Allston Was a Gas

By Daniel_Shvartsman on Fri, Jan 11, 2008 1:24 pm

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It was supposed to be a punk rock party, but it turned into a human bonfire. On an April night in 2005, high school senior Masha Badinter spent an evening at 51 Park Vale Ave. in Allston, a home known for its parties amongst the Allston punk community. She came with a friend and a liter of vodka and cranberry juice, and left with 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her back, setting into motion a chain of events that has put Allston punks under a microscope.

            Eliezer Falcon, the lead guitarist of the punk band Knox, is accused of pouring accelerant on Badinter’s back and lighting her on fire. In addition, he allegedly bullied a friend of Badinter’s, telling her to stop asking questions about him and warning that if Badinter pressed charges, she was “heading for an early grave.” Falcon and his band mate Carl Diener testified for the defense, both asserting that Falcon was on the back porch when the flames went up, and that two white men with shaven heads were the true culprits.

            The trial was more notable as an instance of generation gap on display. The key testimony on victim intimidation came from Badinter’s friend, Kelly Martin, who had 3-4 conversations with Falcon on AIM and one in person where he allegedly threatened her and Badinter. Falcon’s defense attorney Robert Doyle had a hard time grasping that AIM is fairly well-guarded. “How do you know it was (Falcon) typing that? Did you see him type it?” Doyle asked Martin, apparently unfamiliar with the concept of a screen name. The jury also received a detailed explanation of how Myspace works.

            Traits of the punk rock lifestyle also came into focus. Falcon was identified as the alleged culprit in large part because he was the only person at the party with a blond mohawk (and fairly dark skin, for that matter). Everybody at the party dressed like punks – “tight pants, bullet belts, spiky jackets,” as Badinter explained it (she had a trihawk at the time). Badinter found herself on the defense briefly when Doyle pointed out that she tested positive for opiates after the party, a possible sign of heroin (Badinter said the positive was due to an unknown painkiller given after the burning). And she admitted that she and her friend finished that liter over the course of the evening.

            Of course, while drinking, spiky jackets, and mohawks are all part of a good punk party, burning somebody is completely out of the pale, whoever did it. “We can’t allow the violent actions of a small number of people to define Boston or its music scene, for this victim or for anyone else,” said Jake Wark, press secretary for the Suffolk County DA’s Office. As long as people can recognize individual apeshit craziness, Allston punks’ rep should be ok.