There's been a lot of water under the bridge since Jason O'Toole first sang on Life's Blood iconic 1988 Defiance EP, Chris Lynch fronted Albany's Wolfpack at CBGB's, and the other Scene Crime members played in classic upstate New York bands.
Time has a way of tempering your teenage hardcore obsessions: faced with the reality of gainful employment, raising a family, paying the mortgage and or alimony; playing rudimentary punk/hardcore tunes becomes the least of one's priorities. What to do at the onset of middle age in this youth driven subculture? One can try to recapture past glories and end up a pale imitation of your former self or accept season's passing and move on with the past, all the while doing an accurate representation of where you are in the here and now.
It is this latter attitude that Scene Crime brings to the table in their new 5-song demo. It's rough around the edges, forcefully played music by veterans from the trenches.
The youth don't have a monopoly on anger and angst, folks of a certain age can still use hardcore as a release valve, all the while being mindful of one's place in the hierarchy of history, as stated in the lyrics to "Wolf Life":
We are the grey wolves
Bound for lands unknown
But today we lead the pack
This wilderness we own
There is an added poignancy to this debut recording as it's dedicated to longtime scene veteran Drew Keriazes, he was the guitarist for Albany Style, Fit For Abuse and NY Wolfpack. Drew was a prime driving force for Scene Crime to exist and is now in hospice care after nearly 1,000 days of fighting Cancer. Disease is a fact of life as we get older, all we can hope is to have loved ones around in our time of need, the bonds forged in our formative years in this rough & tumble hardcore multiverse can last a lifetime. Here's to the Drew Crew.
No one gets forever
Never knew it to be fair
Still our bonds of friendship
Will always be there
-Wolf Life
Listen to Scene Crime's demo on the band's Bandcamp page. The band is playing their first show on August 13, follow their Facebook page for details.
Tagged: life's blood, scene crime band
