Rocking With Cars

Two posts about Henry Rollins in two weeks? I must be crazy in the head.

My wife and I were watching Henry Rollins: Uncut from Israel, which debuted last Friday right before the premiere of Season 2 of his talk show. The film features portions of a set he did in Tel Aviv earlier this year, cut with an interview he did with the film maker on his tour bus and a tour he took of the country and makes for some good watching. During the set, Rollins told a story about the first time he went to see the Ramones. As it turns out, the only friend Rollins had with a driver's license was his childhood friend Ian MacKaye, who went on to become one of the most important figures in punk rock. Putting Rollins and MacKaye in the same car, on their way to see a "life changing" Ramones show, seems important enough from a pedantic history point of view, but then Rollins mentioned that every person who was in that car (five or six people) went on to form bands.

Now I'm wondering who else was in that car. Were the bands they founded as lasting (at last in punk term) and influential as Black Flag, Minor Threat or Fugazi, or were they little garage projects that never went very far and ended when someone went to law school? If you told me the names of those other rider on that fateful night, would I recognize any of them? Would I be able to find them in a search engine with minimal difficulty? If so, that trip from Washington, D.C. to Falls Church, VA and back might just be the most important car ride in rock history.