Episode 018: The Fan Perspective w/ Mike Pelak

Mike Pelak didn’t run a label, play in a band, record bands, own a record store, print merch, run a zine or promote, ok wait he did help promote shows with Bomshelter run by Ricky the artful dodger Saporta.
I’d always see Mike at a lot of shows my band played at and he just had such a positive and happy demeanor about him. He’d always be in the crowd singing the songs back to bands and then hop in a car with some friends and get to the next show that same night. Sometimes making it to 3 or 4 in one weekend.
I wanted to see what it was like from a “fan perspective” so I reached out to Miguel, set up a time to talk and this is what we chat about.
- Flipside records
- Highstrung changing his life
- His old venue tour around NJ
- How it never took too long to get to different towns to watch shows
- The Juliana Theory show where they unplugged Random Task’s amps
- The ecosystem we built by accident
- Why the size of Jersey made it such a good scene
- His thoughts on what caused the shift in the scene from good to different
- The Bombshelter team
- How he and Dave Flores tried to revive promoting shows
- When ska went away
- His stint at Side One Dummy
- What it would be like to go back to venues now and just have a beer
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