Wish You Were There: Blank Tape at Solid Sound Studios, on Flickr

Solid Sound Studios is a rehearsal studio in Broward off Powerline and Sample that hosts shows in the bottom floor rehearsal space. These consist of kid bookers basically just renting out the space (as it would usually be rented out), and finding local bands to play for free. The show’s admission charge covers the rental, the kids buy lots of energy drinks and those weird packaged junk food snacks in the studio lobby, and everybody wins.

Most of the bands’ names form complete sentences (my favorite on the current schedule of upcoming shows is Shut Up and Deal), and nobody much over the age of, say, 20 really goes to these unless they’ve already had business in one of the building’s other rehearsal spaces. But it’s a safe, alcohol-free place for kids to hang, and there’s something going on there almost every night.

While searching for photos of the weekend’s shows on Flickr I found this shot by user Molly Matalon,

taken at Solid Sound this past Friday, August 7. It warms the cockles

of my post-punk-rock heart — when you’re young and fresh, global

hipster bullshit doesn’t matter, all that does is your little scene of

you and your friends and their bands. I don’t know if this kid is

trying to head walk and failing, but look how much fun he’s having.

The

band in this photo, according to the Flickr tag, is Blank Tape, a quartet from Pembroke Pines who describe themselves on their MySpace page, I’m sure with some irony, as “pop-punk/happy hardcore/crunk.” (I surmise, however, that many younger kids don’t understand that “happy hardcore” is not, in fact, some kind of posi, upbeat rock hardcore, but rather this unfortunate genre created in the rave days.) They get points, though, for listing Comeback Kid and Lifetime as influences. Blank Tape’s next show is at the Talent Farm Fanfest this Sunday, August 16.