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Punks Invade Austin!
Put away the pikes and hot oil. They came in 1978.
The Sex Pistols had cut a swath through Merrie Olde England and in the process become notorious enough to book a tour across the southern part of the United States, where they would be certain to encounter enough hostility to keep their troublemaker reputation on simmer. When they played San Antonio, some Austin musicians ventured down I-35 to see what all the fuss was about and came back convinced that Austin — already gaining a national reputation as a music center — was lacking a punk scene.
The Sex Pistols had formed in 1975 and in 1978 their first run of fame was spent, with Sid Vicious soon to die of an overdose on February 2, 1979 while charged with murder of his girlfriend and the remaining band mates suing each other, putting the Sex Pistols into court-ordered receivership. They would resurrect themselves with reunion tours of the surviving members starting in 1996 and more as the century turned, but their impact on the world of rock ended with their first iteration. They snubbed their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 with a profane fax from Johnny Rotten that was read out loud at the ceremony.
Some outside the punk scene that arose around a dive near the University of Texas campus called Raul’s might be excused for thinking The Huns were first…
