Some scenes fade. Others go dormant; crouched low, listening, biding their time. This March, Florida punk does what it’s always done best: it reappears, loud and unapologetic, inside Churchill’s Pub, as the hardcore punk cassette label Invisible Audio stages its first-ever live festival.
It’s a two-night collision of reunions, new bands, and shared lineage at Miami’s resurrected dive. At the heart of the inaugural Invisible Audio Fest is something even less expected than a second act for Churchill’s Pub: A reunited Morbid Opera, performing for the first time since 1995.
In Churchill’s return last September from five years of oblivion, Invisible Audio founder and promoter Flipper saw a chance to gather the hardcore punk bands that he and his friends helped ignite starting around 2016, well before COVID shuttered venues and shifted lives. “With Churchill’s back,” Flipper tells PureHoney, “I knew I could get people to agree to come back for reunion sets. I also wanted to bring in the new generation of bands in that style.”
The Morbid Opera reunion came together with almost suspicious ease. Prompted by Zig-Zag singer Josie, Flipper reached out to Morbid Opera’s bassist and singer Libby Bentley. They found their stories mirrored each other across decades: Fort Lauderdale beginnings and DIY necessity. “We really can’t help it that we’re from here,” Flipper says, invoking the classic Florida punk compilation.
Morbid Opera guitarist Jeff Hodapp says he never imagined the band without original members Bentley and his wife Lisa Hodapp, especially after Lisa’s tragic passing in 2010. But the invitation clicked. “Might as well give it a one-off shot,” he tells PureHoney, equal parts excited and nervous. Morbid Opera, with Ale Campos and Emile Milgrim of Las Nubes in the lineup, will also feature a guest appearance by Jeff and Lisa’s daughter.
It’s a reminder that Florida punk has always been cyclical, communal, and stubbornly alive. Venues close. Bands splinter. But when the lights come back on at Churchill’s, the music remembers exactly where it left off.
Invisible Audio Fest featuring Morbid Opera, Zig-Zag, A.I. Death Calculator, Problem Child, and many more on Friday, March 13, and Saturday, March 14 at Churchill’s Pub in Miami. invisibleaudio.bandcamp.com ~ Abel Folgar
