Violent Apathy

Violent Apathy is a U.S. hardcore band that formed in March 1981 at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan and sparked the Kalamazoo hardcore scene. The original band was three high school friends from Jackson, Michigan (Kenny Knott, Richard "Dick" Bowser, and Jim Forgey) along with Eliot Rachman, another WMU student who hailed from East Lansing. Rachman had worked on the 1980 United States Census in Lansing, MI with members of The Fix and the original publishers (Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson) of Touch and Go magazine. He introduced the other members of the band to the then very new music of the Fix, the Necros, and Negative Approach, and all three bands provided a great deal of support and encouragement to VA.

Violent Apathy, through many lineup changes, played numerous shows throughout Michigan, particularly in Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo. The band played outside of Michigan only twice, both in 1983, once in Indianapolis and once in Chicago. The Chicago appearance, however, was supposedly attended by a young Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and described as a formative experience for him in the book Come as You Are by Michael Azerrad. The band's sound also evolved considerably during its three and a half year life, moving from primitive thrash to a slower, more rock-oriented sound.