Ed. Note: This article first appeared in the Summer 2010 Youngstown Pulse. By B.J. LISKO Youngstown Pulse Magazine Editor If you are 30 years old or younger, you haven’t seen as many local shows as Chris “Piggy” Williams. If you are 35 years old or younger, you still haven’t seen as many shows as Piggy. I’d be willing to bet most anyone all the way up to the age of 50 hasn’t seen as many Youngstown-area gigs as Piggy has. You really should know Piggy. If you don’t, you should surely recognize him. And if you still don’t, you’re obviously about to. Piggy is the Pabst poster boy for a reason. Simply put, it would be hard-pressed to find anyone in the Youngstown music scene that has supported the Youngstown music scene the way he has in the last 15 years. I first met Piggy when I was 16 at one of countless basement punk rock shows in the area where pretty much anyone with a guitar, a bass or something resembling drums could throw together a band, play a bad cover version of the Misfits’ “Skulls,” and be kid kings of their own little worlds. Piggy was at all of those shows, and pretty much every show that’s meant anything ever since. He loves the scene. He’s optimistic in a way that should be required of everyone who consistently has a drab outlook on the area and the entertainment that goes along with. He’s not overbearing about it. He’s not blind to the crap here, either. But if there is a Youngstown music icon that we all should imitate, it shouldn’t be anyone in any band. It should be Piggy. His musical tastes range from hardcore to metal to punk to jam bands. His drink of choice is Pabst, but he also will seek out any bar that serves the hard to find import that’s different, and he’ll try them all. His attitude on music and beer is the same attitude he has on life basically – enjoy yourself. Treat others with respect. Have fun. That’s Piggy in a nutshell. Our conversation went like a million other we already had over the course of knowing one another for the past 12 years. Truthfully, I probably could’ve written this by memory. But talking to Piggy never gets old, and his optimism and friendly nature has helped a lot more people who are drowning their sorrows at the local watering hole more than he’s ever gotten credit for.  So next time you see him, tell him “thank you.” Because even if you never realized it, Piggy has supported your show, listened to your sob stories, and been a real friend to so many people, all while asking nothing in return. What was your reaction to being the Pabst poster boy? I thought it was pretty awesome and a privilege to be on the poster for Pabstolutely 3. I’ve been helping out the last few years, and the idea came up, and I said ‘Hell yeah I’ll do it.’ You’re one of the few people that were also around and helped out for the Emissions From the Monolith festivals at The Nyabinghi that is also helping with this festival. Aside from the obvious out of town aspect that Emissions had with almost all of the bands being nationals or internationals, how would you compare the two? It’s pretty similar as a festival in terms of the bands. It’s a good collaboration of music and everyone just has a good time. You don’t see too many people vomiting on themselves in the first hour here and missing the rest of the weekend (laughs), but maybe if it were a 3-day event you would! For people that don’t know you and are seeing you on the flyer, you’ve been around the scene as much if not more than anyone your age, and have been at shows since you were a teenager. Just give us a general background of yourself and your involvement of the scene. The history of Piggy if you will. I was going to shows in middle school when Canfield had Rock ‘n’ Bowl. I was going to Pyatt St. Down Under shows here and there because I grew up with the owners sons. After that there was the high school days, bands like Pickle, Protocol, Gray Larry. Then there was the Knights of Columbus in Poland and so many basement shows throughout Boardman, Poland, Columbiana with bands like Crowd Deterrent, Laws, Gauntlet, Ignorantz. And when I was 18 I started to go to shows at Cedars. That’s the reason I go out. I like the scene, I like how it’s evolved, I like the music. I like finding and listening to new things. I worked at Nyabinghi for five years, too, and saw so many good bands. I can’t even being to start a list. Kind of off the subject, how did you get the nickname “Piggy?” I don’t know who actually gave it to me, but I got it when I was in second grade in Canfield. Why I started getting called that? I don’t know. I guess I used to eat like a pig when I was a kid. It’s not a Lord of the Flies reference, I can tell you that. It’s gone through phases, too. It’s gone from Piggy, to Pig-Dawg, to Pigweiser. Every once in a while you’ll see Robo-Pig come out. You’ve got some other alter-egos too. Describe some of the other ones, because a lot of that comes from the old hardcore scene and from the guys in Crowd Deterrent. You were ‘Major Beef!’ Yeah, I was Major Beef! (Laughs). I still am every once in a while. Steve from Crowd Deterrent’s idea was for me to be Major Beef – half man, half robot from the future and he’s here to save hardcore! It was good stuff. The one show we made a giant tank out of a cardboard box, I jumped out of it and went into the crowd with a trash can yelling and getting in people’s faces. Speaking of which, The Hooligan Ink years were some of the craziest ever. And I tell people, yeah there was a bunch of us in a basement show with barbed wire bats and barbed wire wrapped around everything and hardcore dancing. You tell people, and they can’t believe that something like that happened around here. No they don’t. And I was right there, too. How nobody ever got seriously injured was crazy. With that whole hardcore scene, what’s bad is that we had all of those hardcore bands coming through for a while, really good hardcore bands, too, and now none of those bands can get a show here because there isn’t a venue. But to be fair, at all those hardcore shows, I’ve seen more serious real fights at the regular bars than ever at the hardcore shows. Steve (Steve Assault – singer/drummer Crowd Deterrent), my friend Ryan James and I talked about that recently about how no one ever got hurt and that there really weren’t any fights, and if there was it got broken up really quickly and most of the time it would just be misunderstandings because of the hardcore dancing. Guys would shake each other’s hands after and it was all okay. The shows are violent, no doubt, but everyone really were friends and just having a good time. Most people that see hardcore shows, they can’t understand it. It’s just a way to express yourself. I think with the hardcore scene we always tried to kind of show the outsiders that it was very physical, and yeah you had to watch where you went if you were close to the pit. But while it was very physical it wasn’t ever violent. There’s a difference there some people just didn’t understand. Exactly. I don’t think anyone our age (28-29) has seen as many local shows as you in the last 14-15 years, and you support everything, all genres, all venues. Out of everything, which shows that happened in town really stood out to you? That’s a tough question (pauses). I’ve seen so many it’s tough to pick them. The Emissions fests were some of the best. There were just so many good bands those weekends. I liked Black Mountain when they played around here. I remember an old Knights of Columbus show when the owner came in and saw the punk and hardcore bands and freaked out, and was yelling that everyone had to stop. That was pretty funny seeing him freak out. I remember one of the shows and you were there, of course, where we rented that VFW hall or bingo hall or whatever, behind the BP gas station on 224 on the edge of Canfield and Boardman. I remember everyone trashed every single wooden chair in the place. These old wooden chairs, like the kind you’d rent for a graduation party or something, there were like hundreds of them flying through the air simultaneously, and some trophy case got broken or cracked. I was in charge of dealing with the guy, and we were loading broken chairs by the stacks into the backs of people’s trucks and cars to go throw away. We all pitched in and grabbed brooms and mops and made the place cleaner than when we rented it. They didn’t even notice the trophy case being broken. And the guy called the next day and said we could never rent it again because we forgot to sweep up one of little the piles of dirt. It was the stupidest thing. He said he would never let us use it again, and I just laughed. I think it was Gauntlet, Crowd Deterrent, Laws. Yeah, I was in the back of that pick-up holding down broken chairs as we drove away (laughs). That was an early afternoon show, I remember. That was a fun one, too (laughs). Getting back to the present, what is sort of your dissertation of the scene now? Do you think it’s going in the right direction? Do you think there is this hope that Youngstown can be revitalized in that aspect? I actually think it’s gotten a lot better over the years. There was a time period there where there really wasn’t much going on locally after the hardcore scene stopped. But, over the last two or three years it’s definitely picked up. There’s a lot more quality music and a lot more venues. Back then you had Nyabinghi, Cedars and occasionally Plaza Café, and really that was about it. Now there’s here (Royal Oaks), Aces Wild Wings in Boardman, Cedars, Lemon Grove, Barleys. The scene has gotten better with the bands. Five or six years ago it seemed like everything was just nu-metal bands. Everyone wanted to sound like freakin’ Disturbed or some crap. But on the plus side we never really got plagued by the emo-scene bands (laughs). Yeah, emo never flew in Youngstown. It was like ‘not in Youngstown’ (laughs). You would think as lame as a lot of that trendy emo is that you would have that the same way you had the nu-metal bands, but I’ll always give Youngstown credit, knock on wood, for not having a huge lame emo scene. I’m always on the fence with Youngstown. Sometimes I’m really down about it, sometimes I’m really optimistic, and I should probably keep that in check a lot more. I should take a lesson from you! (Laughs) Well, it’s tough sometimes. Every once in a while, it’s still really iffy. You think with some shows there’s going to be a ton of people there, and you go and there’s not nearly what you would expect. It’s just weird like that sometimes. What’s your kind of general feeling among all the crowds that go out here? You’re one of the very few people that will go see any show, at any venue, and you support just about everything, all different kinds of bands. You have one of the most diverse tastes in music of anyone here. Right now I think that a lot of people are going out. More than before. But do you think it’s more of a social gathering than people actually checking out the music? Like it’s more of an event than a music show? I see it both ways. Sometimes, yeah, it seems like an excuse for people just to hang out at the bar and get drunk and whoever is playing is playing. But there’s some when there’s way less people but they’re just there to see the bands, and those are so much more fun and so much better. Everyone’s into the music. Not to really bash anything in the scene, but it seems like some people are just stuck to a certain venue and they won’t step outside that little space, or step outside there little clique or comfort zone. I’ll go wherever there’s music and it’s good. With some people, yeah, they’re definitely afraid. They should at least try. But a lot more people are coming to Youngstown. For a long time you’d walk down Federal St. and it’d be really scarce but it’s not really like that much anymore. Okay, now I’m gonna name some bands, and I want you to give me your immediate thoughts after I say their name. We’ll start with Crowd Deterrent. Wild, crazy, insane, fun hardcore shows. For anyone that hasn’t seen them, if you do go see them when they one of the few places they can in Cleveland or Pittsburgh, it’s like something you would never witness. You won’t believe that there’s a local band around here like that. Not too many people now know about them. Even though it’s the craziest stuff you’ll ever see, it’s like a brotherhood. It’s just a lot of friends. Rebreather. Veterans of the scene. Heavy, very loud. Probably one of the best local bands, period. Still around and playing. Very intense shows. Gil Mantera’s Party Dream. Always a good time. Expect the unexpected. Great turnouts, lots of fun and sometimes off the hook. Good crowd participation. That’s one of the few bands where almost everyone there is there to see the band. Jones for Revival. I like them a lot. I go see them, and I think it shows my diversity in what I like. A great jam band. A great vibe to them. It’s worth checking out no matter what you’re into. They always put on a great show. That’s another band that the crowd is really there to see them. The Infidels. They’ve been doing it for a long time. Great music. I haven’t seen them as much as a lot of other bands, but they don’t play very often. Every time I see them they put on a good rock ‘n’ roll show. A little garage and punk to them. Definitely veterans. Let’s go with a few more bands on Pabstolutely 3, and let’s start with Fillmore Jive. I’ve seen them a handful of times. I like them. They’re a good up and coming band and they’re making their mark on the scene. I think they should be around for a while. They’re opening up for the Black Angels in Pittsburgh which is a good gig for them. It’s good to see a band, that young at that age doing something as cool as they’re doing. It gives a lot of us who have been in the scene a while some hope for the future (laughs). Let’s go with The Suite D’s. Very funky, jammy. They always tear it up. Great music, great vibe. To wrap everything up, what do you think the future holds for the Youngstown music scene? Right now it looks promising. The scene has been steadily good for the last few years. More people are coming out to live shows than they did. There were times at the Nyabinghi where there was almost no one. I remember Valiant Thorr played there in front of like five people, and they still did a great show. There was a lot like that back then. But I think we’re heading in the right direction. It’s promising and hopefully it can keep progressing. If not, we’ll just be drinking ourselves silly. Now obviously this is the Pabstolutely issue. Give people a pitch as to why they should come out to the Oaks Sept. 11. It’s kind of interesting that it falls on that date, too. One, it’s basically free. A lot of good bands, a lot of good music. It goes on all day long. It’s a lot of fun, and there’s very few problems. Like Dennis Hopper said, “Heineken? F*ck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!’