Saw a 60 minutes piece on these Straight edgers, I didn't know it was a music scene as well.

[-]

Shington501@reddit

Straight edgers never bothered anyone, they are just nerds with tattoos that had cheesy punk bands in their mom’s basements

[-]

Ok-Criticism6874@reddit

I knew a guy that was straight edge. I once asked him why he was straight edge and he said because he was tired of seeing all his friends die. He was 16 and from a rich Jewish family.

[-]

_Moontouched_@reddit

Almost like all 16 year olds are performative naive dipshits regardless of their scene

[-]

goat_penis_souffle@reddit

Jared, you ain’t Alleyway Crew, you’re J Crew!

[-]

wrel_@reddit

"How could you possibly have not known..."

Growing up 90s New Zealand

"Ahhh... gotcha."

[-]

SolitudeWeeks@reddit

Yeah it was everywhere. I went to a small school and there were several straight edge vegan punks in every grade.

[-]

keyboardmash2@reddit

I grew up in 90s NZ too and used to hang out with a few straight edge guys, go to shows etc. But I was a drinker 😂 they didn't care, each to their own.

[-]

urbanlife78@reddit

That's how it was with my straight edge friends with my drinking friends and stoner friends

[-]

I met one in North Carolina that was crazy. Came to a party, shit on everyone for drinking, then when everyone told him to fuck off, he wanted to fight all the men. Needless to say, after that 5 of us grabbed him and sent him flying onto the lawn.

[-]

jambr380@reddit

I grew up knowing straight edge people as only a music scene really. You wanna get your head busted in, go to a hardcore show and you'll see plenty of them there. I didn't drink or do drugs in high school so I kind-of acted like I was straight edge, but I was a punk rocker, and our circle pits were much more gentle and uplifting than what I saw at hardcore shows. I'd just stand on the perimeter and hope for the best

[-]

pterodactylize@reddit

A good friend of mine came up in the Boston hardcore scene and he would always tell stories about the pits at the straight edge/hardcore shows and I still have a hard time believing they were that violent but it tracks based on everything else I've heard. Took him to his first death metal show and he just laughed.

[-]

imjusta_bill@reddit

Thr FSU guys didn't mess around

[-]

GooFoYouPal@reddit

They’re around again, too.

[-]

AJohnnyTruant@reddit

They are. It’s fucking annoying.

[-]

squee_bastard@reddit

Haven’t thought of or heard anyone mention Fuck Shit Up in a very long time. Ah nostalgia.

[-]

os_beef@reddit

Took him to his first death metal show and he just laughed.

Yeah, I mean folks in the metal scene aren't trying to beat the shit out of each other, and usually don't have the same hangups surrounding violence that exists in parts of the hardcore scene. It was always annoying when hardcore types would show up at death and thrash shows. If they were cool, you never knew who they were, but every so often one or a couple would show up with something to prove. I never understood it.

[-]

FalkorFTW@reddit

I used to play these shows in the southeast US in the ‘98-‘00 timeframe. Was on a straight edge label with some solid bands. Can confirm the violence 🤣

[-]

BasvanS@reddit

I remember a dumb punk with studs on his armbands being an asshole in the pit at a metal concert, until a 2 meter something guy plucked him out of the pit and said “Either you take ‘m off or I will.” He was a lot more toned down after that interaction.

Don’t mistake the metal pit’s “mellowness” for weakness.

[-]

jambr380@reddit

Yeah, death metal is a totally different vibe. I am more into skate punk - lots of bumping and running around, but pretty tame and controlled. I used to go with my friends to hardcore shows and just kind-of mind my own business. Those guys didn't seem to want to be friends with me lol

[-]

Deesmateen@reddit

Grew up in Utah. It wasn’t big where I was at, however, my ex BIL was the leader of the gang in SLC. He had been years removed from it and if he was in long sleeves and pants wouldn’t have guessed him to be in an extremely violent group. Nicest dude when he married into the family

Their intention every night was to fight. Whether that was looking for parties or at concerts. From his stories it was never a fair fight and they were fine with it. Said the only group they wouldn’t fight was Polynesians or cowboys because they could always match numbers

The irony of it all. Nearly all from what he said were drunks or druggies before him and my sister got divorced

[-]

os_beef@reddit

From his stories it was never a fair fight and they were fine with it. Said the only group they wouldn’t fight was Polynesians or cowboys because they could always match numbers

Jesus, what an asshole.

[-]

HambreTheGiant@reddit

>match numbers

3 Tongans or Samoans would be an even match for about 8 straightedge guys

[-]

Secret_Assistant_232@reddit

Which one? Clear, monster or some other crew. Can confirm slc was violent as fuck in the 90’s and they loved to fight bands that traveled too.

[-]

Putrid-Art-1559@reddit

I remember this being mainly a punk thing as well. It was big here in the Chicagoland area too.

[-]

katet_of_19@reddit

I was in high school in Florida back in the 90s and we had a pretty loud straight edge community

[-]

somainthewatersupply@reddit

You say true, I say thankya.

[-]

katet_of_19@reddit

We are well met, Gunslinger

[-]

FalkorFTW@reddit

Same- a lot of sxe kids in NW FL (Panama City to Pensacola area)

[-]

squee_bastard@reddit

I can member always wanting to go to one of the “fests” back then in Gainesville.

[-]

FalkorFTW@reddit

I remember going to the fest back in 2001 when converge set off some craziness. That was some fun!

[-]

first-alt-account@reddit

Big in the NW burbs for sure.

Classic clothing style for the kids- Plain white tshirt, oversized dark jeans that were like black jncos, and X on each hand.

[-]

Putrid-Art-1559@reddit

Yes! I remember the clothing style but completely forgot about the X’s on the hands.

[-]

JimboAltAlt@reddit

It was a punk-adjacent thing in the Philly area 30 years back too, though I was a bit too young to get what it was all about.

[-]

brandt-money@reddit

It was big in NJ/NYC and Philly too.

[-]

Blackbird136@reddit

Same. I didn’t know it was anything else until probably the last 10 years.

[-]

Biscuits4u2@reddit

Straight edge - the discipline
The key to self-liberation is abstinence from the destructive escapism of intoxication

I separate from the poison - a mindlessness I've always abhorred
Usage will only increase the pain, a truth I constantly see ignored
The pollutants that kill the body breed apathy within the mind
The substances that once brought release in the end will always confine

From drug-clouded lungs and veins, motivation dissipates
Imprisoned within addiction
Abuse increases until death overtakes
Enslaved by concupiscence
Promiscuity leads to despair
Victims used and abandoned
By liars who professed to care

Self-exiled from their insanity
Striving to attain higher levels of purity
The beauty in life is mine to know
Amidst the ruin, I survive

I've got to stay free
Damage everywhere - infections at every turn
Through my refusal to partake, I saved myself

Abstinence was the beginning
What's important is what's done with the freedom
Step by step I overcome
Alone I climb the staircase to edification

[-]

ivejustbluemyself@reddit

Victory records had a ton of straight edge bands back in the 90’s. I almost got stomped at a Henry Rollins show in NYC back in the day for smoking. The straight edge crew were just as bad as skinheads back in the day.

[-]

AfraidRevolution4613@reddit

There's a straight edge subculture called hardline. They take a much more aggressive approach to issues.

[-]

Ynot2_day@reddit

Where I was the skinhead looking straight edge kids were called “sharps”, but they weren’t racist (and there were plenty of black sharps)

[-]

Halloween-Daydream@reddit

I think SHARP stood for Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice.

[-]

Intelligent_Pass2540@reddit

Whats funny is how hard core they were about some things and not others. At 16 I was dating a 35 year old distributor from Victory records. No drinking or smoking or drugs but pressured me for sex until I literally ran from him at a concert.

Memories.

[-]

XFrankXGrimesX@reddit

Incredibly, almost impossibly immature men who thought they were stoic, quasi-military manly men showing up at shows with their underage girlfriends was one of the things that sent my ass right to garage punk when I was still in high school.

[-]

Intelligent_Pass2540@reddit

Yep! I worked at hot topic in high school as I had skipped a grade and didn't need credits. So I did co op where I worked half day and went to school half day. I thought I was Soooo SPECIAL that this 35 year old man came to the mall to bring me music tickets and take me to lunch.

I was NOT ready for sex at all and I really did have to hide and physically run from him to end things. It had become apparent that was his expectation. I escaped that and grew up to be a shrink so I made it but men like that make me sick now. The grooming and love bombing so stereotypical. Ugh he was mid 30s cruising the mall for high school girls.

He even paid for me to get body piercings my mom wouldnt allow and he signed the forms 🤢.

But he was so critical of people who smoked or got drunk and called my Hot Topic co workers "junkies" because in all their Goth glory they smoked cloves behind the mall at every break.

[-]

XFrankXGrimesX@reddit

I'm sorry that happened to you. It's really a shame that at that age, one's perspective is "I must be mature" and not "this man is pathetically immature"

[-]

Intelligent_Pass2540@reddit

YES! I always was a bit alienated from my peers I skipped a grade in elementary and then again in high-school. I was in an advanced program that helped but by freshman year they lost funding. My mom couldn't afford private school.

I really equated my intelligence and academic drive for maturity and the validation from older men really made me feel special. Yuck. I hate thinking about that 😕

[-]

XFrankXGrimesX@reddit

I worked at the mall in high school and Hot Topic always seemed to be full of creeps. My presumption was they thought the girls who worked/shopped there were easily manipulated "damaged goods" as opposed to the girls at The Gap

[-]

Intelligent_Pass2540@reddit

My manager was definitely a creep. I have long blonde hair and I've always been busty and he taped a line in the store near the windows where he wanted myself and another teen girl to stay. He would give us free clothes and we would basically just be in the window area drawing people in....so yeah a haven for creeps if you will.

The best thing honestly was the free clothing. Goth stuff gets expensive and I'm not a great seamstress lol and the body jewelry discount was nice. But yeah lots of creeps. Im so lucky I made it out unscathed physically.

[-]

XFrankXGrimesX@reddit

Jesus. I feel like I should have gotten into a lot more fights back then. btw I always thought blonde or red head goths who didn't dye their hair black looked counter-intuitively cooler. Broke up the black some I guess.

[-]

Evi1bo1weevi1@reddit

Fuck, I was in a punk band in a city that pretty much only had a hardcore/metal scene and we hung out with this one sXe band that had ties to Victory and they would go get cases of beer for their 16 year old girlfriends, but THEY wouldn't drink.

[-]

Intelligent_Pass2540@reddit

Yeah I remember we were in the green room for a POD show in Chicago and it was the first time I has seen cocaine in real life when someone had gotten some for one of the acts.

Straight Edge people in that area that I knew almost exclusively consisted of VERY young girls, free Victory Records Merch, and lots of 35+ aged sleazy men.

[-]

bowleggedgrump@reddit

Jesus fuck….

[-]

Sw4nR0ns0n@reddit

Every sxe dude I knew was like that istg

[-]

username11585@reddit

Yiiiikes.

[-]

the_girl_racer@reddit

What type of skinheads? Because you have SHARPS, suedeheads, boneheads, etc. and they are QUITE different in terms of belief systems.

[-]

XFrankXGrimesX@reddit

I've yet to meet a "trad" skinhead who isn't terrified of original thought and doesn't get horribly misogynistic / homophobic / racist and "tells it like it is" after several beers. Maybe one day but I'm 48 so I doubt it.

[-]

ivejustbluemyself@reddit

From my years of fun they would all act like knuckle heads when they drank.

[-]

Evi1bo1weevi1@reddit

Yea, didn't matter who it was or how cool they were outside of shows, put a couple of beers in them and boots and braces = throwing fists with anyone who got too close.

[-]

CarevaRuha@reddit

Oh, man, SHARPs were so scary! When I first learned about all the different flavors of skinhead (and got the obligatory 5 hour lecture about its roots in working-class England w/Jamaican reggae and dancehall and how it was not racially divided, but got co-opted by racists, etc...), I assumed they must be cool. Bringing back the old school solidarity vibe and such.

I was told they really were not cool at all, but didn't realize how uncool, until I experienced them showing up at small shows and just beating people up at the slightest provocation. So many shows ended with a SHARP brawl. I knew a bunch of chill Trad skins that were involved with Anti-Racist Action, but the ones who identified as SHARPs seemed far more interested in just fighting to fight.
It might be different, depending on region (I can only speak to N. Florida and metro Denver), but they did seem to have that reputation everywhere.

[-]

humanist-misanthrope@reddit

My guess would be boneheads. Those clowns ruined many a show for me.

[-]

the_girl_racer@reddit

They suck. They would try to infiltrate our shows and ruin those too. We usually got a heads up from someone that they were coming and we would be ready. If we were busting heads, it was gonna be theirs.

[-]

Devmoi@reddit

I was gonna say! Henry Rollins was/is? mostly straight edge. Like he was hella vocal about how he doesn’t really have sex or drink. There are a lot of people in the older hardcore scene that were a bit like that.

Must have been crazy to almost get fucked up for smoking though! Lord. 😂

[-]

joshuastar@reddit

he was/is best friends with Ian Mackaye.

[-]

ivejustbluemyself@reddit

I don’t think Rollins cared what people were doing at his shows, he seems like a cool dude. NYC to Boston late 90’s hardcore was nuts, with even crazier crews running around.

[-]

Aerospaced0ut@reddit

Rollins is a cool dude kinda all over the place views wise but just an interesting guy to listen to... I think he mostly does spoken word shows these days.

[-]

username11585@reddit

I used to volunteer during the pledge drives at KCRW, our local college station on which Rollins had his own show. He would come out and hang out with all the volunteers and eat food with us on breaks and just shoot the shit. He was definitely cool. This was like 10-15 years ago.

[-]

RatherB_fishing@reddit

Agreed on them being bad frankly I consider them worse. They intentionally would try to find a person who was alone smoking a cigarette or drinking a beer and wait for them to not be looking or act nice and get their attention and then have their friends take boots to them. I ran up against them and skinheads hate them both.

[-]

nochumplovesucka__@reddit

Copy pasting my comment I just posted.

So, I played in a punk band in the late 90s. We played a show with a straight edge band. They came to the after party at our house/practice space and were being DICKS. Asking "Can I get a beer?" Then getting it and standing there saying "look at me drink. Im so cool" and shaking them up and spraying them everywhere. Then they starting jumping in the joint rotation and "accidentally " dropping the joint and stepping on it. Stumbling around like a drunk person would knocking shit around and just being assholes and very disrespectful. Making fun of everyone for getting drunk and high.

You wanna be straight edge? Cool. You do you. I dont care.

But myself and a few friends had an idea. We invited them to check out our practice space in the attic..... a HUGE guy we knew blocked the door at the bottom. Once we had them upstairs, we lit about 4 big joints at the same time and surrounded those guys in the corner and proceeded to blow ALL the smoke right into their faces a d clam bake them in that attic space. They got high as fuck and couldn't handle their shit. They were all crying, freaking out, etc.

Moral of the story: dont be a dick, and you won't get your edge forcefully broken

[-]

epidemicsaints@reddit

It's reverse engineered. They want violence first and then work backwards to pick a target they can justify. It's why there is crossover with white supremacy.

[-]

gravteck@reddit

Nothing like being in the pit as a 17 year old next to the mid 20 somethings all marked up and ready to go. In fact, I would usually leave at that age lol. My younger brother actually was straight edge for about 5 years. He never left the pit.

[-]

GravyPainter@reddit

Straight edgers were dicks at concerts

[-]

Esternaefil@reddit

gif

[-]

Secret_Assistant_232@reddit

When I first saw this dumb character on wwe I laughed my ass off for weeks. Couldn’t believe it was co-opted like this. What a turd. They were selling those x’ed up hand gloves packaged at Walmart.

[-]

ananthropolothology@reddit

Co-opted? CM Punk is straight edge outside of the ring too.

[-]

black_flag_4ever@reddit

Time to bust out Earth Crisis.

[-]

mikeSTWA@reddit

Check out the track BNE by xweaponx featuring earth crisis if you haven’t already. Absolute ripper

[-]

hi984390@reddit

Or Shelter

[-]

goat_penis_souffle@reddit

Or 108

[-]

seanie_rocks@reddit

I came here for the Earth Crisis mention and wasn't disappointed.

[-]

No-Beyond-7135@reddit

We can all agree that a firestorm will purify

[-]

intransit412@reddit

GET THE KID WITH THE SIDEBURNS

[-]

aaronthed@reddit

STREET BY STREET

[-]

touslesmatins@reddit

Yeah my encounters with the straight edge world came about because of my involvement with the vegan scene. Lots of overlap there

[-]

Hipcatjack@reddit

“….If you’re not, now; you never were.”

[-]

ItsJustVWCraig@reddit

[-]

crashbandit3@reddit

It is kinda ironic that they would beat people up for doing drugs... they are literally getting a high from doing that on the level of cocaine

[-]

Coitus_lnterruptus@reddit

i was a drug kid. fuck the straight edgers.

[-]

Normal512@reddit

Same. I mean I thought about doing it for like 10 minutes when I was first getting into punk and then I smoked a bowl with my friend and said fuck that shit.

Drugs are neat. And you can buy them relatively cheap. And when you do them people think that you're cool.

[-]

jjj666jjj666jjj@reddit

And when you do them people think that you’re cool.

[-]

TangFiend@reddit

Pretty sure I was the antithesis of this.

Had some friends though.

[-]

mrtoddw@reddit

These were the most annoying individuals to deal with at a concert. You could tell who was straight edge the same way you know someone is vegan: they’ll tell you 5-10 times in a simple conversation. Often telling you without asking.

[-]

Aeg0nLandesk0g@reddit

The Straight Edge scene started in DC in the early 80s. It wasn't meant to be violent, more of just a statement that "hey, you don't have to do drink, or do drugs, or have promiscuous sex to fit in" but as it spread across the world, different punk/hardcore scenes internalized it differently. Some were quite violent, others were not. I've had sXe friends in the Denver scene going back to the 90s and they've all been pretty cool.

[-]

goat_penis_souffle@reddit

Not sure if Ian Mackaye and Minor Threat were the first but they definitely put it on the map.

[-]

XFrankXGrimesX@reddit

Teen Idles, the precursor to Minor Threat was the starting point although there had been similar messages like in proto-punk The Modern Lovers' "I'm Straight"

[-]

HambreTheGiant@reddit

Not like hippie Johnny

[-]

XFrankXGrimesX@reddit

"Hippie Johnny" is John Felice of The Real Kids (and briefly The Modern Lovers)

[-]

TacoNomad@reddit

I was going to say, I was in the east coast and I don't remember the violence component. Its been awhile, but i thought it was just a personal choice kind of thing. But I was also in a small town not a major city

[-]

conscientiousrevolt@reddit

What the whole fuck?? We had those back when I was in hs. They are just humongous nerds that were trying to turn not doing anything fun into some kind of "cool" thing. Obviously just weird dorky kids that fell for their parents reverse psychology.

Now that I know it came out of Utah I realize it must have just been the fuckin Mormon kids ew 😅🤣

[-]

goat_penis_souffle@reddit

I can see why it looks like it came from some youth group circle jerk, but straightedge was 100% a thing in the NY/NJ metro area I grew up in the early-mid 90s with.

[-]

conscientiousrevolt@reddit

Yeah. That's what I just said. We had it in... SoCal too, and I never even knew it was a Mormon thing.

That said, like I said, if it came out of Utah, and Salt Lake, 110% it came from some youth group circle jerk

Probably the most successful psyop to ever come out of a youth group circle jerk, not counting ones that ended with coolaid 😬

[-]

RosstaSeaDog@reddit

Mormons

[-]

punkpcpdx@reddit

All you need to know is Oan Mackaye was very much the guy who is credited with starting straight edge. He does not condone the violence that came to be part of the XstraightedgeX scene.

[-]

Antique-Ant5557@reddit

If you're gonna be violent anyway, might as well drink and do drugs. 🤷

[-]

Reeferologist-@reddit

In South Florida around 1999 there was a group of people that would call themselves “the straight edge ninjas” and they would go around to the local shows and start fist fights and problems with people even for smoking cigarettes. I remember getting into it with a few of them a couple times.

[-]

genesimmonstongue415@reddit

It's good & fine to be sober. 👍 That is better than what I'm doing with my life.

But this subculture is just aggro White boys who can't find other hobbies.

Signed, rock'n'roll fella

[-]

Southside_john@reddit

When I was younger my friends and I liked to smoke weed and we thought these straight edge kids were a bunch of fucking losers.

You think you’re going to fuck us up because we like to get high? Yeah right, fuck off

[-]

Electronic_Camera251@reddit

There were many straight edge subcultures when i was growing up in the 80s and the 90s the oddest (and represented by 6 bands that i saw they were vegan as well) the KRISHNAcore after shows they would get people to go to the largest Krishna temple in the world on Jay st in Brooklyn. Lots of the skinhead guys were straight edge but an equal amount were drunks and pill heads and juice was big with them . It seems to have been really popular with suburban kids i think because they bad to druve home after shows

[-]

goat_penis_souffle@reddit

*Schermerhorn Street

[-]

Electronic_Camera251@reddit

Holy shit you from the neighborhood?

[-]

goat_penis_souffle@reddit

Spent some time there but lived in Bushwick for a while

[-]

LongballG@reddit

I went to school in the 90’s with some kids that were “straight edge”. One of the got a girl pregnant in 8th grade….

[-]

Dan_Berg@reddit

I love how that tattoo kind of looks like "syke" since most of the straight edge kids I knew 25 years ago would say "syke" to the movement and turn into junkies

[-]

hiro111@reddit

It's not from SLC. It's from Washington DC. It's inspired by the Minor Threat song "Straight Edge", but by people who have taken teenaged Ian MacKaye's lyrics way too seriously. MacKaye has repeatedly said that he is deeply conflicted about the "movement'.

[-]

refuz04@reddit

The most interesting was the straight edge kinds in the house music scene. That was always a bit crazy.

[-]

SmellenGold@reddit

I grew up in SLC in the 90s-00s and they were definitely around! Never saw any real violence but it was definitely talked about. It was weird because the strait edgers I knew weren’t Mormon-they just hated drugs and liked the music (Earth Crisis and some others.). Many were vegan too and that was its own crazy scene.

[-]

maringue@reddit

Fugazi coined the term straight edge, or Minor Threat, I can't remember but they've got the same singer.

[-]

LennyAteYourPizza@reddit

My understanding is Minor Threat’s song titled “Straight Edge” was co-opted and turned into the movement, but Ian MacKaye himself never claimed any ownership of it and to a certain extent disavowed it

[-]

irate_alien@reddit

Yup, I moved to DC in the mid-90s. Straight edge guys were still around and crazy. Watched a couple of them beat the hell out of a guy at a club because they lit up a cigarette. Very holier than thou attitude. The junkies were more predictable and scared me less.

[-]

LennyAteYourPizza@reddit

It was pretty big in Ohio as well. In Columbus and Cinci I saw two bars get absolutely demolished, I mean ripping lights out of the ceiling, tearing the felt off of pool tables, throwing chairs and stools to break all the liquor behind the bar. At one of them I saw a dude use a bar stool to punch out a guys entire front row of teeth.

Courage Crew were the knucklehead straight edge gang everyone wanted to be in. Bunch of em went to prison, the leader actually owned a bar in Dayton. Bury Your Dead was came through once and fuckin Will Smith was hanging with them on their tour.

[-]

gravteck@reddit

That was my understanding as well. My freshmen English teacher honed in on my music interests and gave me his Minor Threat and Circle Jerk CDs. I returned them the last day of Senior Year. Thanks Mr. Cooney, I could have been way nicer to you.

[-]

Biggoreimnum4@reddit

It was Minor Threat. They have a song called Straight Edge.

[-]

Rustmutt@reddit

I had a boyfriend in HS who was straightedge and he had a tattoo and I was like “why does your arm say Sexy?” sXe

[-]

qualityskootchtime@reddit

Some of the first punk music I was introduced to by an older friend was straightedge at around 10-11 years old. My friend David made a mixtape of his 7” vinyl records of various straightedge bands like Headfirst, Insted and Carrie Nation.

[-]

vicviperblastoff@reddit

gif

[-]

deephurting66@reddit

Most of these guys I knew were ultra violent hot heads that would go off on anyone doing something they were against, especially at parties

[-]

JacobStills@reddit

Honestly, I always thought, "they say they are drug free but it's not true; they just replaced drugs and alcohol with the rush of fighting and violence."

[-]

goat_penis_souffle@reddit

Self-righteousness can be more potent than any street drug that you can name

[-]

deephurting66@reddit

🥇 take my poor award, you smacked that nail square on the head!!

[-]

wayneluke23@reddit

gif

[-]

adamkissing@reddit

gif

[-]

taleofbenji@reddit

My cousin got a straight edge tattoo, and shortly thereafter killed himself.

[-]

MitchellSFold@reddit

I was sxe from 17 until I was 31.

I come from a small UK town, where we had one metal pub and every metalhead liked the same bands and went to the same shows - none of which interested me back then (Marilyn Manson, Type O, Morbid Angel etc). However, I was drawn to extreme music anyway and through a new group of friends I made at college I got into hardcore and soon learned about the sxe movement.

My town was (is still) so small that there were maybe four people I knew who went sxe, but I can say that, personally, it suited me just fine for a long time. I was never a drinker and never felt comfortable around drunk or stoned people - which was most of my friends most weekends. I formed a hardcore band, and wrote songs about living the sxe lifestyle.

We were a popular group, but we split up around 2001. Eventually I left my hometown and went to university, where I finally dropped the sxe and enjoyed beer, wine, drugs and women in a big way.

Today I am 48, and as it happens I am a non-drinker or recreational druggie once again, but not as a lifestyle choice and instead as a life choice. I went from one extreme to another and was getting way too boozy for a time (especially around covid and lockdowns). Today, I just don't feel the need to drink but I would never judge anyone who doesn't follow the same choice as me - I know there were days when I was sxe when I was judgemental to others (never to the point of violence, I hasten to add), but that is not me today.

Life is life, sometimes it's hard. You've got to do what you've got to do for you 🍻

[-]

TiEmEnTi@reddit

Ah yes the Charlie Kirks of the punk scene

[-]

nochumplovesucka__@reddit

So, I played in a punk band in the late 90s. We played a show with a straight edge band. They came to the after party at our house/practice space and were being DICKS. Asking "Can I get a beer?" Then getting it and standing there saying "look at me drink. Im so cool" and shaking them up and spraying them everywhere. Then they starting jumping in the joint rotation and "accidentally " dropping the joint and stepping on it. Stumbling around like a drunk person would knocking shit around and just being assholes and very disrespectful. Making fun of everyone for getting drunk and high.

You wanna be straight edge? Cool. You do you. I dont care.

But myself and a few friends had an idea. We invited them to check out our practice space in the attic..... a HUGE guy we knew blocked the door at the bottom. Once we had them upstairs, we lit about 4 big joints at the same time and surrounded those guys in the corner and proceeded to blow ALL the smoke right into their faces a d clam bake them in that attic space. They got high as fuck and couldn't handle their shit. They were all crying, freaking out, etc.

Moral of the story: dont be a dick, and you won't get your edge forcefully broken

[-]

goat_penis_souffle@reddit

The way I heard it explained was “if you don’t respect yourself enough not to put chemicals in your body that harm you, then why should anybody respect you either?” Unfortunately, people take that as a license to be a jackoff

[-]

Klutzy_Order_9559@reddit

I'm straight edge for life!

3 years later: Actually I love meth!

[-]

bashturd@reddit

Yeah dude the straight edge hardcore scene is still very much alive. Check out No Cure.

[-]

the_girl_racer@reddit

Hi! Former sXe from DC here. Lotta misconceptions around the straight edge movement, and obviously the media had a field day with it because why wouldn’t they?

None of us were put to bust any heads at shows. And if you think that, a night at Chuck E Cheese might be more your speed. SLC was a different kind of scene - Mormon roots brought a certain kind of militant vibe to that whole scene. Most of us just stayed away from that.

At the end of the day, we are just a bunch of kids rebelling against rebelling, which is the ultimate rebellion.

Not growing up drinking or doing drugs got me far. Graduated college early. Bought a house at 21. Have had an awesome life of traveling and seeing great music. Most of us aren’t assholes.

[-]

seanie_rocks@reddit

I spent a lot of time all over the country in my early 20s. The dudes in Boston were pretty wild.

[-]

jambr380@reddit

Yeah, the guy above you might have been responding to my 'head busted in' comment above. I was not saying that everybody was like that, just that if there was a music scene that could get violent, it was hardcore. I am responding to you because I went to a lot of Boston area shows and it did get pretty crazy at times, so I totally agree

[-]

goat_penis_souffle@reddit

Now that they’re much older, it’s wild reading the memoirs of these NYHC guys. Roger Miret, Harley Flanagan, Vinnie Stigma etc, all worthwhile books.

Hell, Stigmas book even has recipes!

[-]

Lastpunkofplattsburg@reddit

I remember watching docs on the hardline kids and the edge kids from SLC. It was actually known that you don’t fuck with them and they’re a known gang who will jump you with 10 guys. I grew up edge too, till I was shockingly 21. I still believe it allowed me to graduate HS. The music I still listen to this day. My crew were friendly and often hung with the drinkers/smokers. It’s 100% a life style and like all things can go to peoples heads.

[-]

XFrankXGrimesX@reddit

In the late 90s there was an online database charting when various straight edgers "broke edge"

Witnesses that once at a party. Poor kid was like 22 when he broke edge. Did not know how to handle trash juice. Colossal mess.

[-]

Secret_Assistant_232@reddit

Wasn’t it called howsyouredge.com? I was on that list. Awful scene in the 90’s.

[-]

XFrankXGrimesX@reddit

Shit, yeah, I think that's right.

Truly putrid scene although it did crack me up that sXe or otherwise hardcore was the most dramatic scene, and it wasn't even close. Somehow the more "tuff" the band was, the bigger the drama queens. I mean just look at The Cro-Mags.

[-]

Long_Audience4403@reddit

EDGE BREAK FACE BREAK

[-]

Nightstands@reddit

The gateway drug to krishnacore

[-]

DrJosephMorrin@reddit

108.

Still a common listen here.

[-]

Nightstands@reddit

Still have a 108 State cd, saw them with Shelter once, they handed out samosas after the show. It was really nice.

[-]

rmm989@reddit

They still play shows from time to time

[-]

ButterscotchAware402@reddit

I grew up in Syracuse, NY. The straight edge and hardcore punk scenes were/are very tight knit.

[-]

PookieCat415@reddit

Mid-late 90s, we had them in San Francisco and most of them were also vegan, like militaristically.

[-]

Evening_Ad_1099@reddit

These guys were always at ska shows.

[-]

Senior-Afternoon-786@reddit

SE losers ruined so many SoCal punk and ska shows…

Seriously eff that weak ass scene.

[-]

Mrrectangle@reddit

Went to college in Pittsburgh in 98. Had a kid on my floor who was a vegan skater straight edge. He had to explain the entire notion to me at the time. Was completely foreign to me at the time.

[-]

Miss-Chanandler_Bong@reddit

sXe was considered a gang in my West Coast city and they’d all go to the hardcore shows and get aggro with each other.

[-]

Most_Present_6577@reddit

Its usually just hard-core right?

They got to get their angst out

[-]

lordtyp0@reddit

I had a friend who was picked up by a small group of them and body slammed on one of the fence rails at a concert at the Saltair.

[-]

PathosEatsLogos@reddit

Not from the DC area I guess

[-]

bikeonychus@reddit

The only straight edge kids I met in the UK were fucking losers. And that's not a comment on their decision to not drink or take drugs, I actually respect that side of things, because our drinking culture was so in your face, it did take guts to shrug that.

But no, these kids were just fucking losers, and drew circles with X's on their wrists and we're just sulky shites towards everyone with a superiority complex to boot.

Mind, that was Middlesbrough, so...

[-]

singlesunbeam_enough@reddit

Southern California here and in 94-96 my friends and I were in the scene and went to shows all the time. Ska punk girl, we were all about Unity and also straight edge. Straight edge to us meant

No violence No Racism No sex No Drugs

When I look back on those days I’m proud that as a 16 year old I stood up for what I believed in and didn’t push it on anyone else. To be honest, the majority of my high school peers were doing drugs so we liked being different. No one was violent at our shows and no one was judging others. It was this really cool scene where “druggies” and straight edge “nerds” just co-existed and were united through the love of the music. Man I would love to go back for one day in 95 and head to Huntington Beach old world hall and be back in that pit! Shows just aren’t the same anymore and they aren’t 10 bucks either 😩

[-]

bountiful_garden@reddit

I always thought of them as lame pretend-a-goths.

[-]

amjiujitsu87@reddit

I got jumped by a bunch of straight edge kids in Berkley in 2004. Made the mistake of walking by them smoking a cigarette

[-]

segadoes16bit@reddit

Minor threat

[-]

ARealForHonorDev@reddit

Yea SLC was weird due to the additional religious influence in that area. Mormons aren't supposed to be indulging in any substances so it became popular there. I think of it as more of a East Coast thing, though it was certainly around in Southern California where I grew up.

It wasn't just SLC in which SXE which started as a somewhat positive movement, eventually twisted into something more militaristic, with crews basically morphing into street gangs. FSU, for example and other Hardline bullshit. Didnt take long, the whole scene eventually focused on how hardcore you were with following theyre made up little rules within the scene.

[-]

humanist-misanthrope@reddit

My wife and I were talking about a different group of people, but we were discussing how you take an ideology from something innocent and how it can turn into a militant group of gatekeepers. That one upping mentality of I’ll be even more extreme to prove I’m more in the culture than anyone else starts to put them against their own people. I’m speaking in generals and probably be to broad but any kind of scene tends to have zealots eventually.

[-]

ARealForHonorDev@reddit

Absolutely.

[-]

badnewsbroad76@reddit

Imagine if we lived in a world where people just minded their own business. You don't wanna smoke or drink? good for you (!) but why make it a whole personality or movement..lol..what's it to them if someone else enjoys a beer or whatever? Sounds like sanctimonious busybody bullshit.

[-]

xdementia@reddit

I think they probably showed the same doc in my social studies class. Did it have the band Earth Crisis in it? Not sure how you can see a documentary about straight edge and not realize it was a music scene?

I was straight edge until I was about 23. The "drink a beer get beat up" thing was a misnomer. Went to college in Boston and ran into FSU a few times. There were definitely beat downs at hardcore shows but mostly it was gang activity, punching nazis, or simply punishment to people who were being assholes - drunk or not.

[-]

NotXenos@reddit

We got that PMA

[-]

mrbuh@reddit

One of my favorite all time jokes from a standup comedian whose name I can't remember:

I'm a sober person. I don't use drugs. But I don't call myself "straight edge" because I don't go to punk shows and hit on teenage girls.

[-]

SmallRocks@reddit

I knew a couple straight edge dudes while I was in the military. They introduced me to a couple cool bands like Throwdown and Eighteen Visions. These dudes where something else and you could always depend on them to throwdown in a brawl 😂

[-]

pingle1@reddit

Cult

[-]

Automatic-Nature6025@reddit

I knew some X-Edge kids in the local scene in my part of Virginia, but they were typically the minority. I remember one dude who designated himself "crowd police" at shows, and everyone hated him. The only thing he ever prevented was people enjoying themselves.I heard he tried forcing himself on a girl at a show, which makes sense, because we stopped seeing him after that.The other straight edge guys were cool, but nearly all of them either started smoking weed, drinking, or having sex.

[-]

pathlessplaces75@reddit

Both of my brothers were in the straight edge scene in southern California, early to mid-90s. They created a band, got the tattoos, lived the life of inflicting violence through their uh, love for Jesus. Of course attended church and youth group.

[-]

LeftHandStir@reddit

This is how we did it back in the day:

[-]

RatherB_fishing@reddit

You should look up the old group called “Friends Stand United.” Think straight edge meets hardcore gang mentality.

[-]

BennyOcean@reddit

The logo says SEX and the top part looks like a blue phallus into a dark vag. Are the rest of you missing the symbolism or is it obvious?

[-]

blondeviking64@reddit

I knew a guy in high school/college who was straight edge. Last I heard he and another guy from high school opened a dispensary so I am guessing he isnt anymore. But he had tattoos for it and everything.

[-]

ValancyNeverReadsit@reddit

I couldn’t quite figure out what the Straight Edge scene was supposed to be, because the group of dudes in my grade who got into that struck me as kids who absolutely were doing some kind of illicit substances. I knew what it meant, but I didn’t really believe they were following it. So that made me wonder about the whole movement’s believability too.

I still wonder how serious they were about it, but I haven’t seen any of them in decades, so I can’t really ask anyone

[-]

sattyspritz@reddit

Been edge since I was 16. Became a quiet middle aged record nerd.

[-]

AnglinImagePhoto@reddit

My first roommate(s) were BOTH straight edge kids freshman year. I got outta that dorm asap

[-]

fractiouscatburglar@reddit

~~click~~ Clique

[-]

Hi-Scan-Pro@reddit

I lived in SLC from 2000ish to mid-late 2004. My buddy moonlighted as a bouncer at Area51. Hatebreed played a show that apparently all the Straightedgers showed up to. All the bouncers got fucked up trying to stop fights all night. I never knew about them until then.

[-]

S_A_R_K@reddit

I'm a person just like you

But I've got better things to do

Than sit around and fuck my head

Hang out with the living dead

Snort white shit up my nose

Pass out at the shows

I don't even think about speed

That's just something I don't need

I've got the straight edge

I'm a person just like you

But I've got better things to do

Than sit around and smoke dope

'Cause I know that I can cope

Laugh at the thought at eating ludes

And laugh at the the thought of sniffing glue

Always gonna keep in touch

Never gonna use a crutch

I've got the straight edge

[-]

59apache01@reddit

Had to have been a local phenomenon or something that was scattered regionally across the US because where I grew up you never heard the term outside the music world.

[-]

Long_Audience4403@reddit

All my sxe friends in college were our designated drivers.

[-]

MetalEnthusiast83@reddit

Was? It still is.

[-]

kellyasksthings@reddit

I grew up in NZs in the 90s/early 2000s and only heard of straight edge by word of mouth. In my high school/uni it just meant someone that didn’t want drink/smoke/do drugs but not necessarily for religious reasons. It wasn’t associated with a specific music scene, trying to fight other people or even trying to promote itself as something others should do.

[-]

AsideLost@reddit

I was under the assumption it started as a music genre