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Flyer courtesy of Christopher Michon / Failed Imagineer
Artist Exhibit at Bridge Nine on May 4th: Mike Gallo (Agnostic Front), Lori Dawn, Christopher Michon (Failed Imagineer)
Next weekend, Bridge Nine is proud to open our warehouse gallery to three artists:
Mike Gallo
Lori Dawn
Christopher Michon (Failed Imagineer)
We’ll be hosting an artist reception on Saturday, May 4th from noon until 6pm, come by and check it out! Check out more info at the Facebook event page HERE!
Chris Wrenn, Ray Cappo & Drew Stone (Photo courtesy of Adam Tanner)
Ray Raghunath Cappo’s stop at the Bridge Nine store to promote his new book, From Punk To Monk, was an entertaining afternoon on an already hopping Record Store Day.
Chris B9 grew up a fan of all of Ray’s bands, most notably Youth Of Today and Shelter, so it was a huge honor to have Ray sit down with Drew Stone (Incendiary Device, The New York Hardcore Chronicles) for a Q&A that brought out a bunch of great stories, some that are documented in the new book, and others that you just had to be there to hear.
Ray Cappo telling stories from his book, From Punk To Monk in a conversation at the B9HQ moderated by Drew Stone (Photo by Kat Batten Wrenn)
From the book:
The heartfelt memoir of Ray Raghunath Cappo, a legendary hardcore punk musician-turned-monk—and pioneer of the straight-edge movement—told with warmth, candor, and humor.
Ray Cappo was a hardcore punk singer and pioneer of the straight-edge movement living on the Lower East Side of New York City in the ’80s, where his band Youth of Today played to packed clubs and touched thousands of people across the globe. But despite the accolades from fans, the popularity of his records, and the positivity he’d brought to the punk music scene, none of this success gave Ray joy. He felt stagnant, and he yearned for something more.
This, along with his father’s untimely death, led him to abruptly quit the band and buy a one-way ticket to India in pursuit of the answers to life’s great mysteries. Living as a monk in the sacred city of Vrindavan and traveling across the country on a series of train trips, Ray embraced the rich, spiritual culture he discovered there. As his unusual adventure unfolded, he encountered extraordinary characters, witnessed deep acts of devotion, and experienced profound moments of divine connection, leading to a radical transformation that was ego-crushing and blissful all at once.
Inspired to write music again, Ray returned to the US, where he and other monks founded Shelter, a band dedicated to spreading a message of faith, hope, and love.
Told with warmth, candor, and humor—and featuring a foreword by globally renowned musician Moby—this heartfelt memoir chronicles Ray’s emotional and spiritual journey from punk to monk and beyond.
Video courtesy of Adam Tanner
Bridge Nine had fifty copies of Ray’s book on hand, and each copy was personalized with our special B9xHC rubber stamp and signed by Ray.
From left to right: Chris Wrenn, Jaime Sciarappa (SSD / Slapshot / The Long Wait), Ray Cappo (Youth Of Today / Shelter), Larry Kelley, Lori Dawn (Women of the Pit), Drew Stone (Incendiary Device, The NYHC Chronicles), and Mark McKay (Slapshot / The Long Wait). Photo courtesy of Adam Tanner
If you’re in the greater Boston area, make sure you stop by Bridge Nine in Beverly, Massachusetts on Saturday! We are opening early at 8am and will have hundreds of RSD exclusives. As a record store we lean towards the hard and heavy, but on RSD we have a little bit of everything! We will also be joined by our friends at Iodine Recordings who will have a table at B9, so come say hi!
At 2pm, our good friend Drew Stone (Incendiary Device, The New York Hardcore Chronicles) will be moderating a Q&A with punk frontman Ray Cappo (Youth of Today, Shelter) about his new book, From Punk To Monk. Copies will be available for sale and Ray will be signing them, so come say hello and pick one up!
Saturday night we’re turning our warehouse over to our friends at MOON Booking (Music Organizers Of the Northshore) and they’re hosting a handful of bands, including Smooth Brain, 5ever, Return Address and Hyber. Looking for something to do? Come check out some new bands! Doors at 6, show at 7 pm! Tickets are available in advance online here or at the door!
Everything you need to know about our record store (directions, upcoming events, address, etc) can be found HERE!
Flyer by @dxvidesigns
HEAVYHEX will be celebrating their debut album “True To You” with two record release shows this May:
HEAVYHEX Record Release Show (Long Island)
with Spite House, Dead Last, Last Laugh, High Reach
Saturday, May 25th
Doors: 6 pm / Show: 7pm
Massapequa VFW
Massapequa, NY
Tickets Available Here
HEAVYHEX Record Release Show (Beverly, MA)
with Spite House, The Promised End
Sunday, May 26th
Doors: 6 pm / Show: 7pm
Bridge Nine Records Warehouse
Beverly, MA (about 35 min north of Boston. Easily accessible by public transportation MBTA)
Tickets Available Here
If you haven’t already, make sure to pre-order “True To You”, out everywhere May 3rd!
We are excited to announce that Ray Cappo (Shelter, Youth of Today) will be visiting Bridge Nine (282 Rantoul Street, Beverly, MA, 01915) on Saturday, April 20th to promote his new memoir, From Punk To Monk. Books will be available for sale and we will be hosting a Q&A moderated by Drew Stone (Incendiary Device, Antidote, The New York Hardcore Chronicles) from 2-4 PM, so get there early!
Note: This is Ray’s Boston-area appearance and it is also Record Store Day, so make sure it’s on your calendar!
Bridge Nine is proud to host a Vegan Mini Market on March 23rd! Stop by between 11am and 3pm to try a variety of snacks, baked goods, food & apothecary goods from a dozen different vendors in the large warehouse behind our store at 282 Rantoul Street. For more info, go HERE!
H2O live at B9, September 9th, 2023 (Photo by Dominic DiNardo)
Bridge Nine celebrated our first year open as a brick-and-mortar store on Saturday, September 9th! To help acknowledge the milestone, we invited one of our favorite bands, H2O, to perform in one of the most intimate settings that they’ve played in years.
Chris Wrenn hand numbering the show posters. Still some left! Grab one HERE! (Photo by Dave Boccio)
Chris from Bridge Nine has been a fan of H2O since before he started the label. He even gave his college girlfriend a mixtape of H2O songs in 1996 of their demo and 7 inch! Having the opportunity to start working with the band back in 2007, and releasing the Nothing To Prove album, has been a highlight of the label.
Chris Wrenn singing along on stage to H2O, back in the 1990s (Photo by Meg Price)
To get the show started, Incendiary Device from NYC performed. The band features long-time B9 collaborator Drew Stone, and they have a full-length album in the works, look for it this fall on Bridge Nine!
Incendiary Device performing at B9 on Saturday, Septemner 9th, 2023 (Photo by Dave Boccio)
Over the past 15 years, H2O and Bridge Nine have teamed up on 15 different releases, from new albums, singles, and re-issues of their earlier material. For this latest East Coast tour, they made our office the Boston-area stop on tour, and performed to the most intimate of audiences.
H2O’s set list, live at B9 on 9-9-2023
Everyone here at Bridge Nine would like to thank H2O, Incendiary Device, Larry Kelley, Chris Padgett, Jimmy the sound guy, and the many people who have come out and supported our live event series and our record store! We’d like to thank Liquid Death for keeping our guests hydrated. We’d also like to thank the people who helped document the night: Bill Fulkerson, Jason Zucco, Heather McGrath, Al Quint, Todd Pollock, Aaron RTTP, Dave Boccio & Dominic DiNardo. THANK YOU for your continued support. Excited to see what we can do in year two!
Kat (left), Chris (right) and Al Quint from Suburban Voice (center)
Matt Henderson (The Eulogy, Agnostic Front, Madball, Yankees fan) being a great sport with Chris
Toby Morse crushing a can of Liquid Death (photo by Todd Pollock)
H2O photo gallery courtesy of Dominic DiNardo:
H2O, Incendiary Device, Larry Kelley & Chris Wrenn (Photo by Dominic DiNardo)
H2O photo gallery courtesy of Dave Boccio:
Incendiary Device photo gallery courtesy of Dave Boccio:
Incendiary Device photo gallery courtesy of Dominic DiNardo:
We are excited to announce that the season finale, Episode 6 of the docu-series Don’t Stand In Line is now streaming on Youtube, and you can watch it HERE!
We were profiled alongside three other entrepreneurs, Sunny at Hate5Six, Greg at Wolf Brigade, and Steve at FBM Bike Company.
Check out the first five episodes (catch up HERE), and then go to Codec Projects to see how you can help support Anthony as he works on Season Two!
***UPDATE: this show is officially SOLD OUT***
This September marks the one-year anniversary of the opening of our record store in Beverly, MA. We thought the best way to celebrate would be to invite H2O to be the 4th band to play in our warehouse show series alongside Incendiary Device, fronted by NYHC legend Drew Stone!
Tickets go on sale right now. We will have a portion available online, as well as at our Beverly store (avoid service fees by coming in if you're local). Admission is $20, and all tickets are will call. As usual, attendance is very limited, so make sure to act fast! We look forward to seeing you there.
“Yankees Suck” street vendors outside of Fenway Park after a Red Sox game, summer 2000 (photo by Kate Bowen)
“Yankees Suck” was the most heard phrase in Boston in 2000. So Bridge Nine record label owner Chris Wrenn walked to Fenway Park with friends to hawk souvenirs with the slogan in the street, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars and investing it all in a new generation of hardcore-punk bands.
As a companion piece to The Athletic’s story about the early days of Bridge Nine and Sully’s Brand, and how Boston sports fans (unknowingly?) helped fund a new generation of hardcore punk, Chris created this playlist featuring bands that both included members who hawked the rivalry-fueling merch at Fenway Park in the early 2000s, and the bands that benefitted. From American Nightmare to Death Before Dishonor and H2O:
CAVE IN live at Bridge Nine, July 7th, 2023 (Photo by Chris Padgett)
CAVE IN performed the most intimate of sets live in the Bridge Nine warehouse on Friday, July 7th, 2023.
I’ve been a fan of Cave In since their inception. Both Cave In and Bridge Nine got started in 1995. In 2000, I began working for Lumberjack Distribution assisting Big Wheel Recreation and Cave In’s label at the time, Hydra Head Records, right as Jupiter was being released, and I had a chance to see them navigate a very transitional time for the band.
In 2022, I was asked if Cave In could record a music video in our yet-to-be renovated warehouse space, here at the new B9HQ. It was for the song “Reckoning” on their new album, Heavy Pendulum on Relapse Records. Check out that video HERE!
CAVE IN live at Bridge Nine, July 7th, 2023 (Photo by Chris Wrenn)
When the warehouse was finished and we were ready to start asking bands to perform in it, Cave In was one of the first bands that we asked. Artist Thomas Hooper contributed a great illustration for our show posters, and I hand numbered them before the show.
Jason Zucco, who directed the music video for “Reckoning” returned to Bridge Nine and with the assistance of Ian McFarland (The Godfathers of Hardcore) helped capture Cave In’s live performance. We’ll let you know when the video is ready!
I want to thank everyone involved with making this evening happen, and everyone who came out and spent it with us.
- Chris Wrenn
CAVE IN set list / live at Bridge Nine / July 7th, 2023
CAVE IN photo gallery courtesy of Chris Padgett:
(L to R): Adam McGrath, Larry Kelley, Chris Wrenn, Nate Newton, Steve Brodsky, J.R. Conners (Photo: Chris Padgett)
CAVE IN photo gallery courtesy of Dominic DiNardo:
Flyer designed by Thomas Hooper (@thomas__hooper)
Cave In is a band close to our hearts here in Boston. Not only did they get their start in Methuen, MA, but they were originally signed to Hydra Head, one of the labels that Bridge Nine shared a space with at the original 'Initech' office near Fenway Park!
Just over a year ago, Cave In used our then-unfinished warehouse space to record the music video for the song "Reckoning" off their album Heavy Pendulum, released on Relapse Records.
Next Friday (7/7), they're bringing things full circle and doing us the honor of performing for the third event in our B9 warehouse series! We're excited to welcome you to come and share this experience with us.
ATTENDANCE IS FREE, BUT LIMITED. You will be able to reserve your spot starting today by coming to our storefront in Beverly, MA during normal hours while supplies last. Tickets are non-transferrable.
Doors are at 7 PM, performance starts at 8 PM.
Chris Wrenn (L) with Chris Foley (Drummer, SSD), Al Barile (Vocalist, SSD), and Jaime Sciarappa (Bass, SSD). Photo by Nancy Barile.
Bridge Nine Records celebrated its first ever Record Store Day as an actual record store this past Saturday, April 22nd, and also with the label’s first ever official Record Store Day release. Agnostic Front released “United Blood (The Extended Sessions)”, a 19-song LP version of their original 10-song EP from 1983. We pressed 3,000 copies on clear vinyl and it was amazing to hear from so many other stores that this record was the only other record that sold out that day besides Taylor Swift. This was a great way to commemorate 40 years of United Blood.
The Bridge Nine store opened early at 10 am to a line of RSD supporters and the store quickly filled with excited shoppers. An indie label market, featuring local labels from the New England area, also took place in the store’s back warehouse. Participating labels were X-Claim! Records, Counter Intuitive Records, Crimewave Records, Tor Johnson Records, Sound Investment Records, Hellhound Publishing, and Iodine Recordings.
Al Barile was onsite with X-Claim! along with his wife, Nancy Barile, author of the book “I’m Not Holding Your Coat”. Photo by Nancy Barile
The market featured lots of other vendors and organizations from the punk community. Al Quint of Suburban Voice, an avid record collector and seller, set up shop with some awesome titles for sale. Women Of The Pit, a charity based organization established to highlight and promote bands and fans of the hardcore music scene, was also in attendance promoting their first compilation, Stronger Together Vol. 1, featuring various female led punk and hardcore bands. The team behind Hope Fest, a yearly benefit music festival that takes place in Salem each year, was also onsite to promote their September 2nd festival in support of nAGLY. Larry Kelley displayed items from the late Lexa Vonn, an activist, fashion designer and music memorabilia collector. Local educator and author Nancy Barile was onsite with her awesome book, I’m Not Holding Your Coat. And Al Barile, Jaime Sciarappa, and Chris Foley of SSD hung out for a few hours, telling stories and sharing memories.
Needless to say, it was an incredible day and the Bridge Nine team is grateful for a few hundred of our supportive customers coming through and all our amazing vendors. We hope to do more events like this in the future, so be sure to join our email list if you haven’t already and follow us on social media!
Vinyl roars back on Record Store Day
By Joel Barrett
“At Bridge Nine Records in Beverly, proprietors of the shop, which began as and continues to be a record label, are kicking out the jams for RSD 2023.
The day will feature the label’s release of a 40th anniversary expanded edition of legendary New York hardcore band Agnostic Front’s “United Blood” EP.
The extended version is a remaster of the original EP, as well as previously unreleased versions of the band’s earliest and classic recordings. Bridge Nine is also inviting other independent record labels to set up tables in its warehouse for a RSD market to sell vinyl and merchandise and network. It’s a way for these labels to gain extra exposure and new fans.” Click here to continue reading the article on Salem News…
SAVE THE DATE & JOIN US FOR RECORD STORE DAY: Saturday, April 22nd! We'll be opening early at 10:00 am and will have lots of RSD2023 exclusive releases in store, including the RSD exclusive extended edition of Agnostic Front's United Blood! In the spirit of Record Store Day, we've also invited local independent record labels to pop-up in our warehouse event space for the day. Visit with labels like X-Claim! Records, Crimewave Records, Tor Johnson Records, Sound Investment Records, Hellhound Publishing, Iodine Recordings, and more! If you have a label or know a label that might be interested, have them contact us - spots are free and we have plenty of space. We are also excited to announce that educator and author Nancy Barile will be here with her book, I'm Not Holding Your Coat!
See you on Record Store Day! More details are available on the Facebook event page HERE!
