Punx, Unite!

After being burned in a pay-to-play ticket scam, Troy Troyus of the Abrasives formed Punx Union to organize shows for local and touring acts. With the help of his band members and other musicians, Troyus began booking shows at the Jumping Turtle in San Marcos and, until recently, the La Mesa Women's Club.

"[Some promoters] noticed that this is a genre where there's not a lot of professionals," says Troyus. "As you know, most of the performers, other than the touring bands, are usually kids. So, it's really easy to take advantage of them and almost even extort money from them. After dealing with that, we got off our asses and started doing it ourselves."

Punx Union has organized ten shows in the past seven months.

"After the show, I'll take all the money and just put it on a table with one person from each band and tell them, 'This is all the money. This much has to go to the touring band. This much has to go to the venue, this much has to cover my costs. So, this much is for you. Is that fair? Do you have any problems?' "

See www.myspace.com/punxunion.