August Golden

If you mentioned that your car was breaking down, August Golden would quietly get his tool kit, log onto YouTube, and figure out how to fix it. If you really liked Taylor Swift — an artist that was not his favorite — and told him you wanted to start a punk covers group paying tribute to her, he would sigh amicably and offer to play guitar and sing just so you wouldn’t have to do it alone. And if you were planning on moving, he would just start picking up boxes and loading them into a vehicle to help you move — an act of beneficence by itself that qualified him as a god among mortals.

Everyone who knew Golden remembered him as a quiet, kind, generous, patient, sweet, and magnanimous friend who was eager to play his part in supporting his large group of friends. Golden was a member of the DIY Minneapolis punk scene for the past few years and singer-guitarist for the melodic, pop-punk trio Scrounger.

By 35, he had lived all around the country before settling into a lifestyle that allowed him to make art and reside with his friends at the DIY venue Nudieland, where he helped organize gigs and ran the bar. He adopted the name “August,” possibly in tribute to labor activist August Spies. He was well-known and beloved, and friends who had met him in other towns before he moved to the Twin Cities were eager to reunite with him and continue their shared love of music.” He embodied the values that our world of DIY punk rock hopes to embody and hold,” Scrounger bassist Brian May says. “And he didn’t do it in a way that was egotistical or centered around himself.”

An act of random, unprovoked violence ended Golden’s life and wounded many of his friends. During a concert by a bill of Minneapolis punk bands — Rubberman, Texture Freaq, and Miracle Debt — an unknown man and a companion entered Nudieland, whose attendees that night were primarily members of the queer community, reportedly made derogatory statements about LGBTQ people, and began firing a gun into the crowd. He wounded six people and fatally shot Golden.