It’s always wonderful to see Australian artists getting the recognition they deserve overseas. But rarely do you expect to see Australian musicians featured in a museum in the USA. However, when The Punk Rock Museum opened in Las Vegas last April, three Australian punk bands saw themselves featured alongside the legends of the genre.
Founded by Fat Mike of NOFX and Pat Smear of The Germs and the Foo Fighters, the museum’s 1,000+ piece strong collection sees a wide variety of memorabilia from the history of punk music.
Amyl and the Sniffers, last year’s Live Act of the Year award winners at the National Live Music Awards, are featured with an incredible photo of lead singer Amy Taylor by Canadian photographer Alec Pugliese in the upstairs area of the museum. The band are currently on tour through the US and Canada, playing massive stages at festivals like Osheaga in Montreal, and supporting the Foo Fighters in stadiums around the country. I also heard their music while I was walking around the complex!
Aussie legends Frenzal Rhomb are also included, with a plaque recognising their 1999 album A Man’s Not A Camel reaching gold status on the ARIA charts, sitting amongst the walls downstairs.
The biggest surprise was that the Australian band Stand Atlantic had a number of items upstairs – including their “shoey” merch item, which the band donated to the collection. Yes, this means that the iconic, unsavory Australian live show tradition or drinking beer through a shoe has been cemented into the annals of history in the world’s only museum dedicated to the genre. Although let’s not forget that The Simpsons‘ Krusty The Clown did the shoey first, so we can’t take all the credit.
They also have a number of photos and some lanyards in the Sydney pop punk band’s little corner of history.
Australia also sees representation in the museum through memorabilia of international artists who toured and released music through our market. You’ll spot ARIA chart awards for a number of acts, and even a 1983 Australian tour t-shirt for the Dead Kennedys.
The museum is truly impressive. Over a thousand items make up the collection, which spans 1115 sq metres (12,000 square feet) of space. There are guitars from iconic moments in punk rock history, garages reconstructed where the music was created and a couch where Kurt Cobain from Nirvana once sat. A number of musicians have even donated instruments you can play on in the jam room.
They also have their very own dive bar, “The Triple Down” (which is why you have to show ID on entry). And if you’re lucky, you might even be able to get a guided tour of the facility by a legend of the genre themselves. If you’re a fan of punk music, this is a must visit destination for any trip to Las Vegas. And of course, don’t forget to exit through the gift shop – they’ve got a wealth of treats for the punk fan in all of us.
The Punk Rock Museum is open daily, 12-8pm on weekdays and 10am-8pm on weekends.
It’s located at 1422 Western Ave. Las Vegas, Nevada, a short drive from the Las Vegas strip.
For more about the Punk Rock Museum, head to their official website.
Photos by the author, who visited as a guest of the museum. While in Las Vegas, we stayed at the Circa Resort & Casino on Fremont Street, Downtown Las Vegas.
