AMERICAN NIGHTMARE will be performing at Endless Fires Fest the weekend of August 15 & 16 in support of Three 6 Mafia and GWAR. Ticket info can be found HERE!
Chris Wrenn returns to the New York Hardcore Chronicles with Drew Stone this Sunday 2/22
What do AMERICAN NIGHTMARE, TERROR, HAVE HEART, SICK OF IT ALL, DEFEATER, AGNOSTIC FRONT, DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR, H2O, and dozens of other bands have in common?
Find out this Sunday! Originally featured on episode #67, Chris Wrenn is headed back for episode #417 to chat with Drew Stone on his New York Hardcore Chronicles show to talk about the release of his book Fenway Punk, and how his sale of rivalry-fueling swag after Red Sox games helped fund an entire generation of hardcore punk bands.
Tune in at 3 PM on Sunday, February 22nd HERE.
FENWAY PUNK Release Party @ B9 (recap)
Chris Wrenn of B9 (left), Jared Carrabis of Section 10 Podcast (right). Photo by Michael Emond.
Fenway Punk is out NOW! You can grab it here: Beverly, MA / USA / Canada / Europe
Friday, February 13th, was the kickoff party at Bridge Nine for the release of Fenway Punk, the new book by Bridge Nine founder Chris Wrenn. It’s the true story of how Red Sox fans and the long-standing rivalry with the New York Yankees helped fund the Bridge Nine record label in the early 2000s. Chris was joined by Jared Carrabis of the Section 10 Podcast, and the two longtime collaborators chatted about the intersection of Boston punk and sports, the birth of the Sully’s brand, and how the money earned from peddling “Yankees Suck” merch on the sidewalk outside of Fenway Park over twenty-five years ago helped Chris to document an entire generation of hardcore punk bands and send them on tour all over the world.
We’ll be adding more photos and video to this post, so check back!
T-Shirt Tuesday: Bridge Nine x Linas Garsys (2002)
This week’s T-shirt debuted in 2002 and was illustrated by artist Linas Garsys. Linas worked closely with Bridge Nine in the early 2000s, illustrating logos and album covers for bands like COPS AND ROBBERS (2001), THE HOPE CONSPIRACY (2001), STRIKING DISTANCE (2002), DEATH THREAT / OVER MY DEAD BODY (2002), and most notably, AMERICAN NIGHTMARE, through their iconic angel (2001).
This T-shirt was first printed in 2002, and the art was remixed and reprinted in 2013 and 2023. Check it out in the archive HERE!
Did you have this T-shirt back then? We’d love to see it! Send pics to archive@bridge9.com
FENWAY PUNK Book Release Party POSTPONED: Now on Fri. Feb 13th 7pm
THIS EVENT WAS POSTPONED DUE TO SNOW / CITY-WIDE PARKING BAN. IT’S NOW ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13th at 7 PM!
The release of the book FENWAY PUNK: How a Boston Indie Label Scored Big on Baseball’s Greatest Rivalry by Chris Wrenn is officially on Tuesday, February 10th, and we’ll be celebrating it at Bridge Nine Records on Friday, February 13th!
Come celebrate the release of the book, hear stories from the early days of the Bridge Nine label, and learn about how Boston Red Sox fans unknowingly helped bankroll the release of dozens of hardcore punk albums, from bands like AMERICAN NIGHTMARE, TERROR, DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR, HAVE HEART, and many more. We will also have an early-aughts Red Sox / Yankees rivalry exhibit to check out!
Moderated by Jared Carrabis and being recorded with a live audience for his Section 10 Podcast.
Starts at 7 pm at Bridge Nine Records in Beverly, Massachusetts on Friday, February 13th. Info and RSVP HERE!
**Postponed to 2/13** FENWAY PUNK Book Release Party at Bridge Nine
***UPDATE: This event was postponed to Friday, February 13th, because of snow***
The release of the book FENWAY PUNK: How a Boston Indie Label Scored Big on Baseball’s Greatest Rivalry by Chris Wrenn is officially on Tuesday, February 10th, but we’ll have it in person at Bridge Nine Records three days earlier on Saturday, February 7th!
Come celebrate the release of the book, hear stories from the early days of the Bridge Nine label, and learn about how Boston Red Sox fans unknowingly helped bankroll the release of dozens of hardcore punk albums, from bands like AMERICAN NIGHTMARE, TERROR, DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR, HAVE HEART, and many more.
Moderated by Jared Carrabis of the Section 10 Podcast.
Starts at 7 pm at Bridge Nine Records in Beverly, Massachusetts on Saturday, February 7th. Info and RSVP HERE!
Fenway Punk (the book) coming next month, release party at B9 on February 7th!
Fenway Punk, the headline (October 2003), and Fenway Punk, the book that it inspired. In stores on February 10th!
Fenway Punk, the new book by B9’s Chris Wrenn, tells the story of how Boston’s hardcore punks profited off the rivalry between the Red Sox and the New York Yankees in the seasons leading up to the 2004 World Series. This early-aughts tale of how Red Sox fans unknowingly bankrolled the Bridge Nine record label, and dozens of albums from bands like American Nightmare, Terror, Have Heart, Death Before Dishonor, and so many more from the sale of Yankees Suck swag, will finally be in stores on Tuesday, February 10th. If you pre-ordered it, thank you! If you haven’t yet, there’s still time to grab it HERE.
The publisher, Running Press, is sending a free throwback sticker - the kind we used to sell in the streets outside of Fenway Park over 25 years ago - to anyone who uploads their receipt. It doesn’t matter where or when you ordered, just upload the info, and they’ll hook it up! Details for that are HERE!
To celebrate the release, we’ll be hosting an event at the Bridge Nine warehouse on Saturday, February 7th at 7 pm, hosted by our pal Jared Carrabis from the Section 10 podcast. Come on out and help us launch it in style! RSVP HERE!
The Mission Hill Yankees Suck crew, circa 2000, on the bridge to Fenway Park
T-Shirt Tuesday: American Nightmare's first Bridge Nine Tee (2000)
This week, we’ve dug out AMERICAN NIGHTMARE’s first Bridge Nine-made T-shirt. Printed in 2000 and designed by Jacob Bannon (Converge, Deathwish Inc.), this T-shirt was an expensive one for the label to print at the time, as it featured four colors of screen-printed ink on the front. Check out more about this T-shirt (and let us know if you had one back then!) by clicking HERE!
Bridge Nine in 2025: A Recap
2025 has been another whirlwind year for myself and Bridge Nine. It marked thirty years of the label, having started back in 1995, and over 300+ releases. It wasn’t the busiest year for us in terms of new music, but we managed to get a few things out that I’m super proud of, and host a bunch of cool events at the Bridge Nine store in Beverly, Massachusetts.
The first release of the year was a very special 25+ years anniversary re-issue of Faster Than The World by H2O. This had been on deck for a while, and we were able to expand it into a double LP featuring the album on vinyl for the first time since it’s original first pressing by Epitaph Records in 1999, as well as a bonus 17-song LP featuring demo tracks of the album, produced by Tim Armstrong (Rancid). Special Thanks to Gernot Nentwig for helping us secure a lost copy of the tape from that session! We’ve got two versions of the 2xLP available right now, grab those HERE!
I followed that up with the most important addition of the year. I became a dad for the second time! My wife Katherine, daughter Georgia, and I welcomed our daughter Eleanor Mae Wrenn on March 21st. She is now nine months old, happy, healthy, and hilarious. I get a lot of joy in making physical things, and made a lot of stuff this year, but Ella was my favorite.
A week later, we helped Iodine Recordings re-issue Fastbreak’s Fast Cars, Fast Women LP. I even wrote the liner notes for this album! Fastbreak were friends and peers of mine from the Connecticut scene in the mid-90s and helping get this record, which had been originally released by Big Wheel Recreation (a label that I would later work at briefly in the early 2000s) was a thrill and long overdue. Grab a copy of the B9-exclusive variant HERE!
On May 10th, I helped my daughter Georgia open a store in Salem, Massachusetts! If you’re familiar with her brand, she’s been illustrating cute skulls, ghosts, vampire bats, and more since she was six years old. Those drawings became the foundation of a brand called Georgia Made This which was a staple during the Haunted Happenings vendor markets during October every year. This year, that brand found a brick-and-mortar store of its own just two doors down from the coffee shop where Georgia drew the skull that now adorns her sign. Visiting Salem? Georgia’s shop is a block from Old Town Hall downtown, and less than ten minutes from the Bridge Nine store! Check out her website HERE!
May also saw our heaviest release of the year by Death Before Dishonor and their album Nowhere Bound. Recorded by Zeuss and it sent them on tour through 24 countries in 2025. Some of the hardest working guys in the scene and Bridge Nine is proud to have been their label since 2004.
In May we also received two of my favorite Have Heart pressings, for both The Things We Carry and Songs To Scream at the Sun. They were pressed with color-coordinating cornetto-pattern vinyl, replicating the sunburst in the artwork of TTWC. We still have some copies left of that one so grab one while you can HERE!
In June we invited artist Chris Robots Will Kill to the B9 warehouse for special pop-up gallery exhibit of his iconic Robots Will Kill paintings and illustrations. We featured 21 pieces of art and two collab T-shirts that we made, each limited to a one-time printing of 75 per design. We only have a few pieces of original art left from the collection (check those HERE) and we have some of the T-shirts left, grab those HERE!
In July, I announced the forthcoming release of my new book, Fenway Punk: How a Boston Indie Label Scored Big on Baseball’s Greatest Rivalry. It is finally arriving in stores on February 10th, courtesy of Running Press Adult/Hachette Book Group. It’s the true story of how the Yankees Suck hustle by myself and friends from the Boston hardcore scene helped fuel both the rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox, but also a generation of bands, with all of the money I made slinging stickers and T-shirts outside of Fenway Park after games in the early aughts. If you haven’t yet, please consider pre-ordering the book HERE!
In September, we added to our growing list of legendary gigs in the B9 warehouse by inviting Ten Yard Fight to perform an intimate set. Almost thirty years to the date from their first show, TYF tore through a set of songs for the first time in the Greater-Boston area in over twenty-five years. It was a warm-up gig for them before they headed to Alabama to be a part of this year’s Furnace Fest. Photo courtesy of Todd Pollock!
One of the greatest joys of doing a label like Bridge Nine is having the opportunity to work with artists I love and respect, and, in a few cases, even those from the days before the label started. Getting a call from Roger Miret of Agnostic Front to see if I’d like to release a new single for them is an honor I am humbled to receive. To help set up their latest album, Echoes In Eternity, on Reigning Phoenix Music, Bridge Nine did a limited-to-1000 copy 7-inch featuring the songs “Way of War” and “Matter of Life & Death,” which also featured guest vocals by Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of Run DMC fame. For a label guy who came up exploring music in the 80s and 90s, this is bucket-list level stuff. There are only a few copies of this left on brown vinyl, grab one HERE while you can!
In September, we started a pre-order for a new pressing of American Nightmare’s Year One LP. In collaboration with Wes Eisold’s label Heartworm, Year One is a compilation of their first two 7 inch records on Bridge Nine, originally released in 2000 and 2001, and is the release that is most responsible for putting Bridge Nine on the map twenty-five years ago. The artwork for this release was reimagined by Del Jae, who I first met in 2001 on American Nightmare’s first UK tour when Del’s band Sworn In opened. Grab a very special red/white/blue striped vinyl LP HERE!
To help close the year out, we curated an exhibition for our favorite local live-music photogapher, Todd Pollock. Titled “Thirty Years,” we hung prints for every year both Todd and I have been documenting bands, from 1995 through this year. It was our first full gallery exhibit and it was up for just under two weeks, and will be the template for future events here in the B9 warehouse. You can check out the exhibition online, HERE!
Through all of this, we worked hard with the smallest staff that we’ve had since the Mission Hill days. Special thanks to Larry Kelley, without whom our events wouldn’t be possible, the B9 crew (Katherine, Bobby, Colby), and all of our friends, family, and loyal supporters who help make what we do possible. Happy New Year, and look out for what we have going on in 2026!
Todd Pollock x Bridge Nine "Thirty Years" Photography Exhibition (now online!)
In 1995, teenage photographer Todd Pollock and Bridge Nine label owner Chris Wrenn both began documenting their favorite bands. Todd, with his camera, became a fixture on the side of the stage at every show, and Chris sold records he had released for the bands performing.
Thirty years later, they are both still at it.
This exhibition features three decades Todd’s live performance photography, featuring Bridge Nine Records-affiliated artists. A physical gallery was open from 11/28/2025-12/07/2025 at Bridge Nine Records in Beverly, Massachusetts, the collection is now available to view online below!
Todd Pollock and Chris Wrenn at the opening reception for the Thirty Years photography exhibition.
“People will notice that while this exhibition documents three decades of live hardcore shows, if the photos were not labeled, it might be hard to tell what year any of them were taken. There’s some slight details that might give it away, like how fitting the T-shirts are, or if there’s a cell phone in someone’s hands, but the energy and passion remain at the same level throughout.” - Chris Wrenn
Some fun details to note:
• The first person seen using a cell phone to record the action pops up in 2015.
• Jeff “The Wizard” Freeman of Wizard Security is in the 1999 photo, and again, twenty-three years later, in the 2022 photo, looking remarkably the same.
• The venues vary from established clubs (The Middle East, 924 Gilman, Worcester Palladium) to church halls, VFW and legion halls, and DIY spaces.
Special thanks to Larry Kelley for helping build out the Bridge Nine gallery space!
Gorilla Biscuits & American Nightmare dates, this December (VA/NJ)
AMERICAN NIGHTMARE is playing some shows with Gorilla Biscuits in December! Tickets go on sale Friday!
American Nightmare 'Year One' 25 Year Reissue
Available again for the first time in decades. Originally released in 2001, the Boston hardcore band’s 25th anniversary release of "Year One" pays tribute to their formative years. This collection unites their first two 7-inch releases, originally issued by Bridge Nine Records founder and then-roommate Chris Wrenn, on a 180-gram LP, with all tracks recorded by Kurt Ballou at God City. Originally designed by Jake Bannon (Converge), this edition has been reimagined by Del Jae (Futurismo Records) and Wesley Eisold, and comes packaged in a gatefold with an insert of handwritten lyrics and collaged images.
"Year One" doesn’t just celebrate a milestone; it reaffirms American Nightmare’s enduring legacy. Their music raised the bar for emotional depth in hardcore, adding a distinctly poetic and existential lyrical approach that set them apart and changed the rules of the scene, paving the way for countless bands that followed. The result was something harder, darker, and more emotionally resonant than anything the scene had yet produced. They pushed hardcore into uncharted territory, borrowing influences from youth crew, street punk, and even the aesthetics of the late-’90s mod revival and Britpop subcultures. The fusion created a new blueprint—fast, traditional hardcore delivered with dire, venomous lyrics that demanded a visceral crowd response. Their impact was immediate, and their influence continues to reverberate. Twenty-five years later, the venom still cuts as deep.
Pre-order this re-issue HERE! In stores December 5th.
23 Years ago this weekend... The Bridge Nine / Deathwish Fest (2002)
In the summer of 2002, a year before Bridge Nine and Deathwish moved into an office together in Salem, Massachusetts, both labels held a collaborative two-day festival at The Hideaway in Cambridge, Mass with a mix of our respective bands.
Check out that lineup! Headlined by Converge on night one and American Nightmare on night two, the B9 roster was represented by Death Threat, Panic, Striking Distance, Some Kind of Hate, Champion, and Sworn In. Check out some photos from the weekend:
AMERICAN NIGHTMARE photos by Valentina Ravaglia:
SWORN IN photos by Todd Pollock:
PANIC photos by Valentina Ravaglia:
STRIKING DISTANCE photos by Valentina Ravaglia:
Pre-order FENWAY PUNK, the new book by B9 founder Chris Wrenn
In Stores February 10th, 2026. Pre-order the new book, Fenway Punk, HERE!
An audacious and inspiring debut social history that explores how entrepreneurial members of the tight-knit hardcore punk scene within the vibrant heart of Boston cashed in on one baseball’s greatest rivalries.
For eighty-six years Boston Red Sox baseball fans lived in the shadow of their rivals, the New York Yankees, who more or less dominated the sport each season. Red Sox fans grew dejected as their team often got close, but ultimately would be eliminated from contention each year as New York went on to win yet another World Series championship.
Author Chris Wrenn, a member of the Boston hardcore punk scene, had a dream of his own—to start his own record label. Embracing the do-it-yourself ethos of the scene, Chris set out to make it happen, networking and forging relationships with local bands. But such an endeavor required money he didn’t have . . . until he and his friends heard a familiar phrase echo out of Fenway Park, the home field of the Red Sox. The phrase “Yankees Suck!” was chanted at every single Red Sox game. Possessing the wherewithal to produce inexpensive merchandise and the free time to stake a claim to the sidewalks outside the baseball stadium, Chris and his crew of punks began a lucrative endeavor of selling “Yankees Suck” merchandise such as stickers and T-shirts to the fans. While navigating cops, competitors, a violent gang, and in-fighting within the crew, Wrenn and his friends turned Boston’s rivalry into “six-figure summers,” affording him the capital to launch Bridge Nine Records and bring local Boston hardcore bands including American Nightmare and Have Heart to stages worldwide just as the Red Sox got closer than ever to finally winning the World Series again.
A rousing story of entrepreneurship and ingenuity that also reveals fresh insight into one of the most epic rivalries in sports history, Fenway Punk is a gripping read for both fans of punk music and readers of Ben Mezrich, Lizzy Goodman, and Chuck Klosterman.
About the Author
Since his salad days as a teenage skateboarder, Chris Wrenn has focused on two tasks: releasing albums for his favorite bands and finding unusual ways to pay for it. The indie record label that he started three decades ago in his college dorm room, Bridge Nine, has gained an international following by releasing over three hundred recordings from some of the most impactful bands in the punk music underground. At the same time, Sully’s, the Beantown-centric brand that Chris founded with an initial goal: to earn the money needed to fund the record label, went from profiting on bitter sports rivalries to celebrating all things Boston. The slogan he coined in the spring of 2004, “Believe In Boston,” has become a rallying cry that is still embraced by all of the city’s professional sports teams twenty years later. Chris and his wife Katherine live just north of Boston in Beverly, Massachusetts. Together, they are raising a toddler and a teenager while also managing the day-to-day responsibilities of both brands. You can learn more about what Chris is up to next at http://www.ChrisWrenn.com.
Death Before Dishonor performing a special "Friends Family Forever" 20th Anniversary set at Revolution Calling (NL)
The Revolution Calling Festival will be here before you know it... Terror, Death Before Dishonor, Slapshot, No Turning Back, and American Nightmare will be playing that weekend, with DBD playing an exclusive 'Friends Family Forever' 20th anniversary set. Tickets are sure to run out, so be sure to grab yours before they're gone! Grab them HERE!