SPINE’s Antonio Marquez discusses the KC punk scene ahead of Trasher Weekend show

Antonio Marquez performing with SPINE in Milwaukee. Photo courtesy of Antonio Marquez.

From July 25 through July 27, Thrasher Magazine will host “Thrasher Weekend Kansas City,” featuring events at Escapist, Harrison Street DIY, and Ben Valley Skatepark. These include an art show, a community skateboarding jam, and a skate demo by Converse’s skateboarding team. The weekend will culminate with the “Thrasher Weekend Kansas City Afterparty”—a stacked hardcore show at The Ship on July 27 at 7 p.m.

Kansas City hardcore band SPINE will perform at the show alongside Destiny Bond, Buggin, and Big Boy. We spoke with SPINE frontman Antonio Marquez about the band’s upcoming Thrasher Weekend set, and its plans to play the Knotfest music festival later this fall. 

Tickets for the Thrasher Weekend concert can be purchased here. A full schedule of the weekend’s skateboarding events can be found here. 

The Pitch: What can people expect from SPINE’s Thrasher Weekend set? 

Antonio Marquez: We’ve been working on a song (“SPINE Crew”) that we recorded a few weeks ago, and we want to be able to play it at the gig. It features a bunch of other Kansas City hardcore vocalists that we’re friends with. I wanted to showcase the city and everything it has to offer, from a vocalist standpoint. But really, we’re just looking at the show as an opportunity to play to a crowd of people that may not have heard us before, especially with Thrasher being so broad in terms of who follows it. We’re really excited about that.

(Ed. note: Since conducting this interview, Marquez has clarified that “SPINE Crew” will not be performed at Thrasher Weekend). 

What made you want to write a song like “SPINE Crew” now? 

I’ve always had this idea of writing a song that could encapsulate the city’s punk scene. We’ve been able to have some level of success in different areas of the country, and I’m always looking for opportunities to shine a light on our scene, having been involved with it for over 20 years.

There’s a huge, dynamic range when you look at Kansas City hardcore and punk. A lot of people don’t have the opportunity to experience that firsthand, because Kansas City has historically been looked at as—like most of the Midwest—more “flyover.” So the scene is a little bit insulated. We’re a pretty tight-knit group of people from an artistic standpoint, and we support each other in the scene. Some of these bigger cities can afford to have divisions. We all go to the shows here in town, and support the bands. SPINE is a band that’s existed for 13 years, but there’s absolutely no way we could have existed if it wasn’t for our scene that supports us. 

Photo courtesy of Antonio Marquez.

How do you feel heading into your first Knotfest performance this September? 

I’m taking it pretty seriously. Not that we don’t take our other stuff seriously, we’ve played at big venues before, but we’ve never played a festival like this. 

Like most people that grew up in the late ‘90s, I was into metal and nu-metal, so Slipknot was a seminal band for me. Most bands might not have been into the idea because of punk and hardcore ethics, but for me, it was a no-brainer. I’m very excited about it, it’s a cool opportunity. I’m fortunate to have been asked. I still don’t understand why (SPINE was asked), but I’m definitely excited about it. If we aren’t able to play “SPINE Crew” for the Thrasher Weekend Afterparty, we’ll definitely be doing it for Knotfest.

Photo courtesy of Antonio Marquez.

You said SPINE has been around for 13 years—What keeps you guys going? 

I think it’s just our love for punk and hardcore. I’ve been involved in some capacity with the scene for over 20 years now. Whether I’ve been doing a zine, or booking bands, the love of punk and hardcore has been a pretty big constant for me.

The big thing for us is that we’ve never been burned out on the band. It’s always been one of those things that we’ve treated as a fun outlet. Some musicians’ objective is to hit the road two, three, or four months out of the year, play as much as possible, and write as quickly as they can. We’ve been like, ‘Let’s have fun, let’s do things when we can and when it makes the most sense for us, and see how it goes.’ I think that’s served us well, because when you’re living and breathing the band, you can get sick of it. SPINE has never gotten to that point, because we’ve never let it. 

We’ve been a band for 13 years now. I always feel like we’re closer to the end than we are to the beginning. But I’ve also never been like, ‘Alright I think we’re done.’ Every time we’ve recorded one of the last few records, I’ve looked at it as maybe the last thing we would ever do and used that as a motivating factor to ensure it’s to the level that I want it to be. 

I can’t wait until another band comes up that becomes more popular than SPINE. Maybe that’s when I’ll know we did what we needed to do, and it’s time to move on, not because there’s a band that’s more popular than us, but to leave the scene in a better place than it was before. My biggest goal has been to help local bands, whether it’s doing tours with SPINE or whatever it is to propel them into something even bigger and better than what we’ve been able to create. I think that should be the goal for any local band.