The KnuckleHeadz could be the factor to avoid wasting America’s youth. They’re categorized too neatly as a punk band from Whittier, however they’re truly a motion: Southern California’s most raucous self-help program and hardcore band. The members are constructed like dockworkers and dressed like a deleted scene from “The Warriors”: black-and-green leather-based vests with a spiky-haired cranium again patch. They’re additionally the driving pressure behind the Punk Rock Struggle Membership, a Southern California-based group devoted to bettering younger males’s lives via health and construction. The foundations are as strict as they’re easy, and on this topsy-turvy world, actually radical: no arduous medication, no crime, no racists, no abusers. Respect your self, your brothers and your group.
The KnuckleHeadz achieved a second of web fame after internet hosting a totally unsanctioned present in an unsuspecting McDonald’s for 100 individuals. The viral clip of the present is the handy entry level, however it sells quick what the gents have constructed. Onstage, the KnuckleHeadz are all sweat and spectacle: profanity-laced breakdowns, followers crowd browsing on boogie boards using a human tide, and the green-and-black military within the pit pulling strangers upright. The absurdity of a fast-food slam pit, our bodies and burgers briefly airborne — suggests anarchy. Look nearer and also you see choreography: Males catching falls, clearing house and implementing a code. Punk has at all times promised salvation by noise. The KnuckleHeadz add a footnote: Salvation requires reps, guidelines and somebody imply sufficient to care. Offstage, they run an infrastructure for staying alive.
The KnuckleHeadz in Whittier
(Dick Slaughter)
Based in June 2021 by frontman Thomas Telles of Whittier, higher generally known as Knucklehead Tom, and with the assistance of guitarist and tattooer Steven Arceo, aka Massive Saus, of El Monte, the Punk Rock Struggle Membership (PRFC) has grown in a number of years to 6 chapters and greater than 200 members throughout Southern California. What began as a decent circle round a band hardened right into a motion: self-discipline for teenagers who by no means received it, construction for males who want it, and a group with out substance abuse . Prospects earn their approach via mornings, sweat and dedication earlier than they’re trusted with the cranium again patch. The foundations learn like a brick wall and performance like a doorway.
“I started the club because I wanted to do good in the scene,” Knucklehead Tom mentioned “I wanted to create a tribe where we all supported each other, a family for people from all walks of life, especially those who came from broken homes. I wanted people to know they have somewhere to go and a family they can count on.”
Knucklehead Tom of The KnuckleHeadz places his mic in to the gang whereas performing with the band from Whittier.
(Dick Slaughter)
I first bumped into the KnuckleHeadz and some membership members by chance three years in the past in a London prepare station en path to the Revolt Punk Rock Music Pageant in Blackpool, a yearly occasion that includes greater than 300 veteran and rising bands. They had been inconceivable to overlook — half wolf pack, half brotherhood, pure power. That yr the KnuckleHeadz struck a chord with me, not simply via their all-in, no-holds-barred performances, but additionally via their message, their apparent love for each other and their mission to raised their group. Since then, I’ve taken a tough look inside each the band and the membership; I visited their gymnasium and attended a lot of their reveals. I’ve met and talked with households and people the KnuckleHeadz and the membership have helped. They’ve certainly, in lots of circumstances, labored miracles. However the guys don’t name them miracles. They name it Tuesday.
The band’s ascent mirrors the unfold of the membership: a gentle climb from underground slots to punk’s greatest levels. They earned a spot on the ultimate NOFX present and graduated from Revolt’s aspect stage to the competition’s principal stage. They’ve organized advantages for causes that don’t pattern and for individuals who can’t afford to be causes. The Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas just lately added a bit of PRFC memorabilia, one of many membership’s cuts — a leather-based vest with the cranium again patch — to its assortment, a real museum piece that also smells faintly of sweat. Subsequent, KnuckleHeadz put together for a U.S. run with punk legends GBH, the type of tour that turns rumor into résumé.
Massive Saus, co-founder of the KnuckleHeadz, carrying the band’s signature vest.
The Whittier dojo, KnuckleHead Martial Arts, is the place the KnuckleHeadz code will get sensible. It’s the place guys run martial arts drills and the place the mats serve double obligation as group heart flooring. Throughout the band’s “F Cancer” profit for 17-year-old Cesar “Little Cesar” Lopez II, the driveway turned an impromptu slam pit. Inside, children tumbled on the mats whereas guitars shook the partitions. Households introduced meals, native companies donated companies, and greater than $6,000 went towards remedies. Within the carnival-like environment outdoors, Little Cesar grinned and hyped the pit from the sideline, proving that pleasure, like violence, will be contagious.
One member, Bernard Schindler, 55, of La Mirada, got here in after a lifetime of ricochets: rehab, jail, relapse, repeat. The membership gave him a schedule first and a future second, and now with the assist of the membership, he’s been clear and sober for greater than two years.
Massive Saus performing with the KnuckleHeadz throughout a Punk Rock Struggle Membership profit present outdoors the KnuckleHeadz gymnasium in Whittier.
(Dick Slaughter)
“Tom and the Punk Rock Fight Club completely turned my life around,” Schindler mentioned. “It gave me purpose, discipline and a new family of brothers that push me to be better. I went from being a broken down drug addict to the healthiest I’ve ever been mentally, physically and emotionally in the 55 years I’ve been alive.”
Since getting concerned with the KnuckleHeadz almost three years in the past, Schindler says he’s gotten nearer to his household, together with his three sons and his girlfriend, along with staying sober. “I can honestly say that I couldn’t have done it without Tom and our God-given club, the Punk Rock Fight Club,” he mentioned.
The bassist generally known as Knucklehead Randy performs whereas using on the shoulders of a fellow membership member at a profit present in Whittier.
(Dick Slaughter)
The PRFC trophy case is filled with medals and awards, positive, however the actual accomplishments are a lot quieter and miraculous. There are pay stubs the place rap sheets was once, textual content threads that begin with the query “You good?” at 3:17 a.m., and residence keys handed over when a child can’t go house.
Hip-hop synth-punk artist N8NOFACE, now a fixture on lineups from the annual L.A. competition Merciless World excursions with Limp Bizkit and Corey Feldman, calls Tom “my brother” and credit that code with maintaining him aligned. “I was getting clean, and I’ve always believed that if you follow the right people, it helps you stay on your path,” N8 says. “Tom was about health, about not getting all messed up, about being a fighter and a warrior and taking care of your body first. To find that in punk was very different.”
When requested about his hopes for the way forward for the band, Tom says, “I just want to keep having fun. We love doing it and are grateful for all the love and support.“ The band is currently playing shows across SoCal with gutter punk legends GBH, including a show Friday at the Ventura Music Hall.
“With the club, I want to keep changing lives. It makes me happy to know that my son Nieko has an army of goodhearted uncles if anything were to happen to me. The righteous men in this club make me so proud.”
That’s the trick. That’s the purpose. Within the noise between these truths, a whole lot of younger males hear one thing they’ve by no means believed earlier than: a future they’re allowed to maintain.
Slaughter is a photographer and author who has coated music and tradition for numerous shops, together with the OC Weekly and L.A. Instances. He’s a founding member of In Spite Journal.
