Hanging with the Necros


Because today is the 35th anniversary of Suicidal Tendencies' debut album, it led to some Facebook exchanges with fellow fans and to this story about music sharing. Right after this album came out, Suicidal Tendencies were still pretty small but word was spreading by carrier pigeon. Around this time, we went to see the Necros and Reflex From Pain in Cambridge, MA and we got to hang out with the Necros in their van. The Ohio boys told us about bands they knew of and about ones to catch. They played us a few of their fellow bands from Touch and Go Records on the van's sound system and we shared some Boston hardcore with our new friends.


I was with my cousin Johnny D  from Newport and his friend Dylan Roy who stayed at my parents' house in Waltham. We took the bus to the show and shortly after, climbed in the van. We saw the Ohio plates and a bunch of guys with short hair and dark clothing blasting punk rock music and calculated that it had to be the Necros. They were some of the nicest guys you could ever want to hang out with. We talked about music, bands, and scenes and shared fanzines. We had some Boston and Rhode Island zines while the Ohio kids had some from their state.

It was file sharing in its infancy and zine trading in its heyday. Before the Internet, we learned of new bands via radio, fanzine, and word of mouth. In the van over a few cans of Budweiser, the Necros told us about this amazing band called Suicidal Tendencies and to watch out for them. They used the term "sick" to describe them and said their fans were fanatical. Music and everything back then was more regional and it took longer to hear about things. There was no Internet and nothing trending on social media. We drank a few more beers in the van and listened to music.

The Necros played a great show and it was so cool hanging out with them in the van. They also whet our collective whistle to check out a new band. The next day, we headed into Newbury Comics to buy the debut album from a little-known band called Suicidal Tendencies. This was before the movie Repo Man and before the song Institutionalized became a hit. We literally had not heard anything about them until the Necros brought them up. But the way they talked about Suicidal Tendencies, it felt like a seismic shift was underway and we wanted to get in on the ground floor, or better yet, before the floor shifted. A 'legend' of Suicidal had been born and the Necros learned of the legend by traveling the country in the van and playing any venue that would have them.

Henry Rollins later made the "Get in the van" concept popular with his book but it was what really happened back then. Punk rock bands traveled in vans and played for peanuts or moreover, for the love of music. A few of them got big but most did not. Everything happened in the van. I don't remember the set lists of any of the bands that night but I remember hanging in the van and having fun talking about music with a band we liked.

Suicidal Tendencies are now a huge band with a fanatical metal-head following and the Necros are  one of those bands that people often say “should have been bigger” but never were. I still like both bands regardless of fame and fortune or lack thereof.

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