Drew Beat - BOLD Memories

This is the second excerpt we have from a gigantic interview done with Drew from BOLD. Scroll further down to see the first part or click here:

http://doublecrosswebzine.blogspot.com/2008/04/looking-back-with-drew-beat.html

-DCXX

We had a lot of fun out in southern California, staying in the Huntington Beach area while on tour. There was a really good scene, everyone would stay at each other's houses, these big houses with tons of people hanging out, and we'd also drive around and just have an awesome time. We would go out in vans with fire extinguishers, we would ransack places, all sorts of crazy mischief...just not nice stuff! It was like the show Jackass.

There was a lot of good bands from California, I really liked that whole scene, going out there, playing places, hanging out and having a good time. Even the bands, before we went out there, before us there had already been Uniform Choice, Unity, BL'AST!, and the whole Wishingwell scene. These were bands I really liked, and those records still hold up in a lot of ways, just really cool records. Just going out there and going off and playing shows was such an awesome time.

When we got out there, those kids already seemed to have gotten the whole "youth crew" thing down. It was like, when we got there, they were waiting for us. They had already understood what we were about, and they welcomed us. When we got out there it felt like being home, even though it was different weather, different dancing, different styles. They had gotten the Crippled Youth EP, and had seen Youth Of Today from when they were out there, and they just really were waiting for us all the way across the country. We just slid in there at a great time, even though our records were a little bit behind as far as reflecting what we were doing when the records came out. I mean, by the time Speak Out came out we had developed much more than the record showed, or at least I think.

The social side of playing music always meant more to me. It was cool because when Speak Out came out, Revelation had pretty good distribution at the time, so places like Tower had the record and it was visible. Before that, the kids we went to school with didn't really "get" what we were doing. The whole idea of doing a band was really strange to them. They didn't understand it if it wasn't like a "battle of the bands" thing, they just figured it wasn't for real, like, "what are these guys doing with their little band?" There was no insight on their part into what the hardcore scene was, obviously. But over the course of a couple years, more underground culture started to come to the surface, and people heard more about the band and hardcore. And then we would start seeing people we knew from school, our peers, at our shows. We would be like, "oh my God, that person is here to see us? Weird." After years of people kinda pushing us around from school and even making fun of us, it was interesting to see them come to us now. And then we could flip it around and be better, we could say to who was working the door, "hey we know these guys from school, let them in." It was cool to see them come onto our turf now and be interested. That always meant more to me than school, to be able to go into school the next day and feel like you actually did something and were a part of something outside of school that others weren't - something beyond just sports, hanging out, or going to parties. That was really empowering.

CB's, The Anthrax, Lupo's, Safari Club, and Gilman Street were probably my favorite five places to play. I liked playing California because I loved a lot of California stuff that got me into punk and hardcore. Black Flag "Damaged," Germs "GI," Circle Jerks "Group Sex," those to me are some of my all-time favorite records. To get out there and play a few years after those records, that vibe wasn't all that far removed, even though things were obviously different. Now it seems like those records are from forever ago, but at the time it didn't seem like it had been that long ago. Even playing Boston, despite some of the schism there, that was special because I loved SSD and DYS, we were partial to them. I think DYS were a little more musical and didn't have as big a following. Maybe it is a bit lofty to think about, but I think at the time Youth Of Today tried to align themselves with what SSD had done. With that said, I think in BOLD, we saw ourselves a bit more like DYS if there had to be analogies drawn. But even Jerry's Kids and Gang Green, we loved them.

The K-Town Mosh Crew was a well planted myth in a way, but we did have a good group of people early on. There was a half pipe in town at this kid's house, and we would go there and skate. This reminds me of a good story, because at the time, skaters and BMX kids didn't mix. But in our town there would be BMX kids around, and we had this ramp jam once. And this BMX kid was there, and we had suspected him of having stolen Matt's copy of Victim In Pain. So we all knew it was him but he wouldn't admit to it. That wasn't gonna sit. So Cappo was there, and he goes up to this kid, and he says, "Look, all of these guys know where you live, and they know who your parents are. If you don't give this record back, I am gonna have Agnostic Front and all of the Lower East Side skins come up here, and they are gonna kick your ass, AND they are gonna kick your parents' asses too. Do you want that to happen?" I think the record was returned the next day with a box of candy and a bow.