​Punk rock reunion

Within the past couple weeks, Fargo-Moorhead pop punk pioneers The Krebscouts had a basement reunion show in Fargo. Members Dan Nygard, Ben Arends, and Jimbo Rosario haven’t had a chance to play as The Krebscouts since their last hurrah in 2000. Now after 16 years, multiple bands, and with a newly recruited drummer (and old friend) Erik Block, the three had a chance to reunite and reminisce with old friends.

All members with the exception of Rosario live in Fargo. Rosario currently lives in Asheville North Carolina where he and his wife run a record label called Bigger Boat Records.

Each member has played in multiple bands throughout the FM scene including What Kingswood Needs, The Cass County Uglies, Subrosa and countless others.

Time flies and lives change, though it’s interesting to think how the FM music scene has evolved in the past 20 years, and how a few kids united by their love of punk rock and a D.I.Y. (do it yourself) mentality went about seeking out new music, booking gigs and connecting without the help of the world wide web.

High Plains Reader: Can you tell us how The Krebscouts started out?

Dan Nygard: I tried to start a few bands before The Krebscouts, but nothing ever worked out. It was twenty years ago, so everything's blurred together a bit, but we started practicing and kept at it (where all my other band projects before that had all ended after a practice or two).

I think it was "Alien Girl,” but I remember we put together one song pretty quickly, then went on the momentum of that. We played our first show about six months after we started practicing, and had six songs ready to go. I remember that first show really well, just because we got to open for the Crumbs. Nate [the original drummer] was grounded so Joe Vesel played drums for us that day.

HPR: How did you all cultivate your interest in music?

Dan Nygard: For me I was the usual kid who started with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc., but what changed everything was Screeching Weasel. A lot of other bands were important to me, but Screeching Weasel wrote songs that made me want to also write songs.

Jimbo Rosario:What mostly got me into punk rock was hearing Metallica cover The Misfits. I remember going to Disc and Tape Masters in Moorhead and looking at Misfits cassettes and CDs and thinking that they were the scariest thing ever. From there it was a natural progression to The Ramones, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, and Minor Threat. Then, through skate videos, it was easy to get into Operation Ivy, Rancid, Green Day, NoFX Avail, etc.

As far as The Krebscouts go...,Screeching Weasel and The Queers were probably our biggest influences, even though I was listening to a lot of crust and other hardcore at the time. But, we all loved good old fashioned pop punk, it was pretty huge in the mid 90s, and no one else was doing it in Fargo/Moorhead so we rolled with it.

High Plains Reader: You all are veterans in the scene--how do you think the FM music scene has changed since you guys started playing music?

Dan Nygard: It's hard to tell. Twenty years ago I can't imagine too many people over 30 knew what we were doing. I think it's a lot easier for bands to put together a really good sounding recording and book shows and go on tour, so they don't just stay in Fargo forever like we did.

I think, considering what we had, we provided a good place for a lot of touring bands to stop, before Fargo became better at doing that. Maximum RocknRoll used to put out this big directory called Book Your Own F***ing Life, and kids here used that to get bands to come play these basement shows.

We played a show with AFI in a basement in West Fargo, there were like 30 people there tops. Now AFI wasn't huge yet, but they weren't completely invisible – I imagine a band of that same stature nowadays would not play an all-ages show in a basement.

Jimbo Rosario: My band from North Carolina, The DiMarcos, played up there [Fargo] a few years back. I saw a lot of familiar faces and a lot of new ones, which is how it should be. The thing that strikes me the most, from a very distant observation, is that there doesn't seem to be as many house shows as there used to be. Ralph's was around when we were doing our thing, but we never played there. We were all underage so it was to the basements we went.

I really wouldn't have had it any other way anyway. Because of publications like Book Your Own F***ing Life, we had tons of bands coming through town all the time. Pre internet, pure and total D.I.Y. It was great.

Erik Block: Jeez, I don’t know. There’s more shows, so shows are smaller. When I first moved here in 1997, shows at the All Star Bowl would regularly bring out HUNDREDS of kids. But shows were more of an event then--because they were rarer.

If you asked someone, “Are you going to the show?” they didn’t have to ask “Which show?” They knew what show you were talking about, even if it was still 2 weeks away, because it was the only show coming up.

Mixed bills were a lot more common back then. Shows at the All Star Bowl or Reed Lane or whatever would regularly have 2 punk bands, a metal band, a hippie band (no offense intended). Now, bills seem less mixed. People booking shows are more apt to specifically seek out and ask for bands that fit their bill stylistically. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that; it’s just different.