A punk band traveling the world in a free van held together only by duct tape and distortion? It sounds like a whale of a tale, but everything you’re about to read is true times two.
“What’s the best thing you ever got at a Really Really Free Market?” It was his first time attending one.
“Hmm. Maybe a computer monitor? Someone found a vintage Discharge shirt a couple months ago.” At twenty years old, he had no idea who Discharge was. “Or wait, no—it was a van.”
“A van?!”
“Yeah. We drove it all the way around the United States two and a half times, and even to Mexico and Canada. Every mile we drove, we expected to be its last, but no, it kept right on going.”
“Who would give away a van?” He looked at me in amazement. Then another question occurred to him. “And why did you have to ride around in it?”
“All I can say is—it was a different time.”
Here follows the story of the van that escaped the marketplace and the punks who kept it alive, narrated by Fritz and Phil.