Melquiades

People have been saying "punk is dead" for nearly as long as punk has been alive. Maybe it's not dead, though; maybe it's just at work.

Melquiades, a punk trio hailing from Philadelphia, is made up of a transportation planner, a schoolteacher and a librarian, and the members don't always have a lot of time to dedicate to their music.

"Right now, it's more of a side project than anything else," drummer Chris Fry said. "But we try to play as often as we can."

Fry said if the right opportunities arose, the band would have no problem taking things further, but for now, they have to keep things in perspective.

"The ambition can kind of take hold of you, and you can get carried away," he said. "But you can't put as much time as you'd like, so you have to scale it back a bit."

Guitarist and singer Sam Stansbery, like bassist Julie Coy, graduated from Penn State in 1996.

He said the band plays a similar style to Washington, D.C. punk bands such as Fugazi.

Stansbery said he didn't worry about any ceiling of the band's future.

"We just play," he said. "We're just going to keep playing and see where it goes."

Cherry Darling Productions promoter Meredith Rebar, who books shows at least once a week and booked this show in particular, said she could relate to the band's tribulations.

"I work full time," she said. "I do this on the side, not necessarily to make money."

In her time booking shows, Rebar said she has a seen a lot of bands in the same situation as Melquiades.

"Not many bands can support themselves only through their music," she said. "Only the lucky few can make it. They do it for the music."

Fry said that, in Melquiades' three years of existence, the band has been about the music.

"Everything we've done has been stuff we like," he said. "We make music we like. We play shows we like."

And even though it's unlikely the band will ever make it big, Fry is still satisfied.

"I have no interest in musical theory or anything like that, and I don't consider myself a musician," he said. "But in some way, I'm creating something of my own." - Adam Clair - The Daily Collegian