By Jared Gudnason
One of my good friends and I met in 2007 at a Twins game. Along with four other stand
up guys, he is the lead guitarist for Supportive Parents (SP), a melodic punk band hailing from
our under-siege Minneapolis. Usually, a demo is a recording of anywhere from one to five songs, and typically is the first documented art medium that’s disseminated to the public; major label acts aside because that is more often a promotional single. Supportive Parents’ demo came out 12 years ago, but all the members had music industry experience prior. Since they’ve had one full-length album released, 2017’s “*uck It, Whatever,” followed up by 2019’s EP vinyl recording, “Could Be Worse,” a very appropriate title given the events surrounding January and early February 2026. On the 16th of January, SP played with three other groups at Post 34 of the Minneapolis Eagles.
I finished dinner at the Seward Avenue Pizza Luce, and got into an eight-dollar Uber,
fortunately without an Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence. The interior of the
Eagles is something out of a 90’s noir/crime film, and until VERY recently (like 2020) only
accepted cash payments at the bar. SP shared the bill with other Minneapolitans The Slow Death, a trio, Cheap Glue, retro garage rock, and Home State, country-infused alternative rock hailing from Fargo, North Dakota. Shout out to those guys for making the drive; not a fun one to do in January. The stage is in a wedding reception ballroom on the south, with another on the buildings north-facing wall, and it is without question the single coldest room I’ve ever been in, even with a knit hat and hoodie on.
SP is melodic punk, because it is one of the most versatile modern genres. Growing, up
“punk” was characterized by California bands like Green Day and blink-182, and Seattle’s
Nirvana before that, but I was like, well, five years old when they were superstars. The majority
in the aforementioned passages are all mainstays of independent music. Including driving a van from one state to the next, pressing your own vinyl records, and renting small spaces to provide an evening of communal entertainment. Punk rock is more an ideology than aural realization. Stemming from blues in the depression era, to rock and roll which was immediately informed by the blues, acknowledged or otherwise, either here or in Great Britain, and even the multi subgenres of jazz, in the 1950’s. It’s about sound and positive empowerment. And it was much needed to respite with friends after a week of the violent, national-government sanctioned horror in our community.