed the windows full of clothes "rock" and three buddies who knew there also around 1990, although I can not remember their names.
Back of an old entrance to the recital of "Kreator" with the logo of the shop "Rock Shop" where it was sold. Shows the classic figure of the angel of death and his scythe in the logo (Hits Ascending Descending courtesy of Rodrigo Arias).
The best time of these meetings in Las Palmas may was from 1987 or 1988 at most until the year 1991 or earlier. Nothing more. Generational change and the spread of the sectarian rather music before there was exchanged, in those great old vinyl records with sleeves worn or cassettes with photocopies of cover, forever changed the modus vivendi lover's rock weighed in all its forms, and encounters "Rock Shop" were swallowed by the spiral of decline. The place was not only discs: also sold T-shirts, posters, magazines, badges, patches, an occasional and sometimes decorative trinket tickets to concerts whose organizers had chosen the store as a distribution point. Emerging or established bands alike published their flyers (sic) on the doors, announcing gigs in places really decadent, gloomy, including highlighting the sinister Lautaro Gran Sala Avenue and Fitness decentito much Ñuñoa Manuel Plaza, criminally demolished and reduced today to a rubble plant, next to the Plaza Egaña. The punks had their refuge in "The Trolley", a dark and cold barracks San Martín street that time has allowed me to assess more objectively critical spirit.
Of course, there were fantasy and idealization therein of "Rock Shop" there in the basement of the building and restaurant Panorama "Pivotal" although some romantic struggle to remember the store as a true temple devoted to heavy metal, thrash metal, punk or even hardcore, the truth is that one side had enough "pop" and had a section record in the corners quite sweetish less attractive. On one occasion, in fact, found between the panels display the posters for sale a poster of the "New Kids on the Block", then starting to sound and the female and Hispanic teen market. Also some of their vendors were a bit smug, well not always be sufficiently trained in the musical material they sold. I remember an old heavy, expensive amariconado squirrel and a half, once started to laugh out loud of a detail of my clothes but not realizing that I could hear perfectly through the headphones, it was off my " personal " (the walkman cassette player, a distant ancestor of Ipod). The same character also let visitors take note of the local names of songs or albums of pure beef. Not all were, of course. Some sold on his own cassettes hacks in the own albums in stock. Through intermediaries got, well, several groups work very strange then, as "Cryptic Slaughter", "Nasty Savage", "Ludichrist" or "Mucky Pup", true gems of underground environment.
However, this store also had the distinction of being the first in Chile, specializing in alternative and metal music, so the competition was inevitable. Was "Rock Shop" which generated -incidentally, it seems, the meetings of those crazy eighties. As in the local music and instruments specializing in those years (as mentioned before for the old house Yamaha Alameda), the public tended to become centers for meeting and exchange of material that was then, without the Internet, or the torrents , neither the e-mule - very rare and highly prized. That was how several of the rock metal buyers shop began to meet to barter their records, cassettes copy them, and so continue to run the groups more albums underground environments then. And part of the ritual was to go to the store to look at the album covers and view news. The dials were startling, heretical, sacrilegious and disturbing ... Although nowadays hardly scare a child.
Apparently, the habit of meeting on Saturday the group consensus founded by some veterans of the movement, mimicking what happened in other similar stores but in Europe and the United States. He was born in this way, the traditional pass through Providence that lasted almost until the late nineties, has been transformed into the final. Even today there are some boys in ragged clothes, studs and patches on their backs, trying to repeat those years, but everything looks just like a nostalgia or melancholy more than a continuity with those early days.
As I never felt or inhaled to be truly integrated part of this environment, but rather a visitor, can not remember how I got there. I think it was dragged by my friends Leo and Marcelo metalheads, but in general always rejected gregarious behavior and a tendency to cluster ... For something told me "The Hermit" and "The Antisociólogo" . Although the same was not followed, the atmosphere was so small that many were located me. Never strictly defined myself in some particular urban tribe, but by the pint and the conclusions could be drawn from my dark clothes, boots and relatively long hair, strange as I earned nicknames "The head thrasher" or "The 3 / 4 of hardcore" . And while outsiders were not usually welcome, my talent and a certain famous painting printed T-shirts by hand (by then very few industrially produced came to Chile, and the horrific price Giger cover for "Celtic Frost") plus some contributions in journals craft or "fanzines" the environment, in addition to designing logos for groups, gave me a certain level of respect in those circles. He used to appear on the lunch hour when he did, and after a brief visit to the local sales of musical instruments that were in the building Pyramid of the Sun and another very near it, hallucinating about buying this electric bass that I could only buy in 1992.
current views of the promenade, on the outside (Santa Magdalena sector) and inside the building's panoramic "Swivel", where it was the shop "Rock Shop".
current industry views of the passages where it had been sacredly young metalheads gathered every Saturday morning.
Other shops specialize in items derived heavy rock and began to appear in these passages, like those that are still in the galleries of Eurocentrism. The oldest of the movement metalhead, stereotyped in their long hair and torn jeans abundant, preferably gathered in front, the building sector access to Pan and his snails. Inland, the shopping arcade and the Santa Magdalena straight connecting Providence with 11, young metal heads met with some of the few hardcore and crossovers that were then among those who used to assimilate during my visits there Seduced by the noise of bands like DRI, "" MOD, "" Agnostic Front "," Descendents "," Misfits "or the British" The Exploited "and" GBH ". Finally, the side of Paseo Las Palmas itself, to the west side and its diagonal, gathered the punks and the odd character of current alternatives, which were perhaps the first Gothic of which I have memory. Although the distribution of fauna, the exchanges were always the same records, cassettes, videos and other junk ultrarregrabados whose quality would shame at this time. I remember, for example, have achieved a concert video from 1984 of the "Dead Kennedys", as re-recorded by successive hacks that had lost its color and looked as black and white. Another of "Slayer" only he had the green channel.
There were all kinds of characters in those years, as may be supposed. Before the entry of the clichés of aggressiveness and independence that was taken after this kind of movement or urban tribes, the trend was rather to find profiles of some children's rockers, merry, nerds even half the style of that gringos are portrayed in films as "Wayne's World" and "Airheads" just released by the end of those years. Almost all had nicknames bizarre around here, "jam", "Lizard", "Cucumber", "Beans", "The Mare", "The Caluga", "The Russian Guagua", etc. Appeared around the then young "Pera" Cuadra of the band "Back", today popular television host and commentator who in those days would meet the inn's another of those rock shops, and his colleague Anton, with his experience pioneering metalera "Pentagram" and then " Criminal "as well as owner of his own record store near the area, I have seen the Guaton of" Panzer ", highly respected in those days ever appeared Lucho" Chaos ", lead singer of the punk band same name and, as a myth (I do not know if it's real), had the bad idea to stand the hair with neoprene, for a recital; Memo "Vandaliko", however, said doing the same with tail school cool to show off his huge plume mohawk in his brief recitals banda "Los Vandaliks." Chris, meanwhile, was by then the vocalist and leader of "Squad." Over there I also met because of the high and enormous "Flake Marce" , guitarist named Buenos Aires Aguayo, "Betrayed", to my taste one of the best bands of those years and who later time in another round of life, became professor of music at my own son in school. Also from Valparaiso came Juan Carlos, alias JUCC , with their extraordinary stories of "Thrash Comics", a milestone in the history of comics such national home page for the character "Anarchy" of the bill.
So many guys, so many souls ... saved and convicted, many actually surprised to nominate them. And all distributed in that short space of Paseo Las Palmas, at some point in the story.
Outside the stars, there were other equally or more curious types, with collections of anecdotes and adventures in tow. I remember a very attractive girl with long hair, for example, was always a tarantula chick in the chest, all the time, one day, a lady with a baby in her arms cried watching your beloved pet pejoratively: "But what an ugly beast!" , and she responded indignantly: "More ugly is your shit!" , pointing to the child. There was another boy, do not remember his name, that at 18 she had a bag and set sail for Europe, and before 24, had traveled almost all over the world, including Africa and Asia, before returning periods in our country and to appear there in "Rock Shop" recounting his travels. I also remember the Caro, short, very white hair and black as anthracite or Bunchi , I think that was his nickname, a devotee of "Voivod" with his Rastafarian braids and magnificent "fanzines" of authorship, and "Mandinga", whom he knew and in the corridors of Liceo Manuel Barros Borgoño; Leonardo always walking his flamboyant guitar, could not play one chord in it, Yuri, in Instead, he sang in a band but its profile was so low that no one recognized him. Once, imitating a real music video, one of the famous missed Saturday's concurrent forced to stop after going to the post, after ground beef stick in the face with a strong adhesive and paint on the outside as skin while filming it with a Recorder simulating tearing his face with his fingers, revealing at once the mixture is not apparent from the face. Unable of castigating, wanted to imitate the character after the spitting of fire in the performances of "Kiss", but got out of blowing gas, burning it and the other two pajaronas encouraged it. On another occasion, someone took up the place a male sexual numbing, the famous "long", one of these mistook him for a mouth and sprayed deodorant on his breath, after which the tongue was hanging like socks, throat asleep and unable to speak.
Thus, silly antics and were endless. From time to time, media also appeared in magazines and hollow As "Miss 17" or "Extra Young", doing all sorts of stupid questions and posting diatribes paths where all, punk, hardcore, thrash, was reduced to rock satanic ". The police arrived, alerted by some old horror of the neighborhood, especially one such Santibanez (if I remember correctly) that I also appeared on television, but things rarely went beyond the bravado with the police. He had memorable fights, however, more than once the blood ran down the Paseo Las Palmas, the skirmishes of the "black coats" were famous, starring with young Korean who appeared with martial arts skills to the natives assembled in front of them were hard, because a simple street fight that turned into a virtual war over gang for almost a couple of years. The same thing happened later in clashes between metalheads and caravans of "Yes" campaign during the 1988 plebiscite, which passed by September 11 to commemorate the name of the avenue, detonating mass violent fights in a shouting match only insulting. Others liked to do a little presence with circus shows, like a character in a popular band that, according to a legend that I've never been able to confirm (there were some pictures out there but I can not vouch that correspond to this incident, as other versions talked happened on stage), one of those mornings came with a pig's head kicks that massacred trying to ask a threatening message to his enemy supposedly another musician , which had a nickname referring to a pig. The latter was, then, lead singer of a death metal band that was forced to go through a humiliating embarrassment thanks to the host Don Francisco (Mario Kreutzberger), having been invited to an edition of "Giant Saturday" and accept naively playing live there.
Rise from the metro Los Leones. Previously, the stairs to the station was crowded with visitors on Saturdays.
Overview Paseo Las Palmas and its square, today, from the side of Avenue 11.
Anyway, that was the atmosphere of the meetings "Rock Shop" , for many of its competitors truly sacred: the most important for each of your weeks. They found that after bathing in summer in Central Zone and The Quisco, El Tabo and Algarrobo, so one is inevitably used to recognize faces.
But the nineties gave the blow to those meetings Paseo Las Palmas. By 1990 or 1991, a new and very different generation, came to this place. A litter that had nothing to do with the previous one, except the paint and discs.
There are images that I have not been erased, stuck with fire. I remember fights and not metalheads, but true lumpen ... The trushers, told them equivalent to the current flaytes but stuck in metaleras waves. JUCC festinate much ridicule in his cartoons. I also remember a punk (the "screw", so they know some of whom I speak) neck spot a boy of Villa O'Higgins, a view and with indifference. I also come to mind three little girls who were to find boyfriend every Saturday, bought beer, open them with plungers in a corner, but again put on the lid to simulate after the uncovering the teeth, repeatedly walking through the place only repeat the trick and comply with a crude pose several warning them now. To swap discs in the past, it fell to a level of paranoia in which nobody wanted to pay anything, because everyone knew they would be cheated or robbed. Types "empepados" , shivering junkies for some stimulant, music fans and then death metal grindcore and goregrind, finding everything else Posse and pretending that she had the field in Las Palmas, who had arrived a few months, recently ... Where once were divided into musical tastes, then began to spread through football bar, a trend that parasite-nineties rock moves and only served to weaken. The punks were almost evicted from there, retiring as meek lambs after theatrical costumes of violence, disruption or resistance, and those who listened to "everything" were seen as bad now. To make matters worse, about the same time "Rock Shop" changed its historic store to another site further east, where they finally ended their old image by changing the natural death of name "Hard Music" . His departure from the ride was like cutting off Samson's hair.
Anyway, they died the morning meetings of the famous Paseo Las Palmas, truly epic in the history of rock in Chile and so few, or does anyone remember when passing through these galleries and shopping malls in Providence , packed with innocent games shops and fast food restaurants today.
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