Punk Rock Writing

While I grew up in Waltham, Massachusetts, my musical heart was in Newport, RI and the fantastic scene there. It was where I discovered punk rock via an old record player in a third story bedroom. My mom grew up there and we were lucky enough to spend many summers and school vacations there hanging out with the families of my mom's two sisters, Pat and Nancy, who lived on Aquidneck Island, in Newport and Portsmouth, respectively. During my time away at college, my parents moved to Newport full time and have lived there since. The city by the sea continues to be a great place for music to this day. My cousin Johnny D, who was hip-deep in the Newport music scene, and I were close and went to many shows together. I cover some of our escapades in my Johnny Thunders piece but many of our adventures entailed going from Newport to Rhode Island's shrine for independent music, The Living Room in Providence, for shows with many of our favorite punk rock acts like Black Flag, Hus

Punk rock music was instrumental to my youth. Discovering albums like Black Flag's Damaged with my cousin Johnny D in his bedroom on an old Realistic record player in Newport, RI gave me joy and happiness and provided something to be excited about. While I grew up in Waltham, Massachusetts, I spent many summers, weekends, and school vacations staying at the Davis house in Newport and hanging out with my cousin Johnny D, a local legend in the hardcore scene. Johnny D knew everyone and everyone liked him. I was shy by contrast and simply enjoyed tagging along and being part of, at least by proxy, their music scene. Newport had a music scene of its own that did not exist in Waltham. By attending shows in Providence (Living Room, Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel) and Boston (The Channel, Paradise, The Rat etc.) with the Newport kids, we all eventually met some of the tight-nit Boston crew and became friends with them. Many of us have reconnected decades later via the magic of soc