Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Scrawls From The Crypt: Caught in a Mosh '88


What is it?

Whoah! In hindsight this looks like an outtake from William Friedkin's Cruising (1980) with all those tight jeans and contorted facial expressions. Despite the homo-erotic underpinnings, this adolescent doodle is pretty much what concerts looked like in New York during the crossover period of the late 80's. Baldies, mohican mullets, fat longhairs and puffy white Reeboks flying overhead (nice "anarchy" shirt, dude). Unfortunately, there really weren't a lotta ladies to be found. And who could blame 'em? You social networking types should thank your lucky stars that heavy metal finally caught up to the fairer sex, 'cause all the attractive women I see wearing bulletbelts these days DID NOT EXIST in my youth. Developmental psychologists occasionally reference several important stages in a teenager's emerging identity that often cause a "spark" or "flash" of cognition. These milestones usually occur at age 10, 16 and 19. This might explain why whatever you were doing when you were 16 will probably retain some special significance for the rest of your life and always take you back to a very core sense of Self (for better or worse). This might also explain why the few drawings I kept from back in the day happen to be dated 1988. I guess that was a good year for me creatively. Sure, the drawings themselves were obviously flawed in every sense of the word but they were full of personal meaning and contained seeds of things to come. Which, reminds me, I gotta get back down in the studio. There's work to be done...


Caught in a mosh.

7 comments:

Ryan S. said...

I love that drawing! Is the drummer borrowing the kit that Carnivore is playing on in that Sean Taggert art?

Also, I like that Fuck Off patch that one guy has on his vest, can I buy one somewhere? It'd go with the Dennis Dread/Darkthrone patch on my hat for a rather sharp look I'd think.

Carm said...

The band looks like a cross between Nasty Savage and Krokus!

:o)

Dennis Dread said...

You nailed it, Carm. I was most likely listening to both when I drew it. "Screaming XXX In The Night!!!!!"

Lucio H. said...

CRUISING ... Ha! I LOVE Pacino's dancing in the film.

Anonymous said...

the Misfits' skull on the left ;)

Anonymous said...

Hi there!

I wanted to ask for allowance to use this picture on a flyer for a local metal concert. Just 4 small local thrash + death metal bands, about 50 - 100 visitors.

Would be happy if you can write me at tempest_band@gmx.de .

Cheers
Phil from Tempest ( https://www.facebook.com/tempestmetal )

Dennis Dread said...

Hi Phil!
Sure, feel free to use that old drawing if you wish. It's not very good because I was 15 at the time...haha! But I am flattered that you like it.
Thrash!
Dread