An Inside Look At The Amarillo Punk Music Scene In The 80s

Music is one of those things that bring people together. In Amarillo, it's typically country music that brings together a whole host of people to do some dancing and singing. It wasn't always like that though.

Many different types of music can be considered divisive and very targeted to a certain group of people who enjoy it. Back in the early to mid 80s, one of those genres was punk music. Known for its angst and frenetic sound, it was essentially labeled music for the outcasts.

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There have been many documentaries done on the punk scene in general. It was different and unique. However, it wasn't something that was prevalent in the Amarillo area. It was essentially an underground scene here.

The main spot for the punk scene here was known as The Web, and it was located downtown. Bands would come together and play for hours, people would flock to The Web to listen to the music they'd fallen in love with.

Thrashing and mosh pits would break out, sometimes violently, but not in the bad violent sense. Punk music was aggressive, and so was the culture of it.

A documentary was filmed back in 1986 about the punk scene here in Amarillo, and I saw it recently resurface. It's approximately an hour long, and it shows a lot of rare footage that many didn't get to see.

In the film, they sat down with some of the artists of the bands, as well as just fans of the music and scene, and it was so interesting to hear the stories about it.

One that stood out in particular to me was someone mentioning how they wouldn't be allowed into certain places because of the way they dressed and did their hair. It was very "punk", and a lot of places weren't accepting of it.

You can watch the full documentary up above, and if you were ever into the punk scene, I think it's definitely a good watch. It was a college documentary that aired on the Amarillo College TV station originally.