CATASAUQUA, Pa. – Forty years ago, when punk rock music was just finding its footing in the United States, New Jersey group U.S. Chaos was credited with introducing Oi! – the genre’s chanty, largely British style – to American crowds.
- Punk rock band U.S. Chaos will perform at Gas House Dance Hall in Catasauqua at 7 p.m. on Saturday
- The band has three members from its classic lineup: Singer Allan "Skully" Skolsky, bassist Jack Gibson and drummer Glenn "Spikey" Mayer drums
- The show is part of a 40th anniversary celebration of the band
Original U.S. Chaos drummer Glenn “Spike” Mayer says that may be an overstatement.
Mayer instead says the band’s music was simply influenced by the seminal bands its members listened to – and with whom it later toured.
“It took on more of that anthem-type of thing – not Oi!, but in with them,” Mayer said with a laugh in a recent phone call from his home in Fairfield, N.J. “In Oi!, usually they’re gonna say ‘Oi!’ in the song. And we don’t do that.”
Regardless of genre, all these years later, U.S. Chaos continues to play its music, and at 7 p.m. Saturday will be at Gas House Dance Hall in Catasauqua.
The group will play two sets – one featuring its 1983 debut album “We’ve Got the Weapons” with Mayer on drums, and another the 1997 album “You Can’t Hear a Picture,” with drummer Eddie Enzyme, who replaced Mayer in U.S. Chaos 1985-86 and 1997-2007.
It's a format the band is using for shows celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Pro-American Anthem
Rather than Oi! music, Mayer said, U.S. Chaos plays what he called “that American Anthem thing,” with the band taking the stage to air raid sirens and smoke to play songs with a decidedly pro-American and, some would say, right-wing stance.
That also was a reaction to other bands, Mayer said.
“When you thought about anybody that was playing punk music and you listened to the lyrics, they had some kind of anger in it,” he said. “What was it directed at? Well, most of it was directed at their own government."Glenn “Spike” Mayer, Original U.S. Chaos drummer
“At the time, when you thought about anybody that was playing punk music and you listened to the lyrics, they had some kind of anger in it,” he said. “What was it directed at? Well, most of it was directed at their own government.
“And we didn’t feel that way. We’re, like, ‘Eh, you know, we got it pretty good over here. They might not have it that good.’ So instead of us going against our thing – all the punks [were] doing that, they’re all going against it because England’s doing it.
“But wait a minute – they have a legitimate reason, maybe, to be pissed off about their own government. It’s a monarchy. But we don’t – we live pretty free. So why would we want to go against and say ‘F–k the USA’?
“So we said, ‘Why don‘t we do pro [America] stuff?’ So the album cover, it depicts a tank crashing through a wall, with all the Communist leaders running away from this American tank with this red, white and blue flag.
“The words, the way they were written, ‘I’m an American/I stand tall/Proud I’m an American/And I’ll shout it out loud.’ The lyrics to that stuff were great.”
Mayer said audiences today still react to those lyrics.
“Oh, they love it!” he said. “When I was out there playing with other bands, I’d love to see people out in the crowds, singing the songs with the bands. It was fantastic, you know? ‘Wow, that’s cool, people know your song.’ And now it’s the same thing for us. And it’s a cool feeling, that people know those words.”
Making it
The Keystone State was crucial to the band’s success, Mayer said.
“Pennsylvania actually was really the start of U.S. Chaos,” he said, with one of its first shows taking place in Fishing Creek, Columbia County.
“[It was] like a VFW type of place,” he said. “I think it was a Sunday. And I met a lot of cool people.
“I love playing to Pennsylvania people. ‘Cause no matter where it is – if it’s Philly, if it’s somewhere out in the suburbs somewhere – you’re always going to have a lot of dedicated fans that come out to these shows.”
U.S. Chaos never achieved the status of punk icons such as the Sex Pistols, The Ramones or The Clash, but it had brushes with greatness. Early members included Alex Kinen, who became the guitarist for the important hardcore punk band Agnostic Front, and another member who joined the influential San Francisco band The Breakouts.
U.S. Chaos also once was managed by Freddy L, who also managed Blondie, the group that ushered in new wave music with its hits “Heart of Glass,” “Tide is High” and “Rapture.”
“He started setting us up with shows – better shows, the good shows,” Mayer said. He said U.S. Chaos started to open up for bigger bands from England, such as UK Subs and English Oi! bands Angelic Upstarts, 999 and The Exploited, and for Joan Jett before she was with The Blackhearts.
“And so the band name was getting to be more popular, we started to acquire a bigger following, because we were just feeding off the bigger bands that we were opening for.”
Staying the course
As with most punk bands, U.S. Chaos had several members through the years. Mayer says he even was fired from the band – more than once. He returned to U.S. Chaos when Eddie Enzyme also was fired, he said.
“I’ve been fired multiple times for stupid things,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter, because at that point, I would be playing with three or four other bands anyway” – among them The Plug Uglies, a Phoenix, Ariz., hardcore punk band.
But these years later, U.S. Chaos still has original bassist Jack Gibson and vocalist Allan "Skully" Skolsky, who joined shortly after the band started in 1982. Founding guitarist Gary Reitmeyer died in 1997, and was replaced by his sister, Rene Wasted.
When Reitmeyer died, Mayer said he “talked to the other band members and said, ‘We might as well just keep it going.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, but the thing is, without Gary, who are you going to replace Gary with?
“It just happened to be that Rene was a guitar player for a long time. And they said, “What about Rene? Keep it in the family.’ I said, ‘That’s a brilliant idea.’ She came down and played, and it was just amazing. Just her mannerisms and the way she played, it was like looking at Gary, but a girl.”
It’s that connection among the members of U.S. Chose that has kept it going for 40 years, Mayer said.
“When we were playing as teenagers and stuff, you never even think that you’re going to be with a band that long of a time,” he said. “I’ve been in about 35 to 40 bands, and I’ve never played with them again. I don’t know where those people are.
“But the guys I’ve stuck with all these years, we continued to work on the music, we put the time in, because we thought a little more seriously about the project we were in together, rather than being in a band where everybody wasn’t as serious.
“There was more of a camaraderie with me and Gary and Jack and Skully than I’ve felt with any of the other people that I’ve worked with.”Glenn “Spike” Mayer, Original U.S. Chaos drummer
“There was more of a camaraderie with me and Gary and Jack and Skully than I’ve felt with any of the other people that I’ve worked with.”
U.S. CHAOS, with Sin Bin and The Clap, 7 p.m. Saturday, Gas House Dance Hall, 311 Front St., Catasauqua. Halloween show; costumes encouraged. Tickets: $15, BYOB, 484-809-0528, www.facebook.com/TheGasHouse.
