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‘Punks not dead’ has been an enduring slogan since The Exploited dropped that album 43 years ago and the phrase has taken on new life throughout the years but it was also proven to be true this past weekend when a hardcore punk show was held in a Taco Bell parking lot in Cleveland.
The Midwest is home to arguably the most interesting and earnest punk scene in America these days and this wasn’t the first hardcore show held at the Cleveland Taco Bell. In fact, this was dubbed ‘Baja Blast 3’ with the previous two pop-up shows at the Taco Bell parking lot being named ‘Baja Blast’ and ‘Baja Blast 2.’
The most recent Baja Blast pop-up punk show at Taco Bell was held back in April of this year and picked up headlines from Cleveland Magazine‘s Matthew Chasney who said the “cohesive sounds of Necroprophecy, Razorblade and Body Farm set the tone, and moshes, food fights and fireworks kept the energy afloat.”
Baja Blast 3 kept that same energy and videos on social media from the pop up hardcore punk show at Taco Bell were all over TikTok throughout the weekend:
@horrorwine what i saw at baja blast 3, the only punk show in the taco bell parking lot in cleveland ohio if you saw an earlier version of this no you didnt #cleveland #tacobell #punkrock
Obviously, after seeing that, we can all agree there needs to be more mosh pits and pole dancing in Taco Bell parking lots across America.
One has to wonder what Taco Bell corporate would think about these events and if there are any legal considerations but that would obviously go against the spirit of punk so it’s best we not spend too much time pondering that:
@horrorwine baja blast tres
At these Taco Bell ‘Baja Blast’ hardcore punk shows people are throwing tacos and having food fights in addition to moshing. It’s all outside so there are certainly noise ordinance concerns in play but it’s evidently still light outside in the videos so that didn’t seem to factor in.
For anyone who wants a longer look at what these Taco Bell punk shows are like, here is the full ‘Razorblade’ set from Baja Blast 2 back in April:
It’s hard to imagine something like this happening in the South this time of year when it’s a thousand degrees outside with 100% humidity. I’d drop 15 pounds of water weight from sweat at one of these shows in an hour if it was held in Florida.
But in the immortal words of Drew Carey (Ian Hunter)… Cleveland Rocks.