Dead Before Showtime

Maxeen were from Los Angeles—a punk band with the kind of early momentum that makes a small show feel like a discovery rather than a night out. They’d made it onto the German circuit, which in 2006 for a young American act still earning their stripes was a real signal that something was catching. A youth center in Buchloe, doors at half eight, show at nine.

I couldn’t go. My honest prediction at the time was that I’d be horizontal in the park in Kaufbeuren by then, surrounded by empty vodka bottles—which is either deeply funny or a quiet admission about what those Fridays sometimes looked like. Probably both. I told anyone who’d listen to go without me.

Whether they did, I have no idea.