Congratulations are in order for Joe Hardcore and the This Is Hardcore team on another successful festival. This Is Hardcore Fest takes place in Philadelphia each year and kicked off on Thursday, July 7th with a headlining set from H2O. The days that followed included sets by Section H8, End It, Hatebreed, Madball, Comeback Kid, Terror and culminated on Sunday evening with Thursday performing Full Collapse in its entirety (pictured above, photo by Wass Photography). We wish we could have been there, especially since it was the first fest since 2019, but we are all hands on deck working to finish the Bridge Nine space here in Beverly, MA. We hope to see everyone at This Is Hardcore Fest next year!
Striking Distance Announce Two Shows in July
Striking Distance have announced that they will play two shows this July! First up, they’ll be playing on Friday, July 22nd in Baltimore, MD as part of the record release show for End It, a fantastic hardcore band and one of my recent favorites. Then, they’ll be playing Saturday, July 23rd in Richmond Virginia with fellow heavy hitters BURN, Crown of Thornz, Naysayer and End It. These will be incredible shows so check them out if you can.
Chris Wrenn feat. on One Step Beyond Podcast's 100th Episode hosted by Aram Arslanian (Champion, Betrayed)
Aram Arslanian (Champion, Betrayed), in addition to serving as President & CEO of his leadership coaching company Cadence Leadership, also hosts an awesome podcast called One Step Beyond. The podcast is a weekly business and education series focusing on transformation through leadership. Aram hosts and interviews people who are creating change in business and in their community, many of whom are either directly related to the punk/hardcore community or a few degrees of separation away, like artist Linas Garsys, Jordan Cooper (Revelation Records), Kurt Ballou (Converge, God City Studios), Joe Nelson (Trust Records), Armand Majidi (Sick Of It All), Karl Hensel (Kings Road Merch) and Sunny Singh (Hate5Six) to name a few.
The One Step Beyond podcast celebrated its 100th episode on June 29, 2022, with a special episode called “Ask Aram”. This episode featured past podcast guests, including Bridge Nine label founder, Chris Wrenn, asking Aram all types of questions. Click above to check it out on YouTube or listen on Apple podcasts or Spotify. To listen to the original podcast episode with Chris, click here. And congratulations, Aram!
20 Years Ago Today...
The Boston Globe, cover of the Living Arts section, June 28th, 2002. Article by Steve Morse.
20 years ago today the Boston Globe wrote about a music collective called “Initech.” Located a block from Fenway Park in the basement below a Domino's PIzza and a Red Sox souvenir store, it was the mastermind of @ramathomasdavidmayo of @BigWheelRec, an opportunity for he and @aaronbturner (@hydrahead) & Mark Thompson (HH & Tortuga Recordings) to move their labels out of apartments and share resources in one office. I moved in as a Big Wheel employee and when @BridgeNine got too busy in 2001, started paying rent for my own corner for B9 and what would become @SullysBrand. After Rama moved to L.A, @xmattpikex & @mattgalle moved the Kenmore booking agency in. @BryanSheffield was also there working for Doghouse Records when he wasn't taking incredible photos & @JenMalone666's music PR company was upstairs. At the time, I was the least "experienced" person in the mix and had the most to gain by being surrounded by so many inspiring people. It was work, but in that environment you couldn't help but be motivated to grow and get better. Two decades later, everyone from this Class of 2002 seems to be thriving and continuing to inspire, here's to 20 more!
Photo from the shoot for The Boston Globe
This dilapidated door might not look like much, but it opened to an entire world.
Chris Wrenn in the shipping area of the old Initech office, circa 2002. Photo by Casey Davis.
Bridge Nine desk in the Initech office, circa 2002.
Starting to look like a record store in here...
The Bridge Nine side of our new store at 282 Rantoul Street in Beverly, Massachusetts is starting to look like a record store, in great part due to the master craftsmanship of carpenter Larry Kelley. Chris just added a 2nd coat of primer paint on all of the custom-built record bins, looking forward to seeing these all filled with records, soon! Details about our grand opening will be coming soon, too!
War On Women Summer 2022 European Tour Dates
War On Women is headed to Europe this summer, check out all of the tour dates HERE!
This Is Boston (Hardcore) Playlist for Trust Records
B9’s Chris Wrenn was tasked by our friends at Trust Records to curate a Spotify playlist of Boston Hardcore classics as part of the rollout of their announcement that Trust would be finally re-releasing SS Decontrol’s classic first two LP’s. Give it a listen HERE!
Al Barile (SSD, Gage) & Pat Flynn (Have Heart, Fiddlehead) Talk 40+ Years of Boston Hardcore at The B9HQ
Al Barile / Pat Flynn / Anthony Moreschi / Chris Wrenn
Bridge Nine was happy to host our friends Pat Flynn (Have Heart, Fiddlehead) and Al Barile (SSD, Gage) at our new HQ for a conversation that Trust Records organized, in support of their announcement of SSD finally re-issuing their first two albums via Trust. We had 40+ years of Boston hardcore in the room, and it was filmed by none other than Anthony “Wrench” Moreschi!
Pat Flynn (Have Heart, Fiddlehead) and Al Barile (SSD, Gage) at the B9HQ Warehouse
The Story Behind the Frank Turner ‘Beverly’ Record
Frank Turner and Chris Wrenn (with Frank’s limited “Beverly” 7 inch)
Frank Turner kicked off his ambitious 50 States in 50 Days Full U.S. tour on Monday, June 13th with a matinee in Portsmouth, NH and an evening show in Portland, ME. Chris was excited to see Frank and give him the limited edition green vinyl variant of Frank's "Beverly" 7-inch. This 7-inch features a recording Chris made via DV cam in 2009, when he played an impromptu intimate performance in the backyard of Matt Pike (Some Kind of Hate, 33 & West), who lived in Beverly, MA at the time. Many people don't know that, while he is primarily known for his folk-rock sound, Frank started out in a hardcore band called Million Dead and is still a huge hardcore/punk fan to this day. In fact, his favorite hardcore bands are Black Flag and Converge, who three members of which coincidentally joined us at Pike's house for this private show. Frank wrote of the evening in his tour blog:
"Some nights things come together in such a way as to make me pinch myself. My all-time, hands down favourite hardcore band ever is Converge. I have everything they’ve done, seen em a bunch of times (hell, I fell in love with a French girl whilst watching them at the Electric Ballroom a few years ago), and am generally utterly, hopelessly into them. So imagine my total, piss-stained shock when, in Matt’s garden, I find three members of Converge (Jake, Nate and Kurt) waiting for my impromptu show. This was serious fan-boy territory for me, but after pulling myself together, I found them to be really very nice. Evan was laughing his arse off at me constantly as I bit my lip and asked for a photo (mainly to send to Ben from Million Dead, so he’ll hate me, which totally worked). The show was improvised and entertaining – Matt’s two kids are big fans, so as well as hardcore heros, I had a bunch of two-year-olds dancing for me while I played Photosynthesis, their favourite song. Like I say, a surreal evening to say the least, and I went to bed feeling happy."
You can see a bit of the performance featured on Frank's tour vlog of that day, including Pike's kids (who are grown now!), and me behind them with my DV cam, by clicking here.
Left: Photo of Frank by Matt Pike in Matt’s backyard the night after the show. Right: Back of the Frank Turner ‘Beverly’ 7-inch record.
Fast forward 11 years to 2020 when Bridge Nine Records were notified that we were getting the boot from our HQ and we needed to figure out how to transition to a new space. As I packed up the Bridge Nine vault for the move and looked at old, archived recordings, I found this one and contacted Frank to see if we could press the songs on a 7" as part of our "Raid The Archive" 5-record set, and he graciously agreed. Making the record even more special, I commissioned a painting of Matt Pike's house from my dad, artist Roy Wrenn, for the record cover. It was serendipitous that the new home we found for Bridge Nine was right back in Beverly. As a huge Frank Turner fan myself, I am deeply grateful to Frank and Xtra Mile Recordings for allowing this record to become a reality.
Frank will be selling very limited amounts of the green vinyl variant of the "Beverly" 7-inch at each show throughout his tour. If you miss out, it's still available as one of the special records featured in the "Raid The Archive" mystery set (pro tip: there's a blue variant in HERE). Click here for all of Frank's tour dates and say hi if you're going to the Boston show!
Ceremony Announce August Show Dates
CEREMONY just announced some shows for August - be sure to check them out - more info and tickets available on their website here.
AUG 2 TUE @ 8:00pm - Gramps, Miami, FL
AUG 3 WED @ 7:00pm - Crowbar, Tampa, FL
AUG 4 THU @ 8:00pm - HENAO Contemporary Center, Orlando, FL
AUG 5 FRI @ 8:00pm - The Pinhook, Durham, NC
Terror Announce European Summer Tour
TERROR will be headed to Europe this summer, kicking off their tour in Germany on June 17th! To read more about dates and tickets, check out their website, https://www.sticktight.la/tour-dates, for all dates + ticket links.
17/06 - Düsseldorf, Germany @ D-Town Distortion Festival
18/06 - Oulu, Finland @ Metal Capital Festival
19/06 - Saarbrücken, Germany @ Reality Bites Festival
20/06 - Hannover, Germany @ Capitol
21/06 - Berlin, Germany @ Trinkteufel
22/06 - Rostock, Germany @ Peter-Weiss-Haus
23/06 - Kassel, Germany @ Goldgrube
24/06 - Stretford, United Kingdom @ Outbreak Festival
25/06 - Ysselsteyn, Netherlands @ Jera On Air
26/06 - Clisson, France @ Hellfest
28/06 - Segel, Switzerland @ Musikzentrum
29/06 - Lindau, Germany @ Club Vaudeville
30/06 - Schwabisch Hall, Germany @ Club Alpha
01/07 - Ieper, Belgium @ Ieperfest
02/07 - Rennes, France @ Superbowl of Hardcore
04/07 - Toulouse, France @ Connexion Live
05/07 - Martigny, Switzerland @ Sunset Bar
06/07 - Innsbruck, Austria @ Livestage
07/07 - Orfu, Hungary @ Toxic Weekend Fest
08/07 - Velke Meirici, Czech Republic @ Fajtfest
09/07 - Schleiz, Germany @ Woody’s
The Trouble Announce Two Special Shows for November
The Trouble just announced their first ever NYC show! It will take place at TV Eye on Saturday, November 19th. They’ll then play their first Boston show in 12 years at The Middle East on Sunday, November 20th! We are very much looking forward to this - get your tickets ASAP as they are sure to sell out: https://linktr.ee/thetrouble
Death Before Dishonor Announce European Tour
European friends - get ready for Death Before Dishonor's 'Unfinished Business' Tour! They'll be kicking it off on June 26th in the Netherlands. For more information on tour dates and tickets, visit DBD's Facebook page or Bands In Town page!
Cave In Films Music Video for New Song "Reckoning" at B9HQ
Last month we welcomed CAVE IN to the new Bridge Nine headquarters when they reached out looking for a warehouse to shoot a video for their new song "Reckoning". On the day of the shoot, I got to surprise singer Stephen Brodsky with a copy of his old fanzine, which he had sent me back in 1997. The fanzine featured an interview with BANE, whose bassist Peter Chilton just so happened to be the music video's creative producer/editor. This moment and the overlap that exists between artists was exactly what I love about the hardcore community! The video came out awesome and features projections from esteemed artist Thomas Hooper. Be sure to grab Cave In's new album via Relapse Records, out on May 20th, and check out the video for "Reckoning", directed by Jason Zucco, via the link below!
Above: Peter Chilton (Bane), Stephen Brodsky (Cave In) and Chris Wrenn on set at the video shoot for “Reckoning”. Right: Copies of Stephen Brodsky’s old fanzine from 1997!
CAVE IN - Reckoning (Official Music Video)
HE Creative Books On Sale This Week
HE Creative is an awesome design studio based in the UK and they have released some very cool childrens books about punk music, including One Life, One Chance in collaboration with H2O's Toby Morse. Their children's books are on sale for $13 this week, so if there's some punk rock kiddos in your life, grab these while you can!