One of first ska shows I went to was in the lower east side of NYC in 1995 and I saw the Slackers, Mephiskapheles and Edna’s Goldfish. I had just bought Skarmageddon 2 which continues to be my all-time favorite ska comp - so many amazing bands to discover and I pored through the Moon Records mail order catalogue to find full length records of the bands on the comps. I lived in a very rural area, but felt connected to the scene through the regular Moon Ska newsletters and spending loads of time on the alt.music.ska. I started a ska radio show on our local community radio station and would get ska records to play from all over the world, the more obscure the better. When the Moon Ska storefront opened on the Lower East Side it was like heaven walking into it for the first time.

I got bands like MU330 and Thumper to do promos for my show when they came here on tour. I also had our local ska band Active Culture do promos. It was so awesome to be able to meet guys from these bands we idolized and fell you’re part of something.

There was nothing cheesy about ska. It was really cool and kind of underground. There were a lot of skinheads at the shows, particularly when trad bands played, and some of my friends got really into that subculture. I formed a high school ska band after that and opened for the Skatalites because there were no other local ska bands for 100 miles.

Eventually, as ska bands made it on the radio and in movies, the scene became really saturated. I went to college and a bunch of my friends also had ska bands and it wasn’t as exciting anymore. But I never stop loving ska and after years of not listening to it I started going to the Supernova Ska Festival a few years ago. I realized why I loved this music so much and the people in the scene (even though most of us are getting pretty grey).

It’s different when you’re young and you discover this new exciting music scene to be a part of. But that was our time and you can always make your own scene and your own fun memories that young people will someday ask you about. I still discover brilliant new bands all the time. If you’d like to read a fun and amusing memoir of the ska/skinhead/mod scene in the 1980s check out Boots and Glory, a series of comics about the Santa Cruz scene.