The Kiss That Ignited Austin's Punk Scene

Tom Huckabee and Neil Ruttenberg (photo by Joe O'Connell)

It all comes back to Raul’s, the tiny nightclub on Guadalupe, where Austin’s punk scene ignited with a kiss. The kiss in question was planted on the lips of a policeman by Huns frontman Phil Tolstead on Sept. 19, 1978.

The resulting publicity turned Raul’s into legend. Huns drummer Tom Huckabee and Neil Ruttenberg of the band F Systems and, as the Rev. Neil X, the host of then punk radio show Rock of the Ages, recalled that night as a camera rolled and a small group of people looked on. What brought the pair to this office behind photographer Will van Overbeek’s South Austin home was Jonathan Demme Presents Made in Texas, a series of short films shot in Austin and originally collected as a group by Demme in 1981 and screened at the Collective for Living Cinema in New York City after Austin Chronicle and SXSW co-founder Louis Black contacted Demme as a fan. Films by Black, Huckabee, van Overbeek, and Ruttenberg are among the shorts that have been painstakingly restored and are screening during South By Southwest. Saturday night, while a party for the collected films percolated outside, Huckabee shot DVD extras of the main players.

The Huns were doing their best to recreate the shock rock of the Sex Pistols, and Ruttenberg and Inner Sanctum Records manager Richard Dorsett were outside on the Raul’s patio when the melee started. Ruttenberg went inside for a peek and, thinking better of it, hopped the fence and got out of there. Dorsett went to jail. But Ruttenberg was there for the full impact of punk rock, he told the camera as Huckabee sat in the interviewer chair. Ruttenberg worked the counter at Inner Sanctum where punk 45s were steadily selling and he played any homemade disc coming his way on his radio show. He recalled it as a glorious time when the DIY punk ethic ruled.

Jonathan Demme Presents Made in Texas screens again on Friday, March 20, 4pm at the Alamo Ritz.

Keep up with all our dispatches from SXSW at austinchronicle.com/sxsw.