ONE BIG CROWD

a one night tribute to A7

December 6, 2008; The Knitting Factory; NYC

Above: Antidote

At the corner of Avenue A and East 7th in NYC there used to be a club where hardcore bands played, audience members occasionally spit teeth and both future legends, staples of the hardcore scene and others who have been forgotten made big noise onstage. Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since the placed closed and December 6, 2008 saw the first (but hopefully not last) A7 reunion/tribute, which took place at The Knitting Factory in Soho. The audience's ages seemed to range from about sixteen to over sixty. More than one musician, while on stage, commented that they had been way too young to ever set foot in A7 back in the day. Personally, I missed it, having been thirteen or fourteen when the place closed in 1984 but I had no intention of missing this (I had a great time crashing The Rat reunion in Boston not too long ago even though I moved to Boston the day after the damn place closed in 1997). For those who never made it there back when the A7 was still in existence, this tribute was a great consolation, a great concert and a chance to see somewhere around 30 bands all playing under one roof on the three separate floors of The Knitting Factory. For those who knew A7 intimately, it was a great reunion. I had a blast. Since bands were playing simultaneously on all three floors, I missed the vast majority of the groups who played and wound up spending most of my time watching bands on the main stage.

Congratulations and thanks to Bryan Swirsky (Complete Control NYC) and Wendy Eager (Guillotine zine) for putting together such a successful night. There has probably never been a better-organized, more smoothly-run hardcore festival in the history of hardcore.

Bands who played (as listed in the show's program booklet) were:

On the main stage: Fatal Rage, 76% Uncertain, Payload (featuring John Sox of the F.U.s, and Straw Dogs), Antidote, Pure Hell, ISM, Urban Waste, The Abused, False Prophets, Nihilistics and Virus. Jerry's Kids were scheduled to play but were a no-show. On stage on the middle floor: Armed Citizens, Adam 12, Borscht, Rabid Deployment, Sexual Suicide, Fed Up, Violent Society, Ultraviolence, Butch Lust and the Hypocrites, Major Conflict, Sux, Reagan Youth. On stage on the bottom floor: ICU, Modern Clitz, Reason To Fight, Waste Management, Disgrace, Lost Generation, Cardiac Arrest, Government Warning, Krieg Kopf, Psycho, Oppressed/Betrayed, Blackout Shoppers and US Chaos.

I wish I'd gotten to photograph more of the bands but I couldn't be in two or three different places at one on this particular evening. My doppleganger had other plans for the evening and was somewhere else doing other things...maybe tying up beautiful women in the refrigerator, drinking cheap wine at home, possibly watching Dark Shadows....who knows? We don't get along and don't keep track of each other's activities. At any rate, this is an incomplete document of a really great hardcore marathon held in memory of what many will tell you was a truly kickass club.

THE GALLERIES: Click on thumbnails below for photo of those bands

FATAL RAGE	76% UNCERTAIN	PAYLOAD	ANTIDOTE	PURE HELL	THE ABUSED
MEMBERS OF FALSE PROPHETS	NIHILISTICS	BUTCH LUST AND THE HYPOCRITES	MAJOR CONFLICT	REAGAN YOUTH	Miscellaneous photos