Resistance by Existence

Because rebellion doesn't take requests.

Years ago, I wrote and produced a short-lived, double-feature horror film show for a government access channel in Kingsport, Tennessee. It’s an accomplishment that I’m extremely proud of, despite its turbulent history.

We aired a single episode before the mayor had us canceled. It’s a long story, so I wrote a book about it.

Despite its premature cancellation, I’m very proud of what we pulled off and how we did it. The host of my show, Shannon “The Cinema Warrior” Wallen, has never been the type of guy to color inside the lines. If there’s a boundary, he’s going to cross it in the most offensive way he knows how.

He’s always had this reputation, but he ESPECIALLY had it back when our show was on the air.

Herein lies my favorite part of our story: Yes, maybe the mayor did have our show canceled for frivolous (though valid) reasons, but the fact remains that for a brief time, not only were we able to get Shannon – host of the now-banned YouTube channel “Toilet of Terror” – on the airwaves and broadcast to the greater Tri-Cities region, but we got the city of Kingsport to pay us to do it.

Getting the government to spend money on putting the beautiful bastion of anti-establishment that was my host on the air was a sweet, sweet victory for those of us on the right side of history.

Which Brings Me to the Super Bowl

Like many of you, I attended the recent ultra-mega-famous sporting event from the comfort of my living room last Sunday. While we care very little for professional football, we do love watching creative commercials, digging into the halftime entertainment, and eating “game day” food.

I was hyped to see what Bad Bunny had to offer, enjoyed a laugh as Gordon Ramsay bragged about being “meh,” and was all about chowing down on my anabolic chili dogs (of course I had to make our game-day food “healthy”). My main motivation to tune in, however, was seeing Green Day perform at the opening ceremony.

Being Bay Area natives, choosing Green Day to kick things off was an appropriate, though surprising choice. Punkers, even those in the more pop-adjacent sphere, are often looked down on as low-brow creatives.

Let’s face it – many of them are.

Still, it thrilled my 41-year-old, spiked-and-studded, safety-pinned heart to see my favorite band hit the obscenely small stage that evening.

Many kids my age were introduced to the concept of punk rock thanks to Green Day’s 1994 effort, “Dookie.” I not only fell in love with the band, but the entire genre that had just opened up to me.

And though die-hard my fandom may have been for several years, I must admit that once MTV and local rock radio got their hands on 2004’s “American Idiot,” and proceeded to play its many hits ad nauseam, I checked out.

I was starting my second year in college when I noticed something: the more I heard my favorite band on the radio, the more I saw shallow, flavor-of-the-week types blasting the album’s titular track, or suddenly copying Billie Joe Armstrong’s signature black-shirt-red-tie look from that era.

The music was great, but it existed within a scene with which I wanted no part.

I’d spend the next decade or so distancing myself from modern Green Day, thinking they’d gone all the way off the spectrum and were now servicing Carson Daly and his ilk.

Sellouts, in other words.

This is because I was still a stupid kid.

After I grew up a bit, had a mortgage, debt, and a family, it dawned on me that being able to pay your bills and provide for your loved ones isn’t selling out – it’s actually kind of awesome. It’s even better if you’ve stuck to your punk rock roots the way Green Day has.

Once I came back into the fold, I had an even greater appreciation for my good friends Billie Joe, Tré, and Mike. In fact, it was pretty ironic that those same guys I used to make fun of for blasting “American Idiot” in college were the same people the song made light of. It’s a protest song, just like the followup single “Holiday.” And the guys got both of them played on the radio all over the world!

When Katie and I saw them headline at Great American Ball Park two years ago (with support from the Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid, and the Linda Lindas), I had a moment of strange pride. As we approached the venue, I looked around at the posters and signs that had been plastered everywhere. The guys were celebrating the 30-year anniversary of “Dookie,” and that was very much promoted.

This is to say that the famous MLB ball park and much of that area of Cincinnati, had DOOKIE written everywhere, sometimes in 10-foot-tall letters.

If making major cities all over the planet spell out DOOKIE prominently for the whole world to see isn’t punk rock, I don’t know what is. It took me back to seeing The Cinema Warrior pop up on a television screen in Kingsport’s City Hall building. Subtle rebellion at its finest.

Anybody Can Be Angry and Shout About It

Punk is filled with bands who will say what needs to be said with no filter or metaphor, and I think that’s awesome. It’s one of the things that draws me to the genre, the lifestyle, and the mindset.

But anybody can use their platform to make a scene.

To me, though, it takes a certain confident, intelligent coolness to be able to make a major statement that has an impact while simultaneously playing by the rules.

Bad Bunny did that on Sunday by using his platform to combat culture-war-fueled racism by doing nothing more than exuding joy and celebrating culture.

Happiness and heart in the face of ignorance and hatred.

That, my friends, is punk rock.

The actual punk band on the bill, however, made a statement that was much more subtle.

In the weeks leading up to the event, media outlets tried very hard to stir conservative outrage with the NFL’s choice to feature Green Day as the opening act. Video footage of Billie Joe ranting onstage about ICE and/or the Tr*mp administration made the rounds. It led many progressive-leaning sites to openly wish for Green Day to use their platform to make an anti-ICE statement or rail against the weird man currently occupying the People’s House.

And I have to admit, initially, I wanted that, too.

The day before the event, however, I had a change of heart.

I began to think that yes, it would be very punk rock for them to take the stage and improvise a rallying cry against the current administration and its gestapo goons.

By this point, however, it had become an unfair expectation.

And as much as I love Green Day, they’re simply not that band.

(The Dead Kennedys were, though!)

It was a situation where partaking in certain types of “good trouble” would have ultimately resulted in nothing more than conformity to popular demand.

Instead, they played it straight, played it well, and had one censored moment that was entirely expected.

They maybe didn’t make a blatant political statement with their air time, but they still performed their thinly veiled protest songs in front of millions, right under the noses of billionaires who bought ad space against the biggest sporting event of the year.

They didn’t need to make a scene, they just needed to show up.

It was resistance by existence.

And I believe that is one of the strongest, most reliable forms of rebellion.

No matter if it’s on TV, at a sporting event, or even on a humble Substack.

-jtf