A few years back I went to the Polish Oktoberfest Festival at Our Lady of Częstochowa church in north Phoenix. Many Polish and Polish-American bands performed at the event. Most played some classic folk tunes from the various regions of Poland, but at least one played some rock and roll that usually sounded like either American stuff like Chuck Berry or early British invasion material, but with completely Polish lyrics. The predominantly older crowd of first generation Polish immigrants was totally into it.

My hipster myopia had previously caused me to view punk bands like Post-Regiment and Dezerter as some of the pioneering troublemakers on the Polish music scene, being contemporaneous with Solidarity and other major socio-political changes in that country. But, as I learned from these old folks reliving their younger days, Polish musicians and fans were rocking out they best they could in light of living under a repressive communist regime in the '60s and '70s