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Foreword:
What you are about to read is an unfinished book on the NYC hardcore and punk musicscene between the years 1986-1993. I worked on this project from 2006 until I shut itdown at the beginning of 2009. After many factors in my life, I had to kill it.I wanted to have an actual "book" for people to purchase. The reason I am releasing it inthis form is because many people have contacted me to keep the project going. I alsowanted to validate the people responses that they worked hard on typing out and sendingto me. An enormous amount of work went into what you see here.Please be advised, it is truly an "unfinished" work and should be treated as such. Iplanned on finishing off each chapter, but there is plenty here to get an idea of whatdirection the finished project was headed in. It is not edited, formatted, spell checked,etc... What you see is what you get. For you to make a determination on it. I feel byreading what is here, there will be much discussion afterward amoung the readers.If there is not a person's name in front of the paragraph, it's me talking or writing.Thanks for the memories,
-David Koenig (aka Dave K.) November 2009 C.E.
Prologue…
The New York City hardcore & punk music scene has been one of the world’s most
influential. While the earlier part of its history, from about 1980-1985, the NYC hardcore
and punk scene had developed many popular, well known and influential bands…it was
1986-1993 that the scene grew big enough and became the envy of hardcore/punk scenesall over. It could be said that bands like Youth of Today, Sick Of It All, Warzone, SideBy Side, Nausea, Token Entry, Breakdown, Raw Deal (later Killing Time), Underdog,Absolution, Straight Ahead, Beyond and the Gorilla Biscuits have influenced more laterhardcore and punk acts than any other bands that came before them. Sure, it can be
debated that the DC, Boston, Midwest, West Coast and even the early NYC scene’s bands
were very influential, but it cannot be denied that many later bands have taken theirsounds, to this day, from the NYC hardcore/punk scene of 1986-1993.Why 1986-1993? How did I come to this as a time period to be discussed and why do I
think it’s important? I look at 1986 as the beginning of the 2
nd
wave of New York CityHardcore (some will say 3
rd
). Another reason, a previously published book covering
American Hardcore seems to harp on the “fact” that hardcore was a no longer valid form
of music after this year. To me, this music was just picking up steam. 1986 was the yearthat Youth Of Today exploded, Sick Of It All released their demo beginning their 20 year
and counting run as a band and The Cro-Mags, a band from NYC’s earlier years, recorded
their legendary LP, The Age Of Quarrel. 1986 was the year the crossover genre of musicseemed to be coming to an end and bands started getting back to basics. 1986 was the
year the infamous Donohue show was broadcast. It’s goes on. 1993 to me is the year
where things really started to change for the worst. Don’t get me wrong, things musicallyin the scene didn’t “end”. I look at this year as the year people who were coming from all
over to support and take part in the NYC scene, started to stay home and build up the
scenes in their own areas. NYC’s hardcore and punk scene continued on in its own way
but this book has to have some kind end right?
You might be wondering, “OK, it’s about NYC hardcore and punk, but what’s this aboutNJ?” Along with the fact that New Jersey was were I was from, the connection to the
NYC scene was extremely tight. One of the reasons the NYC scene became a huge as it
did was because of influx of people from NJ coming to support the shows there. “Whynot Connecticut?” While CT has made its own contributions to the NYC scene (most
notably The Anthrax club in Norwalk), the scene there was more self contained and needssomebody to write a book about it. The multiple modes of travel between NJ and NYC
made it very easy to get to shows in either direction. New Jersey during these years didn’t
have the biggest scene around but it was robust in other ways. The New Brunswick area,the Middlesex County College shows and the City Gardens (all along the Route 1 strip)were the main gathering places and many bands emerged. Many NJ hardcore and punk
kids, though would rather head up to the “city” to go to CBGB’s, the Pyramid and lateron ABC No Rio. I was one of them…So this is the story of one “wet behind the ears” new wave punk kid named David Koenig
and the memories and reflections of many others who would take part and get involved in
one of the grandest, most exciting, frightening and wildest music scenes to ever exist. I’m
glad to have personally known many of the people who have written for this book.
Without their remembrances, this book could never exist. And I’ll “never forget”…
-David Koenig (aka Dave K.)Chapter 1: First Show Experiences
When asked, “When was the first hardcore or punk rock show that you been to?” manycan’t tell you. Quite a few can bring up specific details and a handful can give you every
detail of that day; venue, bands that played, what records they bought and who they went
to the show with. I’m sure most of you reading this can remember everything, at leastyour first “live” music experience.My first punk show was also my first “live” music experience. Growing up, I had manyfriends who regularly did the whole “big” concert thing. I heard many tales of the Iron
Maiden or Judas Priest concert the night before. Then there were the dudes who had to gothe fucking Journey show at the Meadowlands to impress the latest girl they were tryingto screw. I could have probably seen all those concerts but there was a problem. When I
was 14 or 15, I just wasn’t into heavy metal or that hideous Journey/Styx/REO Speed-
wagon drivel. I was getting into New Wave and hearing some of the bigger punk rock
bands at the time. It can be said that New Wave was “fruity” and as tame as it was, back in my high school in 1983, it was “threatening”. The people in my immediate area were
still into Led Zeppelin, The Who and Bruce Springsteen. By me even looking different &
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