Last Words . . . perhaps
Despite ongoing jealous city-to-city rivalry, Wormtown originator, L.B. Worm, who's unofficially announced intentions to haul a Wormtown gravestone onto the stage at Ralph's, credits Boston's influence. "I got the idea to do the Wormtown Punk Punk Press from reading the fanzines Willie Alexander used to put out in 1977-’78. Seriously, if it wasn't for Boston rock, there would be no Wormtown. The Real Kids and LaPeste were the first Boston bands to venture west and play Circes, our own little punk-rock bar downtown, with the Blue Moon band and Crazy Jack. Preston Wayne met JJ Rassler when he joined DMZ briefly, and if it was not for that, there would have never been the Odds, one of the most popular bands of the entire scene. So our scene owes a lot to yours, and they have helped each other out constantly ever since."
Rose Elliott, the dynamo front of the band Black Rose Garden, which rose out of Wormtown to tour nationally, offers, "Wormtown to me has always been home. That's just it. It's the heart and soul of the Worcester creative scene and as my Facebook profile states, Wormtown is my Hometown." (Rose now lives — physically — in San Francisco.)
Brian Goslow, former Phoenix staffer and longtime Wormtown Minister of Information marvels at the cohort's longevity.
"What's impressed me the most about Wormtown has been its ability to reinvent itself, through the younger brothers or sisters or kids who went to all-ages shows or used to listen to WCUW or WICN on the radio and started their own band when they were old enough and how no matter who took use of the name — and [New Age leaning] Wormtown Trading Company is the most perfect example of this since the original Wormtown grew out of the punk rock movement which meant 'Death to Hippies!' — and managed to capture the community aspect as well as the do-it-yourself mantra.
"There's been so many times it seemed like the thing would finally die — the mid '80s, when all of a sudden, a teen hardcore band started playing all-ages shows singing about their followers, 'The Wormtown Crew.' . . . Then there was the Black Rose Garden/Bonehead/Missionarys '90s period, another lull, then Diane Harvey's column in Worcester Magazine on her hatred for the name, which only made us want to rebuild it again. The early part of this decade saw a huge revival, thanks to Wormtown.org and Lucky Dog's Wormtown Wednesday series and it seems that perhaps this 30th is the end, especially if L.B. really gets a gravestone up to the Ralph's stage on Saturday night.
"I really thought this thing was over when early this year, I got an e-mail from someone with the e-mail address, wormpunk@yahoo.com. It was the lead singer of Guns of Navarone, a new ska band that's already managed to establish themselves getting regular gigs in both Worcester and Boston. When I saw that email address, I wanted to write him and say, 'Can't you let it die?' I think that sums up the whole thing best.[But] what happens to Wormtown doesn't really have anything to do with me or L.B. or [mainstay] Mike Malone or any of the 'Wormtown' bands. It's what's lasted, whether in people's memories or legends, that will somehow manage to be discovered by some new young musician who wants to recreate the energy we had."
