This past weekend I had the pleasure of knocking heads with my old punk band from high school, Heel. We blazed onto the Downers Grove/Chicago punk scene, blew minds and then self-destructed in a fury of drugs and gay, inter-racial sex. They still speak of us in whispers when they are brave enough to speak of us. ‘Genius’, is a word often used. So is ‘Gorgeous’ and ‘Vaguely Interesting’.

Heel was fun and it taught me a lot about creating a more interesting life, designed by my own interests without waiting for approval from some untouchable authority or record label. Few people in the early ’90s were plugged in enough to make original music, press it to vinyl and distribute it all by themselves, but the ones that were doing it were a gold mind of people and offered a master class to a young suburban kid of the important task of TCBing. In addition to pressing 7″s there was a thriving zine culture and a strong community of kids who loved playing music, dancing, and supporting one another. This was before the internet, mind you, but there was still a community connected (by phones at the time) where if your band was playing at some shitty VFW Hall in Indianapolis or something there would be a kid who would put you up for the night, feed you, and help you find some amusing trouble to get into.

My time in Heel opened up the world of DIY to me, demystifying, first, the record industry and then so many other aspects of living after that. It turned me on to Veganism (which I’ve happily recovered from), design, music production, political activism, business and community to name just a few. In all truth, our songs were pretty shitty, but the friendships and the fun were very real, very funny, and pretty exciting most of the time. And that’s what punk rock is supposed to be about anyway, right?

The sad side of this - as with age many things seem to be driven by sadness or, at least, tragedy or struggle - is that the bassist for Heel, Craig Ackerman, recently discovered his youngest daughter has cancer. She is presently undergoing treatment and seems to be doing well, but the improvement of her health speaks nothing of the medical bills that Craig and his family are having to deal with. To help the Ackerman’s through this difficult time the community that I was very proud to be a part of 16 years ago is still supporting one another. Names have gotten more recognizable and the talent has gotten a bit more compelling, but if you look at the movers and shakers in the Chicago indie rock scene the faces are all very familiar (though a bit fatter…).

That’s the long dramatic story of this storied reunion I drank myself through the other night. Some hot-shot honest to god indie rock STUDS put their tickers together and played a sold out show at the Empty Bottle for Craig, Stella and the rest of his family. Very fucking cool to see people pull together for someone like that.

If you would like to do your part to help make a darling little girls difficult time a bit less difficult you could send even just a little money, by PayPal, to this account (forstella@emptybottle.com) and feel real good about yourself for the rest of the day. Seriously, if you’ve got a spare $5 it would really help.

Now go do something you’ve always wanted to and make it really fucking cool.