Concert Review: I Miss HOUSE of VANS! At Superchief Gallery
The House of Vans’s The Spirit of DIY campaign has been fantastic, and made Superchief Gallery one of the best places to hear live music and see, on site, how counter-culture is culture. Vans have been a corporate text-book on how to mainstream the rebel; institutionalize the outcast revolution.Throughout the fall and, what I hope will become a more frequent happening, they are bringing the local bands to varying cities to display their music, art, and interact with the people that devour them both.
Entering Superchief Gallery was like entering the initial heart of VANS: as a once fledgling band capturing the essence of raging, rebelling youth. As bands like L.O.T.I.O.N, Blu Anxxiety, Pinocchio, Ghula and Blair , played in a dark room with images of skaters riding in walled backsplashes, I kept on thinking, “Vans needs to have its own club.” Technically, that was House of Vans. Yet, from Rockwood to Mercury Lounge, for one night, Vans captured how concerts have become an “after-work” special.
The Spirit of DIY | A Global Community Of Artists And Musicians Blaze Their Own Path | VANS
Rooms were packed with people eating the free pizza, bringing their own, grabbing the free merch, and talking as if the “revolution would not be televised” because instead it started with them: skaters addicted to athletic tricks and headphone fantasies. In some ways, the Vans event, meant to celebrate the “Spirit of DIY” culture, elaborate that music carries revolutions. Even when I lived in Cuba, I remember going to school and singing “Hasta Siempre Comandante.” Here was the International symbol of raging against the machine known as Imperialism, Che Guevara, becoming a morning song for students. Music makes myths feel tangible while making your own life feel mythic, which the crowd certainly felt.
Of all the VANS events I have been to, this one felt like themes about Vans and its die-hard wearers. Music became a soundtrack to the freedom and vivacity of how MANY young people came in to hide from the world, which is so “VANS.” The reason VANS has lasted and risen as a fashion powerhouse is because it makes what you wear and do feel like an escape, which DIY culture IS escapism. For Future VANS events Click Here.
