A&E

Everything we know about Las Vegas’ Punk Rock Museum, set to open March 10

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Where is it? On the edge of Downtown Vegas at 1422 Western Avenue, “in what Las Vegas is calling ‘the opportunity zone,’” jokes Vinnie Fiorello, drummer and lyricist for Less Than Jake, and a member of the “Punk Collective” running the museum. To save you the trouble of mapping it, it’s in the industrial area wedged between the Arts District and I-15, just next door to Little Darlings.

What is it? An institution dedicated to the culturally influential, still vital musical form, owned and operated by some of the very punks who created—and continue to create—the loud and rambunctious history displayed within its walls. It will display iconic punk rarities including show flyers, handwritten setlists, items of clothing items, stage props and storied instruments you’ll actually be able to play. It will also feature a tattoo parlor, a merch shop, a chapel for weddings and wakes, and a bar run by Double Down/Frankie’s Tiki Room mastermind P Moss.

The recently announced list of museum tour guides is kinda incredible, too. Scheduled to appear are Fishbone’s Angelo Moore, The Vandals’ Joe Escalante, Agnostic Front’s Roger Miret, Bad Cop/Bad Cop’s Stacey Dee, The Germs’ Don Bolles, Rise Against’s Zach Blair, Dillinger Four’s Paddy Costello and too many more icons to name. It’s one thing to look at a nicked-up bass or a beat-to-hell leather jacket, and quite another to hear firsthand stories of how they got that way. The tours begin a bit after the museum opens, on April 1.

Who made it? It’s the brainchild of “Fat Mike” Burkett, whom you might know from NOFX or Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (or the unfortunate joke he made in the wake of the October 1 shooting, though he seems to be trying to make amends for that). Investors in the project include Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, skating legend Tony Hawk, ex-Germs guitarist Pat Smear and more, and the aforementioned Punk Collective comprises of dozens of musicians, historians and other eyewitnesses to punk’s “history, culture and absurdity.”

Why is it? “We’re trying to give a bird’s-eye view of [punk’s first] five decades,” says Fiorello, who hastens to add, “but I’ll be the first one to tell you that this is a living museum. There’s going to be other stories that need to be told that aren’t being told when we first open, and that’s OK, man. That, to me, is a very cool thing about the Punk Rock Museum. It’s not just, ‘Hey, here’s the Museum, and this is it.’ It will continue to grow and become more fun. There are more artifacts to be found, and more stories to be told.”

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