The KnuckleHeadz could be the factor to save lots of America’s youth. They’re categorized too neatly as a punk band from Whittier, however they’re really 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 power behind the Punk Rock Combat Membership, a Southern California-based group devoted to bettering younger males’s lives by way of health and construction. The foundations are as strict as they’re easy, and on this topsy-turvy world, really radical: no onerous medication, no crime, no racists, no abusers. Respect your self, your brothers and your neighborhood.
The KnuckleHeadz achieved a second of web fame after internet hosting a very unsanctioned present in an unsuspecting McDonald’s for 100 folks. The viral clip of the present is the handy entry level, however it sells brief what the gents have constructed. Onstage, the KnuckleHeadz are all sweat and spectacle: profanity-laced breakdowns, followers crowd browsing on boogie boards driving 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 area 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 referred to as Knucklehead Tom, and with the assistance of guitarist and tattooer Steven Arceo, aka Massive Saus, of El Monte, the Punk Rock Combat Membership (PRFC) has grown in just a few 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 youths who by no means bought it, construction for males who want it, and a neighborhood with out substance abuse . Prospects earn their method by way of 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 began the membership as a result of I needed to do good within the scene,” Knucklehead Tom mentioned “I needed to create a tribe the place all of us supported one another, a household for folks from all walks of life, particularly those that got here from damaged houses. I needed folks to know they’ve someplace to go and a household they’ll depend 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 accidentally three years in the past in a London prepare station en path to the Rise up Punk Rock Music Competition in Blackpool, a yearly occasion that includes greater than 300 veteran and rising bands. They had been not possible to overlook — half wolf pack, half brotherhood, pure vitality. That yr the KnuckleHeadz struck a chord with me, not simply by way of their all-in, no-holds-barred performances, but in addition by way of their message, their apparent love for each other and their mission to raised their neighborhood. Since then, I’ve taken a tough look inside each the band and the membership; I visited their fitness center and attended lots 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.
“Since we based Punk Rock Combat Membership, we paved method for what we knew was the motion and way of life many individuals in our scene wanted,” Arceo mentioned. “We’ve modified so many lives and with that our lives modified as nicely. We made a household constructed on brotherhood, loyalty with the camaraderie that may solely be achieved by way of martial arts and punk rock. That’s one thing many people grew up with out. So to have the ability to convey this into the world is price each sacrifice. We’re happening 5 years robust and can preserve going until the day we die.”
The band’s ascent mirrors the unfold of the membership: a gentle climb from underground slots to punk’s largest phases. They earned a spot on the ultimate NOFX present and graduated from Rise up’s facet stage to the pageant’s most important stage. They’ve organized advantages for causes that don’t development 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 kind of tour that turns rumor into résumé.
Massive Saus, co-founder of the KnuckleHeadz, sporting 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 neighborhood middle flooring. In the course of the band’s “F Most cancers” 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 providers, and greater than $6,000 went towards remedies. Within the carnival-like ambiance exterior, Little Cesar grinned and hyped the pit from the sideline, proving that pleasure, like violence, may 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 Combat Membership profit present exterior the KnuckleHeadz fitness center in Whittier.
(Dick Slaughter)
“Tom and the Punk Rock Combat Membership fully turned my life round,” Schindler mentioned. “It gave me function, self-discipline and a brand new household of brothers that push me to be higher. I went from being a damaged down drug addict to the healthiest I’ve ever been mentally, bodily and emotionally within 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 actually say that I couldn’t have executed it with out Tom and our God-given membership, the Punk Rock Combat Membership,” he mentioned.
The bassist referred to as Knucklehead Randy performs whereas driving on the shoulders of a fellow membership member at a profit present in Whittier.
(Dick Slaughter)
The PRFC trophy case is stuffed with medals and awards, positive, however the true accomplishments are a lot quieter and miraculous. There are pay stubs the place rap sheets was, textual content threads that begin with the query “You good?” at 3:17 a.m., and condominium 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. pageant Merciless World excursions with Limp Bizkit and Corey Feldman, calls Tom “my brother” and credit that code with protecting him aligned. “I used to be getting clear, and I’ve at all times believed that should you comply with the best folks, it helps you keep in your path,” N8 says. “Tom was about well being, about not getting all tousled, about being a fighter and a warrior and caring for your physique first. To seek out that in punk was very completely different.”
When requested about his hopes for the way forward for the band, Tom says, “I simply need to preserve having enjoyable. We love doing it and are grateful for all of the love and assist.“ The band is at present taking part in reveals throughout SoCal with gutter punk legends GBH, together with a present Friday on the Ventura Music Corridor.
“With the membership, I need to preserve altering lives. It makes me completely happy to know that my son Nieko has a military of goodhearted uncles if something had been to occur to me. The righteous males on this membership make me so proud.”
That’s the trick. That’s the purpose. Within the noise between these truths, a variety 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 lined music and tradition for numerous retailers, together with the OC Weekly and L.A. Occasions. He’s a founding member of In Spite Journal.
