Over the Halloween weekend, a group of costumed show-goers gathered in the Hoosier Dome to watch a local Hoosier favorite take the stage. Dressed as a skeleton, a clown, a Rastafarian, a zombie, and a ghoul, Harley Poe took the stage on the weekend of their favorite night of the year. For the next hour, they entertained an enthusiastic audience in various costumes with their own special blend of songs about monsters, death, and the just plain weird.
What sets the Kokomo-based act apart from their horror-punk counterparts is their lack of a desire to raid Hot Topic and add a “whoa-oh” sing-along to every song in an attempt to display their devotion to The Misfits. If Jello Biafra decided to pick up an acoustic guitar after watching schlocky B-horror movies instead of C-SPAN, Harley Poe would be the result. Their lyrical talent goes much deeper than any horror band with boring, spooky imagery and dudes in leather jackets with slicked-back hair and an upright bass.
Harley Poe’s songs are about all of the famous horror movie figures fans of the genre have come to know and love: vampires, zombies, werewolves, demons, death, and more. Front man Joe Whiteford fills every song with sarcastic, witty and scathing lyrics that are enough to keep listeners entertained and laughing through the normally dark and bleak material celebrating the joys of being on the outskirts of what is deemed “normal.” But just as many horror movies are allegories representing a deep fear the viewer may have or creating commentary on modern day issues of the world, so does Harley Poe’s songs.
“The Suckers” can be a classic example of this. The lyrics, chalk full of innuendo, detail the account of someone who takes home a nice girl from the bar, only to find out too late his one night stand is a blood-sucking phantasm of the night. Upon reading the lyrics, it’s not difficult to figure out exactly what happened in the events leading up to the reveal:
“She opened her mouth as she was going south
The blood rushed to my head
Sexy sleaze, she was aiming to please
And I bet she’d be good in bed
So we’re having our fun
And she’s getting it done
And it feels like ecstasy
She says open your eyes, I’ve got a surprise
And it happened so suddenly
She comes up to chin and gave me a little grin
When I noticed these little fangs
She stuck them in my vein
I couldn’t bear the pain
She went and ruined everything
But she’s a blood sucker
And I’m her prey.”
Fairly straight-forward stuff, but it doesn’t take a Twilight fanatic to figure out the subtext of the sex-crazed world of vampires. The unfortunate victim of this one-night stand is obviously now a full-fledged creature of the night, but take things a step further and one could plausibly say this man has just left his unfortunate encounter with a brand new case of the clap. Cautionary tales are something Harley Poe has a knack for, whether or not the subtlety is there. Just listen one of their earlier songs, “The Girl Has Syphilis.” It’s the same story as The Suckers, but without the sneaky innuendo and horror imagery. Whiteford and company decided sexually transmitted diseases are horrifying enough.
Long-time fans of the band know Harley Poe had its early roots in Christian music as Calibretto 13, but the disturbing content of some of their more recent material as the current incarnation proves they couldn’t be located any further from the light. “Homicidal Maniac” and “Stick It In The Man” depict graphic tales of revenge and angst while alluding to the grisly desired outcomes they seek. While nothing entirely relatable to most, songs like these can be a cathartic experience for the listener who may be having a particularly bad day and want to vent some frustrations in less destructive ways. Everybody has evil intentions at one point or another, and Harley Poe recognizes this and empathizes with the listener in many of their songs. The point is not to celebrate violence and death, but to provide something the listener can relate to in their own dark times.
What Harley Poe ultimately celebrates is the value of individuality. “Transvestites Can Be Cannibals Too,” one of their more popular songs, is an anthem for outcasts and misfits raging against those who shun them for being different, which in itself is the classic punk rock mindset of rebellion.
“I hate the popular people ‘cause I ain’t popular
I hate these words tomorrow ‘cause I’m bipolar
It’s okay to be different unless you’re all by yourself
You think you’re so special when you’re just like everyone else
I just don’t understand the reason why I said
Why can’t I be a bigger mand and walk away when
You tear me down and make me feel like I’m worth nothing
But then again, I’m sure that you deserve what you’ll be getting
And when I was young, I wore my sister’s clothes
I like to paint my nails and I had secrets no one knows
But now that I’m grown up, I cook dinner for my wife
I still carry my secrets along with a butcher’s knife.”
Harley Poe stands up for the little guy: the nerd who was bullied by the jocks, the goth teased by the popular girls, the weird kid no one talks to because he licks pennies in the corner when he thinks no one is looking. Just look at their fans in attendance at their shows. While many would be disgusted with the graphic imagery on display in every song, their fans dance and sing along with such enthusiasm, because they’ve found a band that gets them. Music is all about finding a niche where the listener can feel a little less alone. Harley Poe just chose to do it for the freaks and geeks of the world.
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