Andrea Witting - ALL GROWN UP

I don’t think this is a question that anybody would ever really be able to answer. From as far back as I remember I never really felt right around other people – I knew there was something different about me but I could never quite pin it down. Before I heard of the whole punk thing I always thought that there was something wrong with me – something that I couldn’t help but couldn’t figure out at the same time. I think that at first I sort of denied it and wanted to be just like everybody else and fit in and have friends and a normal childhood – but things don’t often work out as we plan. When I started getting to be about 12 or 13 I started listening to music – not punk but just music – and the first concert I ever went to was to see the Black Crowes at the PNC Arts Center. I remember having so much fun that I just wanted to start going to concerts all the time and I didn’t care what kind of music it was I just wanted to be there! The first punk concert I ever went to was at Birch Hill in Old Bridge – I saw Beerzone and Blood for Blood in 98 (I know I’m young haha) – and HOLY SHIT. That’s all I can say about that. From then on the only shows that I really wanted to go to were punk shows and I just wanted to absorb everything around me. It was the first time in my entire life (up to that point) that I actually felt comfortable around other people and I didn’t feel like I had to be any certain way or put on a front to be accepted. So from there I tried to get my hands on as many albums, zines, flyers, pictures, books – anything and everything having to do with punk that I could find to learn more about it. I started promoting shows at the Brick VFW (in Brick, NJ), writing lyrics, playing bass, and most importantly I started video-taping everything – shows, just hanging out, etc. etc. I started feeling more comfortable with myself because I knew I wasn’t the only one who didn’t fit in with the “norm” – I knew that there were other people like me and the problem wasn’t with us but with the people around us who bought into every line of bullshit that they were told. Still at that point I never called myself a punk – it was just who I hung around with and was involved in everything I did. There was no moment when I said to myself “I’m a punk now.” It was just a sort of natural progression – and I think that’s how it is for everybody involved in it. One day you just wake up and you’re completely surrounded by it and you think to yourself “wow I can’t believe I discovered myself and I didn’t even realize it.”