A Portrait of a Punk Rock Powerhouse

Much like the late ‘70s in New York City, the early ‘80s LA hardcore scene and the emergence of the Straight Edge movement on the East Coast, the early ‘90s in Berkeley, California has become a special, and sometimes overly embellished, time in music history. The notorious all ages venue, 924 Gilman Street, served as the stomping ground for now-legendary bands like Rancid, Green Day and Operation Ivy. More than a mere venue, the space also served as a community. For Marian Anderson, lead singer of The Insaints and the subject of Lilly Scourtis Ayers’ upcoming documentary, Last Fast Ride, the creative community of Gilman offered temporary comfort, support and a place to play. “Marian was the most extreme example of a troubled kid who found a family through music. The band’s sound was definitely a product of its place and time,” says Ayers.

The Insaints were formed in approximately 1988 in Modesto, California by guitarist Daniel deLeon and lead singer Marian Anderson. In 1990 the two moved to San Francisco, enlisted a few new members and joined the Bay Area music scene. The Insaints had the classic sound of an angry female fronted punk band with lyrics that focused on female empowerment, feminism and overcoming sexual abuse. They called to mind groups like X and Naked Aggression and performers like Wendy O. Williams and Lydia Lunch.

The band split in 1994, but not before gaining a reputation as one of the wilder bands in the Berkeley scene. Anderson, who worked as a dominatrix in San Francisco, sometimes performed topless and eventually began incorporating sex acts and other lewd behavior into the band’s live shows.  In the film Dexter Holland of The Offspring describes the first time his band ever played with The Insaints. “She steps to the front of the stage and goes ‘I’ve got something for you’ and she pisses on the crowd,” Holland describes. “[It was] one of the finest punk rock moments I’ve ever experienced.” Tragically, Anderson died of a heroin overdose on November 4, 2001.

Although Ayers became familiar with The Insaints after high school and knew who Anderson was, she never had a chance to see the band live or become closely associated with Anderson before her death. The idea for Last Fast Ride actually came from Danielle Bernal, Anderson’s girlfriend for the last six years of her life. “[She] wanted to have someone make a small documentary about Marian. She spoke with Daniel deLeon about it and he recommended me. I had shot his music video for [Rezurex’s] ‘Devil Woman From Outer Space’ and we had been friends since I was about eighteen years old. I was still in film school [at Columbia] in New York when we first spoke about the project,” says Ayers.

Ayers admits that she didn’t know much about Anderson before beginning the project and was drawn in as she learned more about her life story. The documentary—Ayers’s first full-length film—is actually only the first step. Scourtis-Ayers is currently writing a script for a feature screenplay about Anderson’s life.  “Making the documentary [was] a great way for me to do research,” says Ayers.

Working closely with Bernal and deLeon, Ayers gathered old photographs of Anderson, video footage and music. She was also able to obtain interviews with Anderson’s friends, including Tim Armstrong of Rancid, who actually created The Insaints logo using White-Out in a Berkeley Kinko’s. “Tim usually doesn’t do interviews. We were very lucky to speak with him—he only did it because of his great affection for Marian,” says Ayers.  “I liked her from the very start, even before I knew she was in a band,” Armstrong says in the documentary. “She was one of those kids that was really intense. I’ll never forget her eyes.”

Ayers says that overall, when people learned what they were trying to do, they were happy to send her the material to make it happen. “I took this massive mountain of material and just kept distilling it down further and further into a tight little movie,” says Ayers. Five years later brings Last Fast Ride: The Life, Love and Death of a Punk Goddess.

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Comments on this article

Posted on January 8, 2011 by lovedrug

I knew and loved Marian. She was a wonderful, sweet, beautiful woman. I do remember a period of time we had to kind of "walk away" from her because she had become so erratic, but she seemed to be working it out. despite her past, I always thought she would rise above it. When she died/o.d'd I was shocked. It left a hole in my heart. RIP Marian. So many of us loved you.

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Joe

Marian was a vibrant, sexy, interesting and intense woman. She had a lot going on. I only met her about four times and talked with her briefly on the phone but she did manage to spit some body fluid (from someone else) at me at an Insaints show.

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