CBGB / A hardcore-fanatic’s guide – Part VII.

It was originally released in Chiller Than Most fanzine, issue 5. Pics by Randall S Underwood, Brendan Rafferty, Bri Hurley, Ken Salerno, KT Tobin.

Hilly Kristal, a trained violinist, opened CBGB music club in 1973 with the intention to book country, Irish, jazz and bluegrass music bands. CBs is located on the Bowery, an infamous skid-row area that back in the 80s was lined with flophouses where derilect alcoholics and crackheads could rent a room for 5 bucks a night. The full name of the club was CBGB & OMFUG, which stands for “Country Bluegrass Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers.” But in late summer of 1974 a new wave of musical rebels made the venue their home and punk rock luminaries such as The Ramones, The Dead Boys, Patti Smith Group, Talking Heads and Blondie got their start there. By the summer of 1975, the club was the epicenter of what was then considered avant-garde rock’n’roll. Kristal’s former wife Karen Kristal worked at the club and was legal owner of the venue’s parent company due to Hilly going bankrupt on a past business. She was the constant caretaker and stern protector of CBGB, whose logo she designed. CBGB wasn’t doing hardcore shows in the beginning. From the early 1980s until its later years, it would mainly become known for hardcore punk, Youth of Today, Cro-Mags, Gorilla Biscuits, Underdog, Sick Of It All becoming synonymous with the club. They’ve all shared the glory of tearing up that stage, and played their hearts out. Up to this time most of the hardcore shows were mostly happening at clubs and bars that lasted late into the night.

Around late 1982, CBGB started booking Saturday afternoons so younger fans of hardcore could catch all the latest bands coming through NYC. Hilly kind of gave the hardcore kids a permanent weekend home and daytime hangout spot, the CBGB hardcore matinee was born. Later it was moved to Sundays so Saturday night shows would not be affected by the matinees running late. Sunday afternoons at CBs became a weekly ritual for years to come. Upon entry, the area where you paid was on the right, a small desk where you were interrogated about your age. By that time CBGB’s was hard line about the 16 year old age limit. In late 1985, New York state changed the drinking age from nineteen to twenty-one. Before the law changed, CBGB was allowed to let in all ages, with ID for nineteen to drink. When the law changed, CBGB was forced to change to sixteen to enter, twenty-one to drink. In front of the stage there was a hole worn into the floor from people demonstrating their mosh styles, it was a small place where hardcore kids would slam dance into each other. The stage was the perfect height for a dive onto the crowd.

One storefront beside CBGB became the “CBGB Record Canteen”, a record shop and café. In the late 1980s, “CBGB Record Canteen” was converted into an art gallery and second performance space, “CB’s 313 Gallery”. CBGB closed in September of 2006 after 33 years of live music. The old East Village mainstay is now a John Varvatos store which combines stylish, shitty rock’n’roll costumes, expensive clothes. Today the Lower East Side has a Whole Foods market. Today you have to make a lot of money to live on the Lower East Side. Today’s Lower East Side is filled with some of the best restaurants and eateries in New York. Today buses filled with tourists drive slowly past the John Varvatos store that used to be CBGB…

– The CBGB is the place where Dennis Dunn, Big Charlie worked. Dennis was a bouncer with a mustache, sleeveless shirts, and he operated the stage lights too. Sometimes he’d stop the kids, grab the microphone from the band’s singer and tell them what they did wrong. “Listen up people, if the stagediving continues the sets gonna be cut alright? It’s up to you… there is no stagediving!” He is the guy on Agnostic Front’s “Live at CBGB” record that gets up on stage and threatens to kill the audience if they don’t quit fighting. “A lot of you people ain’t gonna live to see tomorrow if you don’t stop fucking around this way! “Big Charlie (one of the first black skinheads in the New York hardcore scene) was a bouncer too, he was a very tall and well built guy, always in army fatigues. In the summer of 1986, there was a Guillotine fanzine benefit show and the infamous riot. Straight Ahead, Warzone, Rest In Pieces, Ludichrist were on the bill. Right when Straight Ahead finished their set, Big Charlie grabs the microphone and let’s everybody know that there is a big riot going on outside. “You guys all talk about unity! It’s time to prove it because those guys out there have bats!”

– The CBGB is the place where Tommy Victor (the lead singer and guitarist for the heavy metal band Prong) worked as a sound engineer, he did the hardcore matinees from 1986 to 1990. “Just Can’t Hate Enough” album (by Sheer Terror) was recorded at the CBGB’s and engineered by Tommy Victor, and “Free For All” compilation was recorded by him too. This classic compilation was a four-way split (Token Entry, Wrecking Crew, Rest in Pieces and No For An Answer), all songs recorded live at CBGB on April 9, 1989. The sound system at CBGB’s was probably the best one around. – CBGB is the place where Agnostic Front recorded three live albums.

– CBGB is the place where Walter Schriefels played bass for Outburst. This was their first CBGB gig.

– CBGB is the place where Agnostic Front did their “Victim In Pain” record release party in 1984.

– CBGB is the place where Youth of Today played their infamous “Shutdown” show with Side By Side, Gorilla Biscuits, Pagan Babies in 1987. Before one of the last songs, Ray Cappo made his famous comment, “You know, this club has their policies. They are going to tell you what to do but I’m not going to. Do what you want!” with that about more than 100 hardcore kids jumped up on the stage during “Youth Crew” and nobody could do anything. The band was banned for encouraging stage diving, which was against the club policy. It was also the last time Youth Of Today would set foot on the stage of CBGB, they never played there again.

– Project X “Shutdown” was written about this specific October 18, 1987 CBGB show. The back cover of the Project X EP features the band standing in front of CBGB, appearing to have been shut out.

– CBGB is the place where Agnostic Front did a benefit to raise money for recording “Victim In Pain”, Roger Miret and bassist Rob Kabula, drummer Dave Jones, and founder/guitarist Vinnie Stigma recorded “Victim In Pain” in a matter of hours.

– A scene in Woody Allen’s “Hannah and Her Sisters” involving Allen and Dianne Wiest watching 39 Steps was filmed at CBGB. 39 Steps were a Canadian alternative rock/punk rock band.

– The Simpsons’ episode “Love, Springfieldian Style” shows a CBGB named “Comic Book Guy’s Bar”.

– The first time Youth Of Today played there, Johnny Stiff the promoter told them “watch your back, no one in this city is straight edge and they just might kill you if you push that shit.”

– CBGB is the place where Murphy’s Law’s “Bong Blast” demo tape was recorded live by Jerry Williams back in 1983, and has the earliest lineup of the band with Harley Flanagan on drums. The cover of the cassette was made by Alex “Uncle Al” Morris, founding member of Murphy’s Law as well as playing on their 1986 classic debut album.
– Mrs. Kristal made life and death decisions at the club. Lots of underage fans tried to get into CBGB’s numerous times but there was this old lady who checked their fake ID cards, grab them by the collars and throw them out. She was standing next to the desk where you paid with her giant pocketbook, checking ID cards, and calling hardcore kids’ parents when she sniffed a false one. Crippled Youth played their first show in 1986 with Youth of Today, Warzone, and Rest In pieces. Matt Warnke (the singer of the band) was able to play because Karen called his parents to verify his age. Matt’s parents lied for their son that day, he was only 15.

– CBGB is the place where Gorilla Biscuits did their first show with JFA, Token Entry, the NY Hoods on August 31, 1986. There is an incredible photo, where Ernie Parada is wearing a prehistoric homemade Gorilla Biscuits t-shirt before the first gig was even played. Probably many people don’t know that he was the drummer of Gorilla Biscuits at their first show.

– CBGB is the place where Cro-Mags did the “Age of Quarrel” record release show in 1986. They were serving Krishna cookies, vegan foods and some iced tea. Cause For Alarm was one of the opening bands.

– There were three different awnings during the life of CBGB at 315 Bowery. The first one was up from 1973 to 1987, another from 1987 to 2000 and the last until the club closed in 2006. The second and third awnings were very similar to the original, but with cleaner lines and an arched logo—the biggest difference seen in the numbers “315,” which were no longer hand painted. The most recent awning is at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Museum in Cleveland. The original awning was allegedly in the possession of JFA (Jodie Foster’s Army), who may have borrowed it after a show in the mid 1980s. The awning that hung above the legendary New York City punk club CBGB between 1987 and the early 2000s has sold at auction for $30,000.

43 W 8th (New Breed Tape Compilation) / A hardcore-fanatic’s guide – Part VI.

It was originally released in Chiller Than Most fanzine, issue 5. 

The New Breed compilation came about as an extension of Freddy Alva’s fanzine, also called New Breed. His friend, Chaka Malik (Burn), agreed to collaborate on getting a bunch of the newer bands on the scene circa 1987-1989 and put them on a tape compilation. The compilation was released on Urban Style Records in 1989, a name that perfectly reflected the music and the environment in which it existed, because the bands of “the New Breed era” were more creative and expanded out of that earlier NYC formula. Freddy and Chaka asked all their friends that were in bands to give them songs to include. Work on it started in the summer of 1988 and it came out during the spring of 1989.

Original photo

They did everything from dubbing the tapes, one by one, putting together and stapling the accompanying booklet. Chaka Malik did the layout for the Absolution and Collapse pages in the booklet, and the rest of the bands contributed their own layouts. Created in a cut-and-paste style and heavily influenced by graffiti art. (Freddy Alva’s debut book “Urban Styles: Graffiti in New York Hardcore” is out now! The book is an adventure back to a time when subcultures and underground movements blended seamlessly and went largely unnoticed by the mainstream world.) The finished package was put inside a clear comic book bag and sold for 5 bucks. The New Breed compilation was limited to a pressing of 700 copies.

#43 W 8th St

The tape is chock full of classic NYHC, featuring influential hardcore groups such as Breakdown, Raw Deal, Fit of Anger, Beyond, Abombanation, Pressure Release, Our Gang etc. Absolution was their first choice for inclusion. Chaka and Freddy paid for the recording of the legendary song called “Never Ending Game” at Don Fury’s studio. Outburst also released “The Hardway” on this cassette, personally this song is one of my all time favorites. For New Breed comp, they did a Don Fury version of “The Hardway” with AJ from Leeway doing the mixing, getting a crisper sound than they got on the demo (also recorded at Don Fury). It eventually became a crowd sing-a-long favorite at Outburst gigs, so they wanted to put it on “Where The Wild Things Are” compilation also. Freddy selected the CBGB live version of “Controlled” to be the third Outburst song on the compilation. That’s with Brian Donohue’s genius stage banter asking the crowd of CBGB to dance because he really likes this song. Biblical! I heard a funny story about the singer of Uppercut, Steve Uppercut had no idea they were on this compilation until 2006 when he saw it somewhere on the internet.

In the third issue of Chiller Than Most I asked Freddy Alva about the cover: “The picture of Chaka sitting on the steps on 8th St near the old Venus Records location is meant to be a homage to Minor Threat’s Lp cover. I took a side view of him, the better to show off the Crucifix patch Chaka had on his right shoulder as well as the Air Jordan sneakers he was sporting. That was basically the only idea we had, took a camera one day after shopping for records & went for it. It’s cool that a lot of people dig it, there’s also a tag on the door above by “Shoe”, that’s Rich from All For One & one of my best friends, so that was great that it turned out that way too. I always considered it as our urban tribute to an iconic HC image.”

The Pyramid Club / A hardcore-fanatic’s guide – Part V.

It was originally released in Chiller Than Most fanzine, issue 5.

In the late 80s New York was still dangerous and not yet gentrified. East of Avenue A was still a wasteland. The Pyramid Club was (and still is) a nightclub in the East Village, located at 101 Avenue A in Manhattan. The institution named for a pyramid motif in the building’s original tiling, opened in 1979. What made this club unique was that the inclusivity across all cultural lines, mixing disco and hardcore/punk, pop culture and high art, straight and gay. The Pyramid Club shows were organized by many members of the NYC hardcore scene. It was the first time in NYC during this era that the bands actually made up the bills. The shows ran on a semi regular basis from 1987-1989.

Alex Brown, Sammy Siegler, Chris Burr, and Dylan Schreifels in front of the Pyramid Club

You can check out a video about what the place was like between 1983 and 1988 on youtube: “Drag Queens, Skinheads, Artists and Some Girls: the Pyramid Club of the 1980s.” In this video Raybeez and Jimmy Gestapo attempted to describe what made the Pyramid special (5:51)!

– Pyramid matinees were some of the best hardcore shows, Absolution, Warzone, Side By Side, Youth of Today, Underdog, Collapse, Sick Of It All, Token Entry, Hogan’s Heroes, Judge, Gorilla Biscuits, Krakdown, Life’s Blood, Killing Time, American Standard, Project X, Under Pressure, Uppercut, Our Gang had a couple of very memorable gigs there.
– Security included Jimmy Gestapo, Raybeez and Richie Birkenhead, while doorman Bernard Crawford kept out the yuppies and junkies.

Raybeez and Jimmy Gestapo

– The Pyramid Club is the place where Ray Cappo and Raybeez were booking shows together, most of these shows were Saturday matinees. The first matinee gig was a benefit show for Some Records. “Starting April 11th at the Pyramid Club, 101 Avenue A we’re gonna have hardcore matinees between 2:00 and 5:30 every other Saturday, starting April 11 so you gotta check it out! The first show is with Sick Of It All and Token Entry and you know, we’re headlining, word up! Check out the Village Voice!” – Warzone interview on WNYU’s Crucial Chaos radio show.

– The Pyramid Club is the place where Sean Penn and Madonna got into a heated public argument in 1986. A fight erupted into violence as an obviously inebriated Penn shoved his wife up against a wall, then carried their shouting match out into the street.
– The Pyramid Club is the place where Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers played their first New York City concerts.
– The Pyramid Club is the place where Into Another performed their first show.

– The Pyramid Club is the place where Warzone cameout with a fog machine, and they used so much dry ice that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face in the pit. Warzone was playing and the smoke machine went off while Ray Cappo was on stage about to do a stage dive, it burned his leg.
– The Pyramid Club is the place where Warzone played a show with a go-go dancer on stage, which was very likely an influence from the “Licensed To Ill” era Beastie Boys.
– The Pyramid Club is the place where Djinji Brown (Absolution) broke Jules Masse’s (Side By Side, Alone In A Crowd) nose during a show.
– The Pyramid Club is the place where the really underrated Altercation played a gig with Death Before Dishonor on May 23, 1987. Shortly after that Jay and Paul left Altercation to join Warzone so the band broke up.

171A, Rat Cage Records Store / A hardcore-fanatic’s guide – Part IV.

It was originally released in Chiller Than Most fanzine, issue 5.

 

This innocuous construction was built in 1900, in 117 years this building tells some great history. In 1976, Hyman Lieberman was arrested for possessing 2400 pounds of mannite worth $500,000 which he was distributing to drug dealers for use in cutting heroin. Lieberman owned a store at 171 Avenue A, which he had previously owned and sold in 1966. The burnt-out abandoned building at 171 Avenue A became the epicenter of the New York City hardcore movement, it was down the block from A7.

MDC with Jerry Williams, 1982.

It was pretty much a community center ran by a guy named Jerry Williams, perfect for hanging out, and a great meeting place too. Jerry was a key figure in the burgeoning early 80s NYHC scene, recording bands at his 171A studio and doing sound at CBGB, as well as playing guitar in Bloodclot and later on with Irate (NYC). He produced records for the Bad Brains, Token Entry, Antidote, Reagan Youth, Warzone, Cro-Mags, Murphy’s Law, and a ton more. In September 1980, Williams began renovating the interior of 171 Avenue A, which had formerly been a glass shop. By November, 171A housed after-hour parties where downtown bands like the Cooties performed. Kids used the space for everything: they put on shows, recorded bands, screened movies. Williams successfully pulled off gigs at 171A every Friday and Saturday night for a few weeks until a rival club tipped the New York Fire Department that it was selling liquor without a license. The NYFD closed it down before a New Year’s party, so it was converted to a rehearsal space. They charged $6 to $8 per hour for bands to rehearse and had a gigantic PA system.

Dave Parsons

A year later, Jerry’s friend Dave Parsons opened his Rat Cage Records store in 171A’s cellar. There he started the label Rat Cage Records, and put out these awesome records by Beastie Boys (Polly Wog Stew EP), Agnostic Front (Victim In Pain LP) and The Young And The Useless (Real Men Don’t Floss 7″).
Rat Cage was actually the first advertiser in The Big Takeover, way back in issue #8 from December 1981. Their ad described some of their services: “T-Shirts, import records, sold & traded clothes, fanzines, badges and local shit.”

– 171A is the place where I wrote and recorded the first Cro-Mags songs. Don’t get me wrong, Harley and John wrote many great lyrics to songs but the brutal truth is that I am the Cro-Mags’ founding member. I know who wrote what, what happened and when it happened, who did or didn’t do this and that!* (* Yes, it was irony.)
– 171A is the place where the Bad Brains recorded one of the most influential hardcore releases of all time, the legendary ROIR cassette. The Bad Brains played a gig at 171A in May 1981, Jerry Williams recorded it on reel-to-reel tape. The band really liked the sound and returned to 171A, the Bad Brains spent the rest of 1981 in the East Village, recording with Jerry. 12 of the 15 tracks on the album came from these sessions, while “Jah Calling”, “Pay to Cum” and “I Luv I Jah”, were from Williams’ live recording in May.

– 171A is the place where Jerry Williams screened music documentaries (“Shellshock Rock” / “Self Conscious Over You” documentary movies about the evolution of the punk scene in Belfast) in the evenings, and between the two flicks the Stimulators performed. Harley Flanagan was 14 old at the time, he was playing drums for the Stimulators.
– 171A is the place where Harley Flanagan used to practice when he was trying to get the Cro-Mags together. He jammed there with the Bad Brains, who lived there at the time. When Harley was putting together the Cro-Mags, with the original lineup was him on bass, ex-Mad drummer Dave Hann, and a pre-Even Worse Dave Stein on guitar, and Louie Rivera (Antidote) was singing with them until Eric Casanova stepped into the picture.
– 171A is the place where Circle Jerks, Angry Samoans, The Subhumans all jammed and recorded.
– 171A is the place where Beastie Boys played their first gig, they opened up for the Bad Brains.
– There was an infamous night when DOA were playing at A7 and then they went over to 171A and did their set and then they went back over to A7 and did another set and the crowd just followed them back and forth.
– 171A is the place where Williams formed a band comprised of Bad Brains roadies who called themselves Bloodclot. They did perform many live gigs opening for the Bad Brains. Although Bloodclot never released an album, they only recorded a demo at 171A.
– 171A is the place where the Beastie Boys recorded the “Polly Wog Stew” EP with producer Scott Jarvis. Utilizing a four-track and an Echo-plex, they were kicked out of the studio after two days so they mixed it in Jarvis’s apartment.

Tompkins Square Park, Ray’s Candy Store / A hardcore-fanatic’s guide – Part III.

Pics by Robin Graubard, KT Tobin, Peter LeVasseur, Ray’s Candy Store.

If there wasn’t a show, every hardcore/punk/skinhead kid would hang out at the park on Avenue A at Tompkins Square Park or drink egg creams at Ray’s Candy Store. Surprisingly, there are no eggs or cream in this fountain drink favourite. It’s actually made with chocolate syrup, milk, and club soda. The key to the perfect egg cream is the ratio of syrup to milk. Ray’s Candy Store is a deli located at 113 Avenue A. Ray Alvarez has operated Ray’s Candy Store since 1974, he truly loves serving his customers and making them happy with delicious food as he has done for over 40 years. This tiny little place sells everything except candy. You will find hot dogs, ice cream, sugar-coated beignets, chicken fingers, fries, milk shakes, fried bananas and fried oreos. (Yes, fried oreos!) Hand written signs are everywhere, photos, newspapers cover the walls, colorful and cluttered.

  

Ray was born on January 1 (his birth name was Asghar Ghahraman), 1933 in Iran and moved to New York in 1964, where he worked for another decade as a dishwasher in New York until he purchased the candy store for 30.000 in 1974. In his first hours in Manhattan, after acquiring a coat, he stumbled upon a YMCA that offered room and board for homeless people. When he worked as a waiter at New Jersey’s Short Hills Country Club, he made good with the manager, who took Alvarez with him to many other well-paying jobs. On the notorious night of August 6, 1988, while the police battled protesters in what came to be known as the Tompkins Square Park Riot, Ray’s Candy Store remained open, per Ray, “because all the combatants were my customers.” The police and East Village residents clashed after Parks began enforcing the park’s closing hours, in effect barring homeless from camping in the park.

– Tompkins Square Park is the place where I ate my first fried oreo, and it was amazing.
– Tompkins Square Park is the place where Agnostic Front, the Beastie Boys, Death Before Dishonor, Antidote, Murphy’s Law, the Psychos, the Abused, Cause For Alarm, the Undead, Heart Attack and a few other bands were always hanging out between shows in the early 80s. The dangerous East Village of the early 80s bore little resemblance to today’s tourist zone, it was the center of the lower New York drug scene. Tompkins Square Park served as home turf to vicious Puerto Rican street gangs. There were so many drugs, there were rapes in the park and the cops didn’t want to deal with it. There were some really tough guys there, and there were fights all the time.

– Tompkins Square Park is the place where Alex Kinon (Agnostic Front, Skinhead Youth, Cause For Alarm) was shot, and Vinnie Stigma responded by rushing toward the gunfire, armed with only an improvised shield in the form of a garbage-can lid.
– Tompkins Square Park is the place where Breakdown, Supertouch, Reagen Youth, Absolution played their legendary sets on the old bandshell six days after the riot.

– Tompkins Square Park is the place where Irate (Tommy Carroll – Straight Ahead), Sergio Vega- Collapse/Quicksand, Jerry Williams – 171A, Eric “EK” Komst – Warzone) played this post-riot show in 1988 and they killed it. Irate only played two shows and never had the chance to properly develop their songs.

– Tompkins Square Park is the place where Hare Krishnas started a food program and did a music festival called “Rock Against Maya” in 1982. Cause For Alarm, Murphy’s Law, Frontline, Antidote, The Mob, Kraut, Reagan Youth, Mode of Ignorance were on the bill.
– The park underwent a large renovation in the 1990s and the bandshell was removed, so I didn’t get a chance to take a photo about the infamous stage.
– Tompkins Square Park is the place where Black N’ Blue Productions in association with The New York Hardcore Chronicles did the Dr. Know benefit show in 2016 and organized the Raybeez tribute gig in 2017.
– Tompkins Square Park is across the street, a little ways down from the Pyramid club. At one of the Pyramid gigs Raybeez wanted to take some photos with all the kids at the show in Tompkins Square Park so there were maybe 40 or 50 kids crossing Avenue A to the park, blocking traffic and the cops showed up and told them to go back into the club.

(This article was originally released in Chiller Than Most fanzine, issue 5.)

Agnostic Front at A7

A7 / A hardcore-fanatic’s guide – Part II.

Pics by Jessica Bard, The New York Hardcore Chronicles, Phil In Phlash.

Before A7 was A7, it was a social club for old Polish people. This tiny space opened on the south east corner of Avenue A and East Seventh Street in 1980, it was a heavy Puerto Rican neighborhood and those guys were heavily territorial. The after-hours club became a ground zero between 1981 and 1984 for the burgeoning hardcore scene, when Dave Gibson (owner of A7) started to organize hardcore bands. The club operated without a liquor license and was often raided by police.

Bands played from 1 am to sunrise for an underaged crowd, and the club was staffed by members of the NYHC scene, on a good night, Raybeez was doorman, Doug Holland bartened, and Jimmy Gestapo deejayed. Sometimes 8 or 10 bands played for 3 bucks, and there was a sheet of paper tacked on the wall with the names of all the bands playing that night. There was a couch in there and the room couldn’t have held more than 30 kids, many just listened on the sidewalk outside next to the building wall. There was already a reggae scene going on at A7 at the time, and jazz bands played there too. The space is now the back room of a bar called Niagra, part-owned by scene veteran Jesse Malin (Heart Attack). As you go into Niagara’s backroom you notice on the wall a plaque that reads: “A7 1980-1984, pioneers of American hardcore and the birthplace of NYHC”.

– A7 is the place where The Abused played their first gig, and Kevin Crowley (singer of The Abused) used to give haircuts to people in the bathroom.
– A7 is the place where hardcore kids were getting into a lot of fights bruising their hands up too much, so they started to wearing construction gloves to protect their hands.
– A7 is the place where Gilligan’s Revenge (pre-Token Entry) played their first show with Kraut on November 12th, 1982. Johnny Steigerwald was the oldest member in the band, he was 16 at that time.
– A7 is the place where SS Decontrol showed up with ski masks.
– A7 is the place where The Young And The Useless played horrible hardcore covers like “Grease” and “Billy, don’t be a hero”.

– A7 is the place where the bathroom had no lock on the door so you had to pee expecting some unwanted visitors. If you had to take a dump, you’d better not had been shy.
– A7 is the place where a spray-painted message was written right over the side door, “Out of town bands remember where you are!”.
– A7 is the place where one of the best footage ever created in the history of hardcore. The video starts out with two songs by the Psycho’s, features Roger Miret on bass and Jimmy Gestapo of Murphy’s Law on vocals for the first song. Both songs are Void covers (“Who Are You” and “Time to Die” is the second track). After that, Jimmy Gestapo introduces the band and after a few minutes of tuning up, Agnostic Front do the song “United Blood”. Dave Jones of Mental Abuse on drums, Todd Youth on bass, Stigma on guitar, Roger vocals.

– A7 is the place where Future Confusion (pre-Death Before Dishonor) gave their first show in 1981.
– A7 is the place where Roger Miret played with three different bands (Rat Poison Band(pre-Warzone), The Psychos, Agnostic Front) on the same night in November 12th, 1983.

(This article was originally released in Chiller Than Most fanzine, issue 5.)

The High And The Mighty at A7, 1983

“Tony T-shirt” singer of Ultraviolence moshing at the A7, SS Decontrol on stage.

The Psychos at A7, 1983.

Agnostic Front at A7.

A hardcore-fanatic’s guide – Part I.

Intro – Things to check out in NYC, a hardcore-fanatic’s guide

A few years ago, one member of Death Before Dishonor asked: “Why are all the people posting about A7 club even most of you never been there before what’s going on here?”. To be honest, I thought a lot about this and I’m afraid the question missed the point. I truly believe that hardcore is still alive and well, but keeping the tradition is really important. Hardcore has a lot of history and I think it is relevant for the kids to know about the bands that came before them and influenced their current scenes. I really enjoyed the NYHC Chronicles documentary, it was fun to read the “New York Hardcore 1980-1990” book and “My Riot: Agnostic Front, Grit, Guts & Glory” book, despite I was never part of the early hardcore scene. I want to believe that these guys are happy that the new generations show interest in music from previous generations.

Everyone’s background in hardcore is relative. For me, I missed out on the first wave of New York hardcore and I missed the second wave too, I never went to A7 or some of the earlier clubs, I never saw the Psychos, Gilligan’s Revenge or Outburst live. I don’t have memories about these infamous places and legendary bands, for two simple reasons. Firstly, I’m in my thirties. Secondly, I was born in Europe and I’ve been living here since my birth. Regardless of these things, I feel a mystical connection and attraction to these places. Last year (2016) I got the chance to spend some days in New York City and make one of my bucket dreams come true, so needless to say, I visited and explored these legendary locations… (Chiller Than Most fanzine, issue 5.)