There was a "Club" as i dare to call it which was a converted warhouse into the greatest punk rock venue salt lake has ever seen. I truly feel sad for the punk kids today that they we never able to approach bended knee to worship at the altar located at 500 w 550 south salt lake city. the first show that i ever saw was due to my friend walter. in order to get to speedway you have to travel underneath the interchange of at least five freeeways. it felt like you were going down the rabbit hole only i could better describe it as the "rat hole." the feel was otherworldly to say the least. there was this drone sound coming from above that you senses learn to forget. as walter arrived it was unassuming to say the least. the club wa basically the size of a split level home with a moderate size garage. i was intimated by the clintel. just the craziest amalgamation of characters. as i entered the threshhold where they took your ticket i had no clure to what think as this place would become such a part of me. its like meeting a new person and you just cant imagine how that person would change your life. One of the strangeness was the set up was a plad couch with a small lamp on a even smaller table. it was like walking into a psychedelic version of the show "I dream of Ginie." as i walked to the back i passed a small counter. They had a deal with the city that they could not get a full on liquor lisence so they agreed you tould bring your own beer and they would stash it for you under the counter. They also had to sell food. Of all the time I spent there i never saw anyone eating one of the sandwiches. the entire wall behind the counter was plastered with flyers from all the past shows held there. it was like witnessing a gallery of past glories. like a military museaum where looking at the souviners of battles in the past where sweat met blood and rage. And then folks i entered the concert area. I have never seen anything quite like it. There was literally you could break. no thing but a concrete room with a stage and restrooms in the back. as my familiarity grew so did I realize the need for this approach. if there was anything to be broken it would have. I would later learn there was something breakable, the people. You could forget about using the restrooms. the stalls had no doors. the sound board was suspended above an area in the back where Zay Speed, for which the title came, could properly mix the preformances free of the violence that ensued nightly. the opening band was called Verbal Asssult. as they began a whole different feelling became aware, chaos. I releished it. i felt so out of control and it fit right in whith how out of control i felt emotionally in my home life. them i was exposed to the incredible physical dynamic known as, stage diving. kids were allowed, even encouraged, to get on stage, run to the other side and project themselves into the crowd. I never figured out it would be better to be caught by the circling mosh pit or to land feet underneath in a small opening. I had to try this. as electricity ran thrould my body I gathered the balls needed and I gripped the stage, hoisted myself up, ran across and so advantageously landed feet first to the right of the mosh pit. It was only later that I learned the severity of stage diving when I read that one fabled night, Zay Speed himself broke his leg. He dragged himself out of the pit and eventually got the attention of another employee. he tried to set the leg himself and passed out from the pain. He was revived in the back of a truck where he lay and discovered that his friends made a makeshift splint with 2 x4' and duck tape. This was in the dead of winter mind you. on the way to the hospital the truck hit a rough patch and Zay was ejected out of the bed of the truck into a snow filled ditch. as his friends came to his rescue to put him back in he yelled, "Youre all fired!" one sad thing that was due to occur at the time was that the space was a haven to a lot of fringe groups. This included the Nazi skinheads. what a pain in the ass/ they disrupted the perfomances and just created a real hassle. the funny thing my froind said was that there were only 20 of them and 300 of us why cant we just kick their collective asses and be done with it. On the rather hilarious side, the nazies would come in drunk and instead of participating in the mosh pit in a circular fashion would do what was know as the c"chiken s;am/: this occurred as one nazi would climb another and on his shoulders proceed to play chicken as they circled and tried to knock each other off. We are not at a fucking southern california pool party. one of the more intense things involving the nazies was my friend that came to a show and had a "SHARP" logo on the back of his jacket. Sharp stands for "Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice." I will never forget hor pround of him i was watching him walk into the show with nazies circuling outside. Violence was a real issue. I saw a hippie get his nose broken outside and the so called "security guard" watched by. I promptly gave him tissues i had just feeling scared and helpless. Drugs of course played a big part. I remember buying acid off of a nazi skin whaen i noticed him staring into space and putting two and two together. I would sit outside on the crub in the mist of a lsd fuled state of amazement looking up at the freeways circuling wondering to myself how many eyes dosed with acid have loked at the same freeways. it was a lonly time. One of the more memorible shows I saw was an industrial band named Ministry. Now you have to understand something. seewday could legally allow 250 attendees. for the Ministry show, they sold 700 tickets. as I waited in the freezing weather nex tto the tour bus I had no idea what the night would hold. I entered, wormed my way into the concert area and saw something I had never and still havent seen which was that the front of the stage had a chain link fence to separate the band from the crowd. I know, either they heard the reputation of speedway and the kids they would be playing to. I later learned it was to protect the crowd from the band. After a chilling performance by the opening band, which I learned to love later in my life, KMFDM, MInistry boarded the stage. They had three okil drums on stage that was immedily erupted into flame. What a night. Then they had a bald guy workoing with the band and he would occupy a position on top of the fence and what his job was was to beat the kids with a bat as they climbed up. after this went on he took out a VHS camera and filmed the kids. The footage would eventualy be put on their later released DVD. I pretty proud of that
