‘Call*Response’ edited by John Toone, Nathan Terin, and Michael Sanders

Reviewed by Mike Pritchard

The story of punk rock is largely a secret history, and you’ll find its milestones scrawled into the margins of the more proper narrative of rock and roll. Punk rock occasionally emerges, groundhog-like, into the mainstream pop cultural consciousness, only to withdraw back into the underground where the real work is done. If it’s ever documented properly  it has been, and always will be, by the true believers of the faith.

Call*Response: Past, Present, and Beyond is two things at once. It’s a part of the process of documenting punk’s secret history in the Winnipeg/Manitoba region, and perhaps more importantly, a fundraiser for Kids Help Phone, a national phone and on-line counselling service for youth. Both of these functions are intertwined with the interest in social issues that permeate much of the subterranean music scene. Since the genesis of the book at a 2005 West End Cultural Centre ska show to its publication this year, there have been at least nineteen other benefit shows in the community, and this project extends the spirit to a new audience.

Call*Response represents the work of more than three dozen writers and visual artists. Physically the book is a 12″ by 12″ format designed to resemble an LP cover, complete with the rounded scuff-marks (familiar to obsessive record collectors) recreated on the front and back covers. It’s a testament to the emancipation of professional digital printing that this is such a great-looking book. Some flyer art from the eighties included in the book shows how far this volume has come from the days of folding and stapling photocopied zines. The spirit and care that went into the book is the same, but the modern tools now belong to everyone.

Again and again throughout the volume the photographs reaffirm the relationship between audience and performer. That same relationship could be said to exist throughout most pop music, but in the world of punk rock it has special meaning. Axl Rose does not want to share the stage, literally or metaphorically, with his fans. The classically defined pop star wants and needs the adulation of the adoring masses, but needs to exist on a plane above them.

The Minutemen have a song titled “History Lesson part 2” that contains the line “Our band could be your life.” With a packaged major-label act, this would mean consuming the product. Within punk rock the meaning is that of interoperability of the song and its listener. Frontman D. Boon told us “This is Bob Dylan to me,” telling us that this music was as life-changing as that of any sixties icon. Not only could our lives attest to the ownership of this art but we could be creating it ourselves and be our own prophets.

The artists and audiences of the performances in Call*Response are usually photographed joined in unison. Fists raised in solidarity. Heads pressed together as if in confession. Microphones outstretched for fans to finish the verse and choruses. At its best moments punk has reached out and said to those listening “you are one of us, you belong.”

What this book also establishes is the continuity of the punk scene, most specifically in Winnipeg. The photos featured in the book go back over thirty years, and feature names renowned both locally within the scene as well as internationally. There are some of the giants (like The Dead Kennedys and DOA) and local legends (Honest John and The Stretch Marks) from the emerging days of the scene, and we’re taken up to the present day with the latest generation of adherents to the punk ethos (Comeback Kid, The Cancer Bats).

There is also a partial geographical biography of Winnipeg punk here. Punk shows have always happened wherever they’ve had to, from legitimate performance halls, run-down community clubs, and perhaps even your own basement.  Some of these places are gone, replaced by others that rise up in times of need. Others, like the legendary Royal Albert, remain as beacons for the cause.

It’s also nice to see the testaments to local scene figures, like Martin Cote who tragically passed away last year. These moments, as well as the essays on favourite shows, moments, and memories are the real meat and potatoes that you get to dig into between the photos. You get a true sense of the importance of this scene and the desire for it to be remembered and respected.

If there are any quibbles to be had with this book it may be that your favourite bands or shows aren’t included. For example, there’s not a lot of content from the mid-nineties when the mainstream alt-rock explosion fragmented much of the indie music scene. To be fair, a second volume is in the works and a call has gone out for submissions. So if your memories aren’t included you’ll only have yourself to blame. Or you can always embrace the spirit of punk rock and make your own damn book.