SS Decontrol - VFW Hall, Mt. Auburn, Cambridge, MA - March 4, 1983

I swear that I do not intend for this blog to be a direct supplement to the End On End podcast, which I co-host, but, sometimes, there is some overlap.

In early June of this year, we released two episodes which specifically covered SS Decontrol's classic debut 'The Kids Will Have Their Say' (1982 - a Dischord/X-Claim split release), and SSD more generally, and, more generally than that, the Boston hardcore scene of the early '80s that coalesced around SSD.

So - if you want your fill of SSD content - you can find the main episode here, which features a full interview with Nancy Barile (with Al getting on the phone for a few minutes as well), and clips of interviews I did with Dave Smalley, Jonathan Anastas and Mike Gitter, and the supplemental episode here, featuring the full interviews with Smalley, Anastas & Gitter.  Speaking of Nancy Barile, she has a book coming out this fall which should be an incredible read.  Anyone who is a member of the SSD Facebook group, or belongs to any of the hardcore-based groups that Nancy is in, knows that she's a great storyteller and this book is bound to be chock full of great tales from that time.

But for those who don't want to listen to hours and hours of Brian and I blabbing away, let's just say quickly that SS Decontrol (originally Society System Decontrol....and then later simply SSD) were the most important band of the early '80s Boston hardcore scene.  They were to Boston what Black Flag were to Los Angeles, what the Dead Kennedys were to San Francisco, what Minor Threat was to D.C., etc.  They were the band that inspired other Boston kids to start bands, the band that started their own record label to document their corner of the world (Al Barile's X-Claim), the band that spawned the Boston Crew - they were the proverbial rock that was thrown into the pond from which the ripples emanated outward.

But more than just an important band, they also released two albums, 'Kids..." and the 1983 EP 'Get It Away' (X-Claim), which are indisputably two of American hardcore's great classics (personally, I give a slight edge to 'Get It Away', but both belong in your record collection). 

This show is from March 4, 1983, at a VFW Hall in Cambridge, MA - quite a line-up with the bill also featuring Minor Threat, Necros, F.U.'s, and Negative FX.

The set opens with the then-unreleased "How We Rock" (the intro & the song proper), which would be the title-track to the following year's release [at which point the band officially shortened their name to "SSD" and began to write longer songs which saw a heavy metal influence, but, in my opinion, it's still a hardcore record and still a good one, if not a great one], followed by the old Shangri-Las song "Remember (Walking in the Sand)", although, given the place and time (and Springa's banter preceding the song), my guess is that it's really more of a cover of the Aerosmith cover (who released the song on their 1979 'Night in the Ruts' album and hit #67 on the charts with it).  This is followed by a bunch of songs from 'Get It Away', which also had not yet been released, having been released two months later in May 1983....but I'm guessing most of the crowd already knew these songs.  The set closes out with "Boston Crew" - a theme song, but one that was never properly released (a live version appeared on the posthumous 'Power' comp that was released in 1992 on Taang!).  Oddly amiss are any songs from 'Kids...'.

The recording is obviously raw, clearly not any sort of professional or soundboard recording - but that's what you get with these old tapes from the tape-trading box.  It's still a fun listen by a band that sounded like it was on fire while they were at the top of their game.  The line-up would have been their classic five-piece line-up of Springa (vocals), Al Barile & Francois Levesque (guitars), Jaime Sciarappa (bass) and Chris Foley (drums).

SETLIST:

How We Rock Intro (0:28)
How We Rock (3:00)
Remember (Walking in the Sand) (6:25)
Get It Away (9:55)
Glue (12:22)
Under The Influence (14:00)
Nothing Done (15:45)
Boston Crew (17:25)

Jeff Kaplan 1 · SS Decontrol - VFW Hall, Cambridge, MA (3-4-83)