Insane Clown Posse at the Salvage Station in Asheville: Faygo, face paint and catharsis

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Insane Clown Posse/ photo by David Simchock

Story Caleb Calhoun/ photos courtesy of David Simchock and Front Row Focus.

I’m not a die-hard Insane Clown Posse fan. In fact, the entire idea of me going to the Salvage Station to see them came from my publisher. Me being the broke-ass writer that I am, I really couldn’t say no. I’m a little nervous – a hippie-dancing Deadhead on his way to a metal/hip-hop show. But I’m confident that once I get there and get loosened up a little, I’ll fit right in.

Lil Toenail takes the stage. The first of five openers, this guy is dressed up like a foot and started slinging some sort of knock-off, generic white-boy rap full of entitlement. After leading the crowd in a chant of “Fuck My Ex,” he drops into a song whose chorus line runs something along the lines of, “Now you crying cause you have to lick my nuts, but I don’t care baby cause I’m tryna bust a nut.”

The truth is, this attitude has no place in Asheville (or anywhere else for that matter), and were I not committed to covering what I see around me, the good, the bad, and the ugly, I would pack up and leave right now. As it is I just head outside for a cigarette.

While the overall thrust of the evening seemed to be the collective airing of grievances in an intensely physical setting as a method of coping with the shit-show most of us live on the daily, there were moments during the opening bands where the vibe was bitter and angry and mysogynystic in every sense of the word. This was one.

It’s spitting outside, and cold, but there are quite a few people weathering it. I decide it’s time to make some new friends. I walk around for a while, typewriter in hand, chatting with people I don’t know. The ones I talk to are kind and friendly, unwary of outsiders, actually excited about the opportunity to proselytize.

I’m not wearing face paint, I am wearing a dress, and I can’t name one ICP song to save my life, but I feel accepted, welcomed even, as if anyone who manages to wash up on these shores is given refuge for as long as is desired. I roll back through the venue as the second band is finishing up.

They ask everyone to raise a middle finger into the air and, on the count of three, to scream “fuck you.” I decide to roll with it, raising my fist, finger pointed to the sky, and digging deep to find some primal rage within.

“FUCK YOU,” I yell, in unison with hundreds of others, and it’s in that moment that I understand what’s really happening here. These people are not screaming at each other. They aren’t defending themselves. They’re defending each other.

These are just people. People who have been hurt. People like me. Here they’ve found a family, a family that they will protect. And so, looking in the faces of those around, feeling the energy sweeping, overwhelming me, I realize that for all of the collective anger, for all of the shared frustration and hurt and loss, what they’re really saying to each other is “I love you. I love you, and I have your back.”

What the entire event may have lacked in depth, it certainly made up for in energy.

Attila/ photo by David Simchock

A couple more bands and then it’s time for Attila, the penultimate act and the most well-known of the openers. I’ve been writing for a while and now it’s time to put down the typewriter and get into the mix. As Attila begins, their dubby, punky, metal blaring over the massive speakers, I make my way into the heart of the crowd. I head into the mosh-pit.

It’s hot and heavy and musky and rough and while the Salvage Station clearly has eyes on the situation, they’ve chosen to allow the fans to enjoy themselves, so long as they aren’t being ridiculous. A young man beside me, maybe five-six, asks me to give him a boost, so I grab him under the armpits and toss him into the air. The tightly packed fans around us realize almost immediately what’s going on and they get their hands up and begin passing him from row to row.

Then it’s on. Attila is begging fans to get on stage and take a dive and we’re all obliging. I ride the crowd to the front and find myself dumped at the lead singers feet. I snag the set list off of the monitor and dive back out into the crowd to once again be carried away. I look to my right and there’s a woman, curly blonde hair, green eyes, surfing the crowd right beside me. I reach out and take her hand and for just a moment we are dancing, suspended on the hands of the fans below, the lighting playing across our faces like LSD.

Crowd-surfing fans/ photo by David Simchock

I crash to the ground and bounce up, elbows in, shoulders out, and dive back into the mosh pit.

When Attila is done, the Insane Clown Posse hangs a curtain over the stage while they prepare for the main event. The energy is anxious. Many of these fans have been here for more than four hours, and everyone is ready.

The curtain drops, revealing two covered boxes on stage. Men in masks come out to carnival music, eventually pulling the covers from the cages, revealing the members of ICP behind glass. As the music kicks in, they knock out the glass, storm forward and begin to rap.

Stage hands pull the props, replacing them with massive coolers full of Faygo root beer, bottles which, for the entirety of the night, will be shaken and then volcanoed over the front rows and the mosh pit.

The crowd surges, the pit closing in, and now there is no space in front of the stage that is safe. It’s like having a herd of elephants behind you, all trying to stampede. The front row is pressed against the stage, eyes nearly popping out of their heads. Everyone has one hand down, protecting their most important parts, and one hand in the air, fist pumping to the beat.

Insane Clown Posse/ photo by David Simchock

There are hippies with dreads and Juggalos with face paint. There are metal heads and there are fans of rap and hip-hop. There are men and women and trans and queer and straight and gay and bi and black and white and Latino. There are new friends, old friends, lovers and dreamers and workers and taxpayers and non-taxpayers and weed smokers and teetotalers, and Christians and atheists and satanists. Some let their freak flags fly all the time. Some have to be at the office tomorrow at 9 a.m.

But most of all, in this moment, in this space, there is a community. It’s a group of people that don’t give a shit whether you wear a dress, some face paint or a suit. Most of all there is love, love without judgement, love without reservation. There is acceptance, and a sense of peace that only comes from the opportunity to legally elbow someone else in the back as hard as you can.

There is truth and there is beauty, for as Donne taught us, the two are inseparable, and for these fans, in this room right now, this is about as honest as you can get.

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18 Comments

  1. Orbit DVD March 15, 2018

    Our Juggalo customers are the BEST! Glad everyone had a great time!

    Reply
  2. Nate March 15, 2018

    Am I nuts, or did that concert review *end* right before the band actually started playing? It’s old news by now that the ICP “family” gives off a swell, feel-good community vibe. Can’t we return to focusing on the fact that the music is straight up terrible?

    Reply
  3. Indica Revis March 14, 2018

    Good review Yo. I was there probably in the pit with you lol I’m still banged up a little bit. But I love when outsiders that have no idea what we are really about come in and see first hand that we are a family and all are accepted. Glad you enjoyed it homie.

    Reply
  4. Laura Swayney March 14, 2018

    You couldn’t put that any better. When I got down with the clowns I had nothing and no one…. But when I’m at my first juggalo things changed I had a family…. The best family I could ask 4!!!!

    Reply
  5. Darren Kallio March 14, 2018

    Nice review and good job

    Reply
  6. Jennifer Sanchez March 14, 2018

    Very good. I enjoyed reading about your experience. Your realization about the true meaning behind it all and the true meaning of the dark carnival.,was wonderful. WHOOP WHOOP. FAMILY.

    Reply
  7. Buffalo Phil March 14, 2018

    Thank you for having an open mind and enjoyed the FAMILY! Nice article and check out more of there tunes now that u got a taste.

    Reply
  8. Michael Cline March 14, 2018

    I’m glad to see you understand the family aspect. So many can’t see past the theatrics to understand the way we feel about the music and each other. It’s like the Island of Misfit Toys got tired of being Misfits and all banded together to take over the world!

    Reply
  9. Aaron March 13, 2018

    I am astounded that you noticed what so very many other journalists constantly miss in regards to this topic. I don’t know if that is because they are unwilling to look past their preconceived biases long enough to actually do their job as journalists, or if they were just so distracted by all of the appearant insanity that they couldn’t form a cogent opinion. Either way, even if I didn’t happen to be a juggalo, I would be impressed by your beautiful way with words.

    Reply
  10. Poison Ivy March 13, 2018

    You nailed it the Juggalo and juggalette family is tight. We all love each other no matter what our outside looks like. When we come together, we have a great time. Clown 4 life. Whoop whoop.

    Reply
  11. Jeremy Hudson March 13, 2018

    Captured i.c.p and all my fellow juggalos perfectly…. have fun and fuck off!

    Reply
  12. Jenny March 13, 2018

    This might be my most favorite Ashvegas story ever. I’m not an ICP fan, but I love this. Well done!

    Reply
  13. Robert Gallentine March 13, 2018

    I’ve been reading articles and reviews on ICP, and being a Juggalo, for well over a decade. I have to say this is one of the best articles I’ve read on the matter. Not because you didn’t spend one thousand words bashing something you don’t like, but because you let your guard down and had the revelation that all ICP fans/Juggalos have at one point. ICP concerts are some of the fiercest there are, more so in the past half decade compared to the first show I went to in 99. But the love is still there. Thank you for the article.

    Reply
  14. Kraus Vanshitten March 13, 2018

    People can talk shit about magnets and how the lyrics are violent and misogynistic but when it comes down to it the juggalo world is the closest thing to heaven I have found on this planet. I find it closer to punk rock than most punk rock fans will ever be. Watch your balls though. The speed and impact of 2 liters is not to be underestimated.

    Reply
  15. Juanita March 13, 2018

    Great review, this is something that I experience every time I go to a concert with my Juggalo kids. There is love and acceptance everywhere and violence is not tolerated.

    Reply
  16. willc March 13, 2018

    Good review, but did they talk at all about magnets?

    Reply
    1. Jubacca March 13, 2018

      Fucking magnets, how do they work?

      Reply
    2. Skoba March 15, 2018

      How do they work!?

      Reply

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