Gustavo Lacerda

This year, I wanted to read a musician's memoir. When this book came up at the book swap, it landed with someone who did not seem that interested in it so I stole it from them.

At the time, I did not realize that this memoir was about the lead singer of the band "Against Me!"

Because Tom Gabel was only a couple of years younger than me, the musical cultural landmarks of this book felt affirming. It starts with Tom, as a child, thinking about Madonna. The juxtaposition of "Material Girl" with the politics of punk was interesting.

Tom began making music with his friends as a teenager and dropped out of high school. There was a lot of booze and many drugs involved.

Then, he wanted to get better as a musician and bigger as a band, and some of his band mates were on a different journey.

After the band made a deal for $25,000 with a very small label, the crust punks began accusing him of selling out. They would show up at his shows and flip him off for playing any new material and slashed his tires.

Despite the exhaustion of constant touring, they kept at it, and did well. You can definitely hear the production difference between "Baby, I'm an Anarchist" and "I Was a Teenage Anarchist" when the band was working with people who were professionals at mixing music.





Then, after having his first child, the gender dysphoria that Tom had been dealing with turned into an urgent need to transition. It was tough because he was living in that part of Florida that might as well be Alabama. There was a scene about a field of crosses representing aborted babies, and I took a picture of something similar to that in my hometown the last time I visited. Tom made the album "White Crosses" with the title referring to both the crosses and amphetamines.

Transition was really difficult in that type of environment, and his wife who was really into the punk aesthetic just really hated living in the backwaters of Florida.

Transition publicly and privately blew up life, the band, and the marriage; but ultimately, it leads to choosing the name Laura and coming out publicly, with more humility and with a band more aligned with her politics, and a musical audience that is more diverse than it has ever been. During the grueling tours, the band had opened for many types of bands, and those audiences added to the fans of the band.

The song "Because of the Shame" is about one of the important people in the book that was lost, and that song survived the transition.





Anyway, I recommend this book to threemeninaboat, sabotabby, and frandroid.