WRECK THE HALLS 2009

Street Dogs/Roger Miret and the Disasters/Stigma
by Jason Walsh
photos by Jez Beasley

As 2009 wound to an end, in a year that was one of the most difficult in recent times with a crippled economy that affected nearly all Americans, some of the underground’s greatest ambassadors came together for a December run of more than a dozen dates to spread seasons greetings to all. Street Dogs, led by Mike McColgan, headlined this jaunt that has become an yearly tradition.

“Usually, it’s an annual thing,” McColgan said. “We do an East Coast tour every December, which culminates with the final shows being in our hometown of Boston. We started it back in 2004 and we’ve tried to make it an annual thing every year. We’re really looking forward to doing the East Coast dates and the 19th and 20th in Boston. It’s just a good way to kind of wind down the year and all that. We always strive to give people their money’s worth, I mean especially nowadays when money is so tight. We never take for granted the hard-earned money that people spend to buy a ticket and when we put a lineup out there, we want to put a rock solid lineup out there.”



The tour kicked off in Houston on December 9, following the Street Dogs 20-date European run with Civet, still in support of their fourth full-length, “State of Grace.” Along for the ride on this ambitious bill will be Roger Miret and the Disasters and Stigma, side projects of Agnostic Front hardcore innovators Roger Miret and Vinnie Stigma.

“The real deal,” McColgan said. “Legends and forefathers and godfathers of punk rock, y’know. They’ve been good to us on the way up and we want to give back a little bit so that’s what that’s about, and we just want to give people a great package, y’know.”

Miret, who has fronted the New York Hardcore outfit Agnostic Front since the early 80s, found time in his always busy schedule to add his Disasters group to the roster after a request from a former collaborator and current Street Dog.

“Well, it’s been a while since the Disasters have done any East Coast dates so we decided we’d go do this tour,” Miret said. “Johnny (Rioux) had called us from Street Dogs, and Johnny used to play with the Disasters, and asked us to join the tour. Then, I suggested that we get Stigma to join too. The whole package came out great and we’re excited.”

Founding A.F. member and Lower East Side statesman Vinnie Stigma, who has played guitar alongside Miret for nearly three decades started a solo project, Stigma, this year with fellow Front bassist, Mike Gallo. This is the first time Stigma has set down the guitar and stepped to the microphone as a lead vocalist.

“First of all, I think I sing better than I play guitar, y’know?” Stigma said. “I love talking to the people and I don’t know, it’s just a different approach to everything. I pace it the way I see it and well, the music is different anyway so every show has got its own little niche to it, but I have no problem with that. I sing, I play guitar, tell a few jokes…I don’t give a shit.”

Stigma released his first full-length solo album in 2009, “New York Blood,” on I Scream Records. The idea came from an old friend while on the road with Agnostic Front and has turned into a beloved endeavor for him.

“One day I was on tour with Hatebreed and Agnostic Front, and Jamey Jasta put the idea in my fucking head and we ran with it from there,” Stigma said. “When we first went into the studio, we didn’t know what kind of record I was going to make. We thought we were going to make like a fun record, a joke record, a hardcore record. We didn’t know what direction we were going to go in. We just wanted to go for ‘shits and giggles,’ but we wound up making, y’know, a pretty decent record. Now we know we have a direction for our next album, you know what I mean? Now we know what we’re going to do.”

Stigma is also currently working on material for a new Agnostic Front record as well, which the band will look to record in the coming year and after all these years, making music is still something that keeps Stigma inspired.

“I’ve got like nine or ten songs of that already that we’re working on and I’ve got about six or seven songs for the next Stigma record. I can’t believe at my age, I’m still producing music. It’s who I am, but you do have to take it serious, like a job also because you want to make it right. You want to do it right. Sure, I love it and have fun with it, of course. That’s the idea, because if you don’t, don’t do it.”

The NYHC representatives joined the Street Dogs following a South American run with dates in Argentina, Chile, and Peru, and ten dates in Europe with Ignite. For Miret and Stigma, this stretch of shows will be the first time the two projects will be traveling alongside one another with their respective incarnations.

“Yeah, it’s actually the first time we’ve toured together,” Miret said. “We’ve played a couple shows together in Brooklyn for the Rumblers show (Miret’s Car and Motorcycle Club), but we’ve never toured together, which is something we’ve talked about doing. We’re going to incorporate a little bit of Agnostic Front to our set, togetherwise. Vinnie will come up and play a song with me and so will Mike, so there’ll be little moments of Agnostic Front which will be fun.”

While on the road, the Disasters were bringing along a sample of new material for fans at the shows to check out. This may be the first preview of the group’s fourth full-length studio release and long-awaited follow up to 2006’s “My Riot.”

“It’s a single, there are actually three new songs,” Miret said. “It’ll be with us on the tour. We’ve been working on a full-length album, which we’re kind of ready to record. We’re just getting everything together and then take it from there.”

Now that the Wreck the Halls tour has wound to an end with the close of 2009, Agnostic Front will be busy in the new year. As part of the 25th anniversary of the releases of their first records, “United Blood” and “Victim in Pain,” not only has the band released a remastered CD of these classics on Bridge 9 records, but they are returning to the original 1984 lineup in celebration of the milestone. Hardcore enthusiasts heading to the venues this year will see Rob Kabula and Dave Jones taking the stage alongside Stigma and Miret.

“We haven’t played together since ‘84,” Miret said. “This is the classic lineup together again doing vintage AF songs and some classics. We couldn’t be more excited to do this. 2010 starts off with Agnostic Front dates in January on the West Coast followed by Agnostic Front dates in all of April in Europe followed by Agnostic Front dates again touring in Europe and in between all that more Agnostic Front dates on different coasts. We’re going to be recording a new album next year too. I’m going to be a pretty busy guy.”

Agnostic Front won’t be the only band hitting the studio this year. Street Dogs will be heading to the Blasting Room in Ft. Collins, Colorado to start work on their fifth studio release. For McColgan, time spent creating and performing their music has been rewarding and exciting, and the ability to do it their own way has always been at the forefront.

“It’s been amazing,” he said. “We’ve always done things on our own terms and played whatever type of music we wanted to play and to be aligned with Hellcat Records has been amazing. We’ve worked on 25 new songs and we’re getting ready to go into the studio to make a new record. It feels really good. We just came off the heels of a successful European headlining tour and we’ve the biggest crowds we’ve ever seen over there. It just feels good to do what we want to do and play what we want to play and really not pay attention to fads or what’s hot and what’s not. We could give less than a fuck about that. We play, say, and do what we want and we take care of those who take care of us. We do it the old-fashioned way. We earn it. We don’t fake it, we take it.”

McColgan said the band has had a chance to try out some of the new material on fans and continued to do so throughout the Wreck the Halls tour. He felt the feedback on the tracks has been positive.

“We’ve been working some of the new songs in with existing songs and we’ve found that the response of the crowd has been really good. I mean, I think we’re returning to our roots with some of our stuff and playing fast and playing more aggressive. It feels good, y’know.”

Lastly, did the most recognizable guitarist ever to emerge from the NYHC scene make any New Year’s resolutions this year?

“I think I’m going to go back to the gym,” Stigma said. “I was supposed to go right now to the gym, but I’m going to go regular to the gym. I’m going to stop drinking and smoking. I’m going to take my vitamins and then I’m going to break it two days later. You know the routine. You’ve been through that before. I’m going to lose weight. I’m going to diet. I’m going to do all that, yo.”