The untold story of a series of Reagan-era guerrilla punk and industrial desert happenings in Southern California that a | dG1fN3oxYWRkeXhxeEE
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Back in the 80s we put on parties in the desert and we called ourselves Desolation Center.
00:16Is the punk movement part of the Nazi movement?
00:19No, that's the police, that's the Nazi movement.
00:29The 80s have been long at odds with police.
00:31The early 80s was a time of experimentation and rebellion.
00:35The LAPD freaked out about punk rock like it was the second coming of the Black Panthers.
00:41They were gonna squash that stuff.
00:43I started thinking I need to apply some of the out-of-the-box punk rock thinking.
00:49And it sort of struck me like, wow,
00:52why couldn't we put this kind of really cool music into this desert environment?
00:58Like how many things could go wrong, you know?
01:04I immediately understood the element of danger and
01:08the element of feeling alive are actually connected.
01:11Everything that I found exciting at the time all here in this remote spot.
01:18Everyone was on acid and there was no plans for us to get home.
01:22Did you guys have permits for that?
01:24No.
01:26Total anarchy.
01:27I had no idea that we were making history.
01:31It's these magic moments that the people who go to them
01:34are affected by them and it might inspire future generations.
01:39Desolation Center was one of the inspirations when we started doing Burning Man.
01:46It was beyond a theory, you know?
01:48It was made real.
01:49This gig makes total sense.
01:52And I just remember thinking this is transformative.
01:56Those shows reflected that spirit of, I'm going to make it happen.
02:02It was definitely one of those doors that opens and
02:05you're kind of different on the other side.
02:17I was kind of hoping to see the hillside come down on everybody,
02:20but that's my disappointment.