Bismarck Scene--Lane W Hoffer

I've lived in Bismarck pretty much my whole life with the exception of my recently moving to Fargo for six months and then moving back. Bismarck has always been my home. I've always wanted to see the scene grow with bigger bands coming through, more people interested coming to shows, etc.. I've been to other cities and even been involved in other scenes, the Minot scene specifically and I remember driving up to Minot to go to shows at the Liberty and I remember thinking "wow! Now this is punk rock. This is DIY", and it was, completely. The Liberty will always have a place in my heart..Moving to Fargo I was able to get involved in their scene only for a short time and did only one show for Regulations(a band from Sweden). I still respect everything that Fargo is about even though its not exactly my scene. They still have a strong sense of community and theres always amazing bands playing there. Going to these different scenes and seeing everything they have to offer I still hold Bismarck very close to my heart. It's such a melting pot of young kids interested in music. Unlike Minot or Fargo Bismarck doesn't have a consistent venue that holds shows so shows are few and far between. When there is a show it seems like everyone comes out for it. I'm not trashing Minot or Fargo by any means I just really love Bismarck. The thing that breaks my heart after moving back is this fashioncore revolution that I started to see it coming before I left.. Now shows aren't about music it's about what band you listen to, what girls haircut you have what belt you're wearing...

I started doing shows for about four years ago. I've been involved in the scene for a lot longer. I've seen its ups and downs. I also started a show called Grind Your Face Off. If you live in Bismarck and you go to shows you know about it or at the very least have heard about it. When I started it I wanted to do one really big show with 16 bands playing fast sets and with two stages. I coined the name from a Phobia album called "grind your fucking head in" . My goal with grind your face off was to unite locals bands it was all pretty much an experiment nothing like it had ever been done. The first grind you face off had over 500 people which was amazing and probably the biggest all local show since the great X FEST if anyone remembers that.. After the first grind your face off the scene started picking up steam there were more shows and more people came to shows. I've done five gyfo shows since the first one and after every one I kept telling people "this will be the last one ever". GYFO 5 was suppose to be the last one with over 800 people and one huge headache, so I moved away from Bismarck. I moved to Fargo and then realized how much I missed the kids in Bismarck. Honestly I feel kids here in Bismarck appreciate shows a lot more then in in bigger cities because there are bigger shows. I missed the energy the excitement but, most of all I missed my friends. So after a very strange situation with my roomate I moved back only to see what the scene had become.. A lot of kids had moved and most of the kids doing shows now really don' t understand what doing shows is about. The reason I do shows is to help bands, expose kids to new and different music, to bring like minded people together, and most of all to have fun. There are some kids doing shows for the wrong reasons such as popularity and profit.I am sincear when I do shows I book bands that I know probably won't draw anyone. I do it simply because I love punk rock and I don't know how I could live my life without it. That is why I decided to do GYFO 6, GYFO is the reason I got into shows its always been my dream, and I will never stop chasing my dreams

send hate mail to lanecrash@hotmail.com, www.myspace.com/lanecrash, www.myspace.com/grindyourfaceoff