Punks in Vegas | Emily Rose Matview (1983-2021)

Emily Rose Matview
A Tiny Part of an Endless Place
1983-2021

Scene: A beautiful girl walks into the bar, just as “Return of the Mac” comes on the jukebox.
Emily Matview, founder of Las Vegas staple PunksInVegas’ (punksinvegas.com), exits the building with a smirk. Her library has burned.
End scene.

Em, even though it was only last month, it already feels like it’s been 84 years.

But don’t WORRY! We’re getting Doc Brown to fix the DeLorean so he can take us back to 1985.

See, Emily was born in the Windy City, on January 14, in The Year of the Magna Carta.

At six years old Emily’s family moved to Sin City. She grew up riding bikes and skateboarding in Sunrise Mountain, spending all her money on comics from Alternate Reality and CDs from Big B’s, Balcony Lights, and Columbia House, and going to shows at the Huntridge.

One of her earliest memories is of reading comics with her father, whom she was convinced was named after Captain America. This inspired her lifelong love of all thing’s superheroes, graphicnovels, reading and literacy. Eventually, leading her to get a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science from the University of North Texas and becoming the most innovative Children’s Librarian that The District has ever had the fortune of hiring.

She attended Eldorado High School, where she met Aaron Bautista in their first PE class freshman year. They’ve been getting bbq & ‘za ever since. At 14, she started working at Smith’s, which motivated her Grocery-core playlist, now available on Spotify. Emily graduated in 2001, by convincing all her teachers to pass her, even though she was always getting kicked out of class. After graduation she attended CSN and UNLV and received her Bachelor’s degree in English Literature. She worked for CCSD as a Substitute Teacher and Library Assistant.

Emily started PunksInVegas, named after the song by The Bouncing Souls, in 2011 with her ex-wife Ashleigh Thompson. Starting as a project in grad school to create a database of the Vegas music scene, PunksInVegas has grown to include: show reviews, album reviews, interviews, photographs, stripped down sessions, oral histories and the work of Julien Boulton, Ian Caramanzana, Hunter Wallace, Christopher Mounts, David Bartlett, Tyler Newton, Brock Frabbiele, Chris Duggan, Andy Harrison, Jonas Vece, and Samantha Carbonaro. Long standing friend and photographer, Aaron Mattern, will take over as PIV CEO and Norman.

Emily started her transition in 2019. Through social media platforms, like ‘the gram’ and ‘the book’, she shared all the good and bad parts of her journey with us. Like that time the x-ray technician asked if she had, “girl or boy lungs?”, but wasn’t even concerned with all her Bamboo Bones. Her story showcases how brave people who are trans have to be. In April, still the cruellest month, of 2021 Emily flew to Thailand in the middle of a pandemic for SRS, because the health care system in the United States is a joke without the ‘e’, making it apparent how important this life affirming surgery is for the wellbeing of every trans person who needs it.

She is leaving a hole in our hearts that will never be filled, but “everyday for the rest of my life I will search for moments full of you”.

Sam and Jordan, she’ll be ghost dancing at your wedding.
Dany, Shea, and Piro, she really did want to watch Ruby, Miles, and Leeloo grow up. Take them to shows.
Austin, “you have people who care if you come home at night.”
Charlsey and Mika don’t forget to order the red velvet pancakes.
Kelly, Nikki, Ray, Mayra, John, and Natalia you still better go to Emo Night.

Emily is preceded in death by her Dad, George Washington, and Stan Lee.

She is survived by her love Kristy Calhoun, her sister Kelly Whitten, her nephews Nicholas and Brandon, her niece Rachel, her mother Donalee, the aforementioned people above, everyone who ever volunteered their time with PunksInVegas, a slew of baby pages, and every mother f*cking Caballero in the Valley and around the world.

If you are a Norman or an Oldhead and would like to send your condolences, donations can be made to: The Trevor Project, The Center, Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, Planned Parenthood, or to the World Wildlife Fund to help support our symbolic adoption of Augoost the Octopus… But you could also just buy your friend a coffee.

Special thanks go out to: Sal Giordano, 11th Street Records, Evel Pie, and Fragile Boxer.

A SKA-lebration of life will take place at 11th Street Records on July 10th. This is a private event; tickets are sold out! There will be ‘Trunk Skee’ and ‘Classic Pep’, no ‘Sticks’, BYOC (bring your own chicken nuggets!). In addition to the SKA-lebration, everyone is invited to join us for the PunksInVegas 10-year anniversary show: The Farewell Emily Tour, to take place at the end of the Summer (PRB Weekend if you’re lucky). Lineup TBA. Tell All Your Friends.

Babe, you would have written this so much better than me, but I tried to do you justice.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

See you in the pit!