Scene Support Episode 35: Antonio Rodriguez - Community Organizer / Promoter

June 10
1h 14m

Episode Description

On this episode of DCxPC Live Presents: Scene Support, Scott sits down with Antonio Rodriguez, an interdisciplinary artist, programmer, community organizer, and longtime DIY punk participant whose work centers POC and LGBTQ+ voices in underground culture.


Antonio talks about coming up through the San Antonio punk and metal scenes, booking early house shows, learning through mistakes, and the community power of DIY spaces. The conversation moves from punk houses and show logistics to Punk Island, South by Southwest, zines, archiving, file sharing, folk traditions, and the many ways punk exists beyond just music.

It’s a wide-ranging conversation about scene work, cultural memory, making space for others, and why the behind-the-scenes labor of punk matters just as much as what happens on stage.

In this episode:

00:17 – Welcome to Scene Support

03:26 – Antonio’s San Antonio punk roots

05:03 – Discovering DIY punk houses

14:05 – Advice for running a first house show

20:18 – Moving to NYC, Punks of Color, and DIY collaboration

23:15 – What Punk Island is and how Antonio got involved

27:49 – Working South by Southwest as a stage manager

41:56 – Punk as more than music

45:04 – Punk as an electric folk art form

56:16 – Bandcamp, free downloads, and file sharing

1:04:18 – Archiving flyers, zines, and scene history 

Subscribe for more conversations with the people behind the scenes who keep DIY, punk, hardcore, ska, metal, and underground music moving.

Executive producer: Trev Allen - Struggling Artist Record Club

Links:

DCxPC Live

DCxPC Live IG

DCxPC Live mailing list

Antonio Rodriguez

Punk Island

Struggling Artist Club

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