The Nerve Centre has always held a concrete slot in my memory bank. I was just a spotty-faced young teenager when i first went down there, fucked up on alcohol and pills, just in time to catch the last act of the night, a powerhouse performance by New Plymouth legends Casualty. Man, what a set. People talk about life defining moments, well that was definitely one for me. I was still at school but i'd been listening to Punk for a few years by then, and had been to a couple of gigs but nothing like that one. The music, the people, the attitude, and the place. To this day its still the best venue i've been to. I went to a few more gigs there over the prevailing months but the most memorable one of all was Moral Fibre and Gorse supporting Flesh D-Vice. A fucken killer lineup that would stand tall anywhere,anytime. What i'd give to see that gig again. Colossal. I remember many more good times there like The Greatest Band In The World Competion when The Mindfuckers reformed and charged up the crowd, or when that wannabe whiteboy started trying to staunch the place out before being knocked over by one of the smallest guys there, or when someone fed us all up on pills and i woke up on the footpath outside then blacked out and woke up on a strangers couch, or when all the Skins arrived tooled up looking for some aggro with the Mob, or when Suffocation came down from ChCh and blew everyone away, or when that couple had a fuck right outside the door on a car bonnet, or.....anyway, i'm sure you get the picture. Lots of good wholesome shit for an easily-influenced, Punk-loving teenager to get wrapped up in. It eventually closed down for different reasons, somewhere round 1991 maybe, but it was never forgotten by some people, and i'd always thought it a shame that no definitive history had been documented in some way, besides photos i'd seen, and the odd piece written somewhere. Until i heard about this DVD that had been made by Peter Gorman, a Dunedinite who had played in bands like EOE and Munky Cramp.
This doco goes for approximately 40 minutes and is made up from still photos, live footage, posters and interviews, which combine to give a good slice of the attitudes and ideas that were prevalent in this "scene" at the time. And some of this stuff is gold!! Rare as rocking horse shit. Like the footage of Mindfuckers and Survivors Of The Plague practicing at The Regent, or Cyrrhosis at The Empire. But the standout feature for me is the soundtrack. I mean i used to listen to all these bands on tape, and saw them all live, but i hadn't realised how much of a privilege it was until i watched this doco and was totally blown away by the quality of them all...Nervosa, Mindfuckers, Gorse, Spermicide, Moral Fibre....the list goes on. Phenomenal. And the 80s dress sense and appearance, all dark and scruffy and brooding, trenchcoats and mohawks and shaved heads, laced up boots and ripped jeans. I mean, this is still prevalent today, but nothing on that scale.
Some really enlightening and humorous interviews are conducted with various people who were around at the time, providing an interesting mix of stories, personal opinions and philosophies, mainly focused on the Nerve Centre but also shifting to the early to mid 90s when it closed down and the gigs moved to places like The Empire and The Crown and Sammys. I went to a lot of these, but they just didn't seem to have that same early magic and appeal of the Nerve Centre, well not for me anyway. One recurring theme that pokes through is "dole day thursday". Aaaahh yes, i remember it as a guaranteed good time day, rolling into Friday, possibly Saturday, then a battle of survival for the rest of the week. Real hand to mouth sorta stuff. But good times all the same.
There is also a tinge of sadness as the photos of deceased people surface and open up a slight undercurrent of despair that seemed to coexist with the revelry of the era in some kind of debauched symbiosis. People have died or faded away or settled down or gotten paranoid, or whatever, and its a small group of diehards that are still out there playing music and going to gigs and generally flying the punk rock flag. Always great to see an old face out there, as rare as it is.
So i guess its largely apparent that i love this doco, on a personal level because of the emotion it riles in me every time i watch it, and on a general level because of the unique slice it provides for others that were round, and for the unitiated who get a taste of what was happening over 20 years ago in Dunedin for a relatively small and somewhat esoteric social circle(s). A lot has been missed and left out, but thats to be expected with such a limited range of material to work with, and i think the maker has done an excellent job of putting together such a diverse and enthralling account.
The final say goes to the statement spraypainted on the front of the Mackinnon Place squat after everyone had finally been evicted:
"YOU CAN NEVER OWN US MOTHERFUCKERS"
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