Well, it fucking happened – I looked in the mirror and I’m currently banging on 43 years old… getting some wrinkles around the eyes, hair getting pretty grey and my oldest kid is now the same age I was when I first got into hardcore. Time sucks.
Before I Internet die (AKA float off into obsolescence as I don’t even have a Twitter account), I thought I might do one giant favor and document one small slice of the hardcore world – and do it as a fan, not as some neo-hipster that has ‘read everything’ or some crusty old band bass player that wants everyone to ‘remember their contribution’ – I’ll just do it as a dude that was there and reasonably ‘into it’ at the time.
I’ve got two pretty good bookmarks for the era in Boston – it starts with Slapshot’s “Sudden Death Overtime” record release party at the Channel club, September 1990, and ends (to me) with Sam Black Church playing some church basement in Clinton MA with Ten Yard Hike as an opening act, late in 1994. That Slapshop show was also the first time Sam Black Church ever played out – and by the end of this little era they were a big Boston headlining act.
Old school new school – it was a time following Youth Crew, and before Metalcore had really sunk into HXC. Most bands in the New England area played Boston clubs – anything outside of those clubs were real local basement shows. There were no ‘scenes’ outside of the Boston club scene. BHC bands were beginning to develop their own style, taking a huge helping from NYHC, but no real HXC subgenres had developed yet – the ‘scene’ was still very small. I remember it being a really ethnic scene, lots of Irish kids – via being from New Hampshire, I consider Irish, Spanish and Italians as ‘not quite white’. 
The Bands – Let’s take a look at the bands of the era (names link to YouTube vids – I don’t feel like imbedding a ton of shitty videos) – any of these bands could be found on the bill with the others… that’s the kind of non-subgenre world it was…
Slapshot – the grandaddy of Boston ’90s HXC bands; they really straddled two eras. Very Oi! influenced, lead singer Choke was well known in the BHC scene since the ‘old days’. If you were in Boston then you loved them, everyone else probably hated them.
Wrecking Crew – famous for being the band of FSU founder Elgin James. I never particularly liked them, tho they were *very* popular. I think B9 has really lent a lot to their continued ‘legacy’. Anyways, were not a ‘must see’ band for me.
Eye For An Eye – def. a ‘new school’ BHC band – super positive lyrics with a black dude for a singer. I really really liked these guys. Opened for Fugazi at the Channel once. Their complete discography was released on CD a while back – great example of early ’90s HC.
Sam Black Church – became one of the biggest bands in Boston during the time – mixed metal with HXC very effectively. Lead singer Jet was super spazzy on stage and the first few times I saw them I was unsure if he was singing or ‘casting magic spells’ (srs).
Kingpin – kinda Youth Crew south shore kids, their one 7″ isn’t very memorable but they were very typical of kids back then.
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (!) – yup, they played mostly HXC shows back then. Huge fan base around their first album. We all probably wore some kind of plaid to their shows. It’s all so embarrassing…
STP – a 1st gen BHC band that kinda tried to reinvent themselves. I have their 7″ somewhere…
Said and Done – super obscure proto-emo core band. Yea, I’ve got their 7″ somewhere!
Suckerpunch – (couldn’t find a vid – you ain’t missin much) They did NYHC style stuff, memorable only because their lead singer was this 6′ 6″ all muscle dude that intimidated *everyone*.
Only Living Witness – probably the most under-appreciated band here. Really more metalcore before metalcore, I love their first full album. They had some beef with the FSU kids for a while. Random trivia – my brother and I used to skateboard with the lead singer Jonah in Nashua NH in the late ’80s.
The Clubs – Boston is known for some of it’s ‘famous’ clubs. Here’s a rundown of them and random thoughts on them.
The Channel – located right near South Station (AKA easy to get to) it was by far the largest club. Big bands played here – more on the place in a bit.
The Paradise – right near BU, kinda nicer club that did HXC shows every once in a while. Saw Burn open a show there and the PA system went out, so the crowd shouted all the songs…
TT the Bears – shithole.
Axis/Avalon – Mostly dance club near Fenway – say SOIA play a crazy violent show there. Def. upscale – also saw Danzig and thrashy Soundgarden in ’89 there. Is now the House of Blues I think.
Man-Ray – shithole.
Middle East upstairs – smaller club that held shows sometimes. Think we saw Snapcase there… Close to MIT so real college vibe.
The Rat – super shithole.
Memorable Events:
The Channel held fairly frequent Sunday Matinees, which usually saw bigger NYHC bands playing with local Boston bands opening up. These would usually draw decent crowds and we got to see GB, Judge, Sheer Terror, SOIA and on and on play there. SOIA and Sheer Terror played during a blizzard one year – I remember us white knuckle driving from NH in a shitty beat up Subaru to the show and wondering if we would even get home…
The Channel was also host to the two POW/MIA benefit shows (this was way before benefit shows were a ‘thing’) – the first one was an incredible experience, a day long show with just about every BHC band playing.. the second was a disaster plagued with multiple FSU gang beatdowns. Go figure.
The Channel closed in late ’91 and this is (to me) one of the driving factors in HXC spreading to the suburbs – making for a bunch of solid scenes outside Boston.
Biohazard/Life of Agony in Nashua NH – we (and about 5 other people) saw a male fronted LoA open for Biohazard in Nashua. We got LoA demo tapes for free and got to hang with Biohazard that night. When they played the Channel the next day, the band noticed us and pulled us out of line to go in early. Gotta admit, was pretty cool…
Fugazi played the Channel and told everyone to stop ‘slamdancing’. Thanks grandpa. Possibly first documented example of ‘slamdance shaming’?
SOIA plays Axis, Integrity cancels. Claim was their drummer died of a brain aneurysm? General rumor was of beef with Boston/FSU bands – one of many cancelled Integrity shows.
The big fanzine of the era was Suburban Voice, run by Al Quint. He seemed like an alright dude, but the magazine read like some kind of aspie OCD HXC mag. Quint’s reviews had this Rainman like quality where he reviewed bands you never heard of and compared them to more bands you never heard of, and did it hundreds of times. Suburban Voice also put out a few 7″ with the mag. Usually small comps consisting of a song from a released 7″.
So – that’s Boston Hardcore circa early ’90s in a nutshell. I’m sure some super-read up armchair HXC nerd could tell me all the bands I missed, how I must be stupid not to see what a great place The Rat was, etc… but this is from a guy that was there, in the shitty sweaty clubs.
After this era, a lot of smaller local scenes developed. Worcester/Central Mass became somewhat big with bands like Bane, Merrimack Valley was and still is a huge center for hardcore (Anchors Up club – not sure if still open – in Haverhill was a big deal). Bands like Converge, Tree, In My Eyes and lots of others came directly after this scene… but this is what it was back then. Hope you guys enjoy this!
Love, Krakken…
