Youth Brigade saved my life!

Growing up, I was a huge fan of Youth Brigade. I owned everything they put out: The 7 inch, the full-lengths and of course the blue print for Southern California's punk scene of 1982, "Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In." It is safe to say that my crew of friends and I had become obsessed with the band. From the moment I heard the opening chords of "Boys in the Brigade" I was in! How could I not be? They were real brothers who were in a band together, traveling the world with a message of unity and each one of them was just as charismatic as the other. In my opinion, Youth Brigade is America's version of Sham 69.

Living in San Jose, I was lucky enough to see shows in San Francisco at the legendary club “The On Broadway.” In the early 80’s The On Broadway was home to Bay Area legends like Dead Kennedy’s, M.D.C., Code Of Honor, Bad Posture as well as so many other great bands. On top of the strong local talent that the Bay Area was turning out, The On Broadway also hosted every punk band that made their way to San Francisco, including Youth Brigade. By 1984 I had seen Youth Brigade a few times and had even spoken to Mark Stern at a few shows. At that time they had a manager who had enlisted me to help promote their shows. The deal was simple. I would pass out about 200 flyers all around San Jose for the show in SF, and in return I could get myself and four friends into the show.

So one night in 1984 when Youth Brigade played The On Broadway, me and my friends piled into a car and made the 40 minute journey north to San Francisco. After three local openers Youth Brigade finally hit the stage and The On Broadway literally exploded. Every punker from Sacramento to Santa Cruz had made their way to this show. The place was packed with over 700 sweaty kids singing along to every word the came out of Shawn Stern’s mouth. “Modest Proposal,” “Fight to Unite” and “The Circle” were just some of the songs they played that night. With each song the pit only become more chaotic with kids dancing, stage diving and singing along together arm in arm.

I remember I was right up against the stage all night long. During the entire night this one 200 pound skinhead kept stage diving feet first. Needless to say, 200 pounds coming at you in a pair of red Dr Martins is a scary thing. Once is enough but this guy was into double digits on his “boots first” method of stage diving. We decided something needed to change. As Youth Brigade dropped into another song I saw the “boots first” stage diver coming our way. As he began to gain speed and make his way off the stage, me and four buddies pushed him over us and into the pit. What goes up must come down and he came down hard. I remember hearing the crowd cheer when he hit the floor.

Youth Brigade closed with “Sink With California” that night and as usual all of us ended up on stage singing with Shawn and Adam. The show was done and Youth Brigade had delivered another night of songs preaching unity, individualism and freedom. Covered in sweat, beer and whatever else was in the air that night we all began to head to the exit and make our way home. Suddenly my friend Reeps grabs me and pulled me to the back of the club.

“Dude, that guy who you launched over the crowd is out front now and is looking for you with about five other gnarly looking dudes.”

At that moment I think I pissed my pants but I couldn’t tell because I was still covered in sweat from the show. “We got to get you out of here,” Reeps said. As we stressed over our situation I noticed Mark Stern on stage putting away his drums. I quickly made my way over to him and explained our dilemma. I remember Mark laughed and said he saw what we had done and asked why we hadn’t done it earlier. As we talked more, Mark picked up on the fact I was pretty fuckin scared. A few months earlier something like this had happened and ended with a kid getting stabbed. “Don’t worry” Mark said as he packed up his drums “you can hang with us until we leave and then we can all walk out together.” I remember thanking him and being so blown away that he would actually make sure nothing went down. It could have been real easy for Mark to look the other way but he didn’t. As the night ended we all walked out together; me, my friend Reeps and Youth Brigade. For a brief moment in time, as we made our way through the wet cold streets of San Francisco, I felt like I was part of something special, I felt like I was in the Brigade.

Joe Sib