In every major city in each country I’ve visited there seems to be one punk fan, aficionado and ambassador of punk ,if you will, who sees fit to take it upon themselves to show me the ropes of their local punk scene.
"El Terrible Y Los Mongoloides" Interview
For Medellin, Colombia it was Jorge, for the Moscow rockabilly scene it was Viktor (with a “k:) and for Lima, Peru it’s Victor (with a “c”)
I met Victor like I meet many punks I get to know before I visit their fair city, through my contacts via Punk Outlaw’s facebook page. In this case a good punk soul from Colombia referred Victor to my page.
When he graciously offered to help me do some groundwork for getting plugged into the scene in Lima, I was hoping he’d help me line up a couple of interviews.
El Hueko... a legendary punk pit, now a pre-school
Well Victor went above and beyond the call of duty and not only arranged more kick ass interviews than I could accommodate, he arranged a showcase of 5 current Lima punk bands to perform exclusively for our cameras.
Like a true punk rocker, Victor didn’t ask for a thing in return including recognition, so this will be all I write about him when recapping Peru. He’s not a Mohawk wearing punk with a ton of tattoos and like many; you might never guess the guy is into punk music by looking at him, but Victor knows his stuff.
El Averno - Not your average community center
I think it has something to with the fact that he was born and raised in a house right next to the legendary El Hueko. This little spot in a suburb of Lima is bordered by the local TV stations, a Jewish Synagogue and a Catholic church where Victor reportedly witnessed a dust up between the local punks and the area priests! Now that I’d like to catch for the Punk Outlaw cameras.
During its day in the 80s and 90s, El Hueko was the home of the Lima punk band Eutenasia and with it’s concerts and constant punk music pouring out it’s pores, El Hueko was the rough equivalent of CBGBs of Lima.
It wasn’t an official bar, but it was a place where many a punk concert took place during Lima’s punk heyday.
Today it’s a preschool.
El Averno's Cool Art
El Hueko was also the location for my interview with El Terrible Y Los Mongoloides (The Terrible and the Mongoloids), a street punk band which has been tearing up the Lima punk scene for quite some time.
The guys were great and we had the interview right where the local pre-schoolers learn their daily lessons and the Mongoloids gave me a history lesson of my own, on the punk scene in Lima.
After the interview at El Hueko, we all headed to downtown Lima to tour the Al Averno Cultural Center, a very bohemian and picturesque spot in downtown Lima, that hosts many punk concerts and all types of music events and is an important staple of the underground and counter culture community in Lima.
Punk Procession to Peru Noise Studios in downtown Lima
From there we caught up with the 4 other bands and walked the few blocks over to a rehearsal studio just a block away from the beautiful San Martin Plaza in downtown Lima. About 30 of us in all in this punk procession, headed down to Lima Noise Studios, which is in a basement studio accessible by a series of unlit, pitch black stairways that had me wondering “where in the hell were we going?”
But I trusted my punk brothers and sisters and it paid off.
Once inside Lima Noise each of the bands performed 3 songs in an incredible showcase of current punk and hardcore music just for our cameras.
Now I’m going to feature the other bands a bit later on but for now, from Lima Peru, here are El Terrible Y Los Mongoloides performing “Generacion Negativa”. So enjoy it motherf***s!