It’s been hard being a lover of punk rock and hardcore in Las Vegas. Outside of Zia and the Internet, it was nearly impossible to get hold of items in town from hardcore, punk and grind bands like Negative Approach, Bathtub Shitter, Peter and the Testtube Babies, Dystopia and more. That is until Community of Friends, a small, “no owner” record store situated in a small industrial park, opened its doors last summer and filled a niche market.
Fueled simply by D.I.Y. ethics and a team of volunteers, Community of Friends wanted to be not just a store, but an experience. Besides hawking punk rock records, Friends hosted live shows, vegan potlucks and sewing classes, and even doubled as an occasional practice space for one of the volunteer’s bands.
And for the year it was around, things were great. I’d walk in every month and buy tons of items. Total Shutdown albums—I bought ’em. Econochrist 7-inches—bought them. Rare Gang of Four record—mine. It went on like this, and as my record collection swelled with their wares, it was nice to see a store that cared more about the music and less about the profits or the scene.
But it wasn’t to be. After nearly a year, Community of Friends shut its doors for good July 31, lining the pages of failed punk-rock record-store history right next to the Underground and the more recent High End Mystery Emporium. But while many saw the failure of Friends as inevitable in a shrinking market of music, perhaps the greatest thing that the store represented to me and fans of punk and hardcore around the city was a sense of optimism: Maybe, just maybe, a “no owner” record-store collective could survive in this city. Rest in peace, my dear friend; we hardly knew thee.