Drew Stone - Antidote / xxx All Ages xxx

Drew Stone singing for The Mighty CO's May 29th 1982 Gallery East Boston, Photo: Debbie Damage

Drew Stone is the man who's holding the mic for Antidote, behind the camera of the All Ages Boston Hardcore Documentary, and behind the scenes for the massive Boston show taking place August 29. We've been meaning to catch up with him to get his full story and his long history in the hardcore scene. Lots of awesome stuff here, big thanks to Drew! -Gordo DCXX

Where did you grow up and how did you get involved with punk and HC?

I grew up in New York City in the 1970's as part of the "Blank Generation." Too late for the 60's thing, too early to be a part of the MTV generation (Thank God) and I fucking hated disco. In August of 1981 I went up to Emerson Collage in Boston to study acting. Soon after my arrival I was introduced to a guy in the Emerson cafeteria who had his head shaved. At the time the only people that had their heads shaved were marines and psychopaths. He told me that his name was "Choke" and he was into this "Hardcore" thing. "Hardcore? What do you mean Hardcore? Like The B52's, Joan Jett or Blondie?" I didn't have a fucking clue what he was getting at so after trying to explain it to me for a while we decided the best way for me to understand the whole thing was to just go and experience it for myself.

So a few days later we trooped to downtown Boston and into an old factory building to a place called the Media Workshop for a Sunday matinee show. As fate would have it, it was one of SS Decontrol's first shows and it turned out to be a pivotal point in my life. There were about 30 people there and everyone in attendance was my age or younger. There were no drugs or alcohol around which was very strange to me coming from a very different environment back in New York City. I felt very connected to what was going on in the room and jumped right into the melee.

After the band finished playing, the guitar player Al "Lethal" Barile came up and introduced himself to me and in turn he introduced the other guys in the band. He was very interested in knowing who I was and where I came from. It was a VERY small scene back then so when someone new showed up they were met with much enthusiasm. Regardless to say, after that I was swept up in the blooming early Boston hardcore scene which to say the least was an extremely exciting time.


One of the most powerful bands I have ever seen SS Decontrol at the Media Workshop 1981, Photo: Drew Stone

What were your first musical attempts, and how did that lead into The Mighty C.O's in Boston? Tell us about The Mighty C.O's, and the time line of that band?

I always loved music but before I got involved in the hardcore scene it always seemed so inaccessible. In Boston back in the early 80's there was no internet or cell phones so the place that we would all hang out at was the original location of Newbury Comics on Newbury Street. That was the hub of our universe back then. You would just hang out all day and wait for people to show up. I saw a flyer in Newbury Comics that said some guys that were into hardcore were looking for a bass player so I gave them a call. I went and played with them but I really wasn't much of a bass player so at some point I ended up being the singer. We named the band "The C.O's" (Conscientious Objectors) which later graduated to "The Mighty C.O's" after a comment from Al Barile.

The first show we played was in an Emerson College lounge with The Freeze, Government Issue and Double O from DC. We played Gallery East a few times after that with DYS, Jerry's Kids, the FU's and Gang Green and we were just starting to make some headway when I was excused from the band. It was always a strange relationship because I was always a bit of an outsider coming from New York City being the frontman who knew everyone in the scene, and playing with a bunch of kids from rural New Hampshire. The Mighty C.O's never really got their legs underneath them, were never recorded and only did about 5 shows that I can recall. They thought they could do better without me and as we all know they went on to achieve greatness and are now a household name.



Why did you return to NYC and how did that lead into The High And The Mighty as well as Antidote? How did you get to know those guys and end up on vocals?

After The Mighty C.O's ended and I had lost interest in school I had to earn a living so I came back to NYC to find work in the film business. Upon my arrival I immediately set out to put a new hardcore band together with a bunch of my friends from the Bronx. I wrote all the songs myself, showed them to the guys and we started playing shows. Some of those songs we still do to this day when Antidote plays out including "Road Warrior", "Don't Look Back" and "If The Time Is Right, We're Ready To Fight". The first "The High & The Mighty" show we played was a C.B.G.B.'s "HR Benefit" with Cause For Alarm, Murphy's Law & Major Conflict. After that we played the A7 quite a bit and went up to Boston a few times. We recorded and passed around The High & The Mighty "Crunch On" demo which was re-released a few years ago as part of the Antidote / The High & The Mighty "A7 and Beyond" CD.

In early 1984 we got a show down in D.C. at the Wilson Center with Antidote and we all drove down together in my van. On the way back home after the show Antidote's drummer Bliss and the singer Louie really got into it. By the time we got back to NYC he was out of the band and they were looking for a singer. "Thou Shalt Not Kill" had just come out and I loved the band so I really knew the material well. I was tight with Nunzio at the time so I got a shot at being the new singer and it worked out.

Antidote obviously put out one of the all time greatest NYHC records - can you remember how you first heard about the record and the band? Did you see them live with Louie? What was it like?

I met Nunzio while hanging out at the A7 in 1983. I had seen Antidote play a few times by that point and they were fucking great live. I remember once I came down from Boston with SS Decontrol when they played the Bad Brains retirement shows in December of 1982 and Antidote was on the bill. They were one of my favorite bands at the time. Bliss was a great drummer and Nunzio's guitar playing was a cut above the rest. They fucking crushed it live.


Drew Stone Boston Mass. age 18, Photo courtesy of: Drew Stone

Little is documented about the existence of Antidote through the late eighties. What exactly was going on, where did you play, and what was the response? Tell us about the "Return 2 Burn" release.

Antidote called it a day as a "hardcore" band in 1986 but in 1988 Nunzio and I started playing together again. He had a whole bunch of new songs that he wanted to sing and he needed a bass player so I stepped in. At first the new band was called "Third Rail" but starting from scratch was tough. Nunzio is a very talented guy. He writes great stuff, can sing, but he just wasn't a great front man. At some point we got some record company interest and it was decided that I would move back to vocals and we would change the name back to Antidote.

At the time a lot of hardcore bands were changing direction and it seemed like a good idea because of the name recognition. The new Antidote was really a "Rock" band with our biggest influence at the time being Guns 'N Roses. For a while we were were firmly entrenched in the NYC rock scene and were practically the house band at the Rock and Roll Church at the Limelight. We got signed and recorded the "Return 2 Burn" record and played some great shows with bands like Circus Of Power and Hell's Kitchen.

"Return 2 Burn" had a pretty slick production sound for the day. When we went to check out the recording studio Pantera was in there recording "Cowboys From Hell" and we liked what we heard. "Something Must Be Done" and "Road Warrior" were on the record in reworked versions and we ended up doing a music video for the song "Return 2 Burn." For a while there it was a lot of fun but in the early 90's things started to change when grunge came in and things just kind of ran their course. In 1991 we folded Antidote for the second time and that's when I started my film production company "Stone Films NYC" and that's when things really took off.


Antidote 1984, Nunzio, Drew Stone, Bryan, Bliss, Photo courtesy of: Drew Stone