NYHC still burns in On the Rise
June 24th, 2003 Fireside Bowl Chicago

On The Rise is:
Lenny Di Sclafani– Vocals, Brian Will – Guitar, Mike Gallo– Bass, Steve Gallo- Skins, Hugo Fitzgerald - Guitar

All right now that the bucket o’ Rocks is here lets start this bitch NYHC style!

Reali-D: What was On The Rise when Brian and I were still Quibron and we were playing with you guys?

Mike: We were actually Rise Above. That was our first name. Then we found out there was a Rise Above, and then there was another Rise Above, and then there was another Rise Above. So obviously we got to change it. We didn’t know what the fuck to change it to, then On the Rise came up and it wasn’t far from it, it sounded good and we just went with it. One the Rise. Rise Above. We didn’t want to stray to far from the name and it eventually sounded better anyway.

Brian’s take: Let me get in here? Quibron kind of ended. Y’know you left (basically calls me a bitch right there!) and Mike sang for Quibron while he was in Rise Above then it disbanded. Mike joined AF and I joined On the Rise. So every thing got all mixed together. (Typical NYHC style) This all took place over about a year and a half.

Reali-D to Mike: You I gotta ask; first show?

Mike: You mean what ruined my life? Murphy’s Law at the Wetlands, I forget what year it was. ’92 or ’93.

Reali-D: You remember the first time you saw Agnostic Front?

Mike: The first time I saw them was when they did a re-union.

Reali-D: You feel the power?

Mike: Oh god. I was always into them.

Reali-D (not letting anyone answer the questions): Could you even fathom that you would play with them or Roger would some day be on your record?

Mike: No.

Reali-D: Roger is on the record right?

Brian: Mike Dijan was helping out with the record, which was great for me ‘cause I love Crown of Thornz and I love Breakdown. You know all these guys that we met, even back in the day when we played with Fahrenheit, Madball; all these guys I admired when I was younger; It’s been great!

Mike: The one thing that I think is pretty unique and great about On The Rise is we were young kids in the scene and didn’t know anybody and just earned our respect from the bottom. We kept going to shows making friends. A lot of bands know these guys; it’s a lot easier to fucking get a name for themselves. We really started from the bottom and worked our way up to what we have right now, which may not be a whole lot or whatever it is, but what it is, we gained our respect.

Reali-D: The knuckle tat, NYHC. Is it dead or is it alive?

Brian, Mike and Steve together: No way!

Mike: It’s not dead. I believe it’s not dead and I don’t think it will ever die. The thing is how could you say its dead when you got bands like Sworn Enemy, Full Blown Chaos and old bands like Agnostic Front, Murphy’s Law still doing it. I mean Sworn Enemy is a NYHC band and they are on fucking Ozzfest. That’s a fucking huge accomplishment.

Brian: This kid (points to Danny) from Canarsie, going to shows on the L train, risking his life, hooking shows at Knitting Factory; this kids is one of the reasons it keeps going.

Reali-D: Who are you?

Danny: I am Danny and I rather be at shows than in the ghetto.

Mike: So NYHC is fucking not dead! Its never gonna die!

Reali-D: Is it a scene though?

Mike: Oh definitely! There still a lot of shows going on.

Brian: It’s 25 years old and it needs an update. The same 3 chords ain’t doing it. Oh so what you beat up a bunch of people, if your band sucks your band sucks! The reason people got beat up at Bad Brains because they were great; the music captivated people. You know, you just went nuts. Some of these new bands.... it needs to be updated. It needs an infusion of creativity and energy coming back into it. And clubs, cause most of them are shut down.

Mike: That’s the only reason why I think NYHC may be hurting at this point because there’s really not many places to play. There are still shows going on. No, NYHC ain’t dead and I don’t think it will ever die. Everything comes in circles.

Brian: And some fucks like us don’t know when to quit.

Reali-D: So what’s the new place to play?

Steve: My garage.

Reali-D: The garage and basement shows are back.

Mike & Brian: Some of the fun nest shows we’ve played lately have been at people’s houses.

Brain: Didn’t we just have a VFW shut down?

Steve and Mike: Oh Shit, oh right!

Brian: So Mike’s playing bass right and he just finishes this really good breakdown in this song called “Blank Stare” right. And like everybody goes off for this part. Some old man comes out of nowhere, totally out of his fucking mind, he comes through, he actually gets through that dance floor, comes up on stage and grabs Mike’s bass and screams, “Don’t you think its a little loud?” “You call this music?” Everything stops right. All the tough guys in the dance floor start in on the guy and he end ups going down the stairs headfirst. The show is shut down at this point; we start loading out before the cops get there. The cops do show up and you know what they say? “The guy had it coming to him.”

Steve: They asked Mike if he wanted to press charges.

Mike: It was so funny to see this old man come charging toward me as I am jumping around. Next thing I see is a red nose just running at me. He grabbed my bass by the neck with a Kung–fu grip. And I was just like, “Old man, I’ll fucking wreck you. Are you out of your mind?” He comes up to me nonetheless, the least looking thug of all of us, running for me, he must have been trashed, pushing 70, whacked out of his fucking mind. And I was like, Should I slap this old man or not?” And the next thing you know kids just piled on him. I felt kind of bad.

Brian: I did too; I didn’t want to hit the guy.

Mike: But no one else gave a shit.

Steve: All I know is the music stopped, I see this guy with a kung-fu grip on Mikes Bass. I come over the kit, like I do a leap frog and come off the bass and I’m about to kick this guy straight in the face and I was like, “ He’s 70 years old.” “What the fuck is going on here?”

Reali-D: Hey, I always thought Brian had an awesome hardcore straight edge birth name and shit: Brian Will.

Steve: Youth Crew!

Mike: We always say, “ Brian Will he kill somebody today?” “Brain Will he throw a cigarette at someone today?” “ Brian Will he show up today?”

Steve Gallo goes on a thread:

Brian Will is now Brain Will-da-beast AKA Wooly Mamouth. Second only to Rugback. (switches to Crochunter accent). The Rugback from ancient Zwanica (High School in Elmont, LI), this kid had hair up to his eyelids when he was 17 years old. Your ol’ right mate, you’re ol’ right mate. Look out for Brian Will-da-beast.

Mike: He’s so hairy you can’t even see the tattoos on his back.

Reali-D moves to a private chat with Lenny Di Sclafani – front man.

Lenny: Our first demo that we recorded we were shopping around to IScream, that was the label Roger had hooked us up with Lawrence. We wanted to go with some people that were already involved with the NYHC family like Lawrence and Onno, I mean Onno Cromag is thanked on almost every classic NYHC record. It ended up a no brainer that these guys are involved. We could trust them and they were gonna do the right thing for us and let us grow. And that’s why we chose to give our demo to them. Then when we went into the studio, we went to Big Blue Meenie, and we had Roger produce it. Roger had done the AF records there and had a good repore, so obviously we went there in choosing a studio and we did a 3-song demo. It was funny because, and I’ve said this in other IV’s at the time, we were happy with the results. All be it the time constraints, we felt that what we had produced was something close to our limitations as a band. We had no clue what little time in the studio and some artistic freedom on Brian’s part would do. So when we got into the studio on the full-length record we had a lot more time sit down and uh.... I must admit to myself I was a bit timid and scared about us dabbling in some new directions ‘cause you know when you try new things you’re not sure the way things are gonna turn out. And we had already had a sound that we were known for locally and we were a little weary about tinkering with that. But Brian put his foot down and was like, “Dude Trust me.” Just get the fuck out of here and let me do my thing. It will be alright.” So everything just came together and we got to release the record, Burning Inside, on IScream and it worked out great. Dean was an awesome producer. Dean was so excellent in the studio. He is unbelievable; he produced Madball’s Look My Way, their last record on Roadrunner. Crystal clear, top-notch production...

Reali-D: You’re in NY now bitch! There in a real classic NYHC sound to the production and finished record, Burning Inside.

Reali-D: First show?

Lenny: I am going to be perfectly honest here. I grew up on metal. Metal is what got me into Hardcore. I am a little younger than the rest of the guys.

Reali-D: That’s nothing to be ashamed of. Most of us would not have made it here without metal.

Lenny: I was a straight up Metalhead and what it came down to was I had the records when I was too young to go to shows; I grew up on LI in Elmont. Living so close to the city, it didn’t make a difference because I lived in a neighborhood where there was like 5 metal heads in my high school. God forbid if there was a HC kid. I had the records cause I had sisters that were into metal who had boyfriends that were into hardcore. They passed me a couple of blank tapes with some music on it; Crumbsuckers, Agnostic Front, Circle Jerks, Suicidal Tendencies. I was into a lot of bands, not just the NY ones. The thing with me was that I had no idea these people from the NYHC aspect of it were people that lived like 5-10 minutes from me. To me they were like rock stars. There was no difference to me from like Agnostic Front to Metallica.

Reali-D: So could you have ever guessed that this guy singing “Crucified” was going to be singing on one of your pieces?

Lenny: I would have never fucking believed you. Having him in the studio when we did our demo to offer advice and encouragement was amazing. Somebody whose career I followed for so long, almost half my life. I have met some people whose music I have grown up on and they turned out to be assholes. Like I have no problem asking guys like Roger Miret for an autograph, or guys like Gary Meskil from Propain. These guys are class acts. They are genuine good dudes.

Reali-D: Is NYHC dead?

Lenny: Absolutely not. There are a lot of bands still holding it down. You still got a lot of the old schoolers still trucking. You got Agnostic Front, Sick Of It All, SOIA is a workhorse, they have just been there, and they are the mainstays, the rock that NYHC could stand on. SOIA and Madball. Then young blood: VOD, Farenheit, and all the bands from back in the early 90’s, Home 33, Kritter; all the bands that kept it going. Coney Island High, the Wetlands, so many good shows then. It’s definitely not dead. You still got young blood. Kill Your Idols is still doing it. Sworn Enemy just signed to Elektra records, they are representing NYHC on the OZZFEST.

Reali-D: Mindset right?

Lenny: That’s right, you remember that, old Mindset. Full Blown Chaos another band on Stillborn (Jamie Hatebreeds label). Everybody Gets Hurt is still trucking along. Inhuman is still going.

Reali-D: To finish Bridge 9 as a label. Slapshot old, Terror new. You can’t be with better bands.

Lenny: Absolutely not. As a fan of the label, I watched it grow constantly and consistently and it’s a label that will prove longevity. It’s the type of thing we want to mirror and grow as a success with our band. Its like the bands on Bridge 9 have been able to recreate the old spirit and the old style of hardcore and add some new interesting things to it. They keep writing good songs and keep it sounding interesting, so that it’s never going to sound stale. There is no reason you have to stray from your traditional hardcore roots in order to create something new and interesting. That’s bullshit. If you are a real fucking hardcore kid and you know your fucking roots, you’re going to be able to feel that and have that history behind you and the knowledge of what it is and what it always has been.

Reali-D: So what keeps it alive?

Mike: Heart

Lenny: Heart

Brian: Kids

All: The New bands and some of the old bands. The new bands though, without new bands it will go stale. You know bands like us, Sworn Enemy, Full Blown Chaos, Subterfuge, The Backup Plan, Scraps and a Heart Attack, Project Stereo; there are a lot of bands. And most importantly those kids that see them.

Mike starts talking, to Brian behind us, about the band on and what the fuck is wrong with them. Then you hear Steve and Brian say, “Let’s go, they are getting their ass kicked right now.” Lenny turns, “What the fuck is going on?.....What’s the matter?

Steve screams, “Talking shit, talking shit; this is why fists crash into fucking faces!”

Mike and Lenny say hey get over here, Steve exits ready to throw and On the Rise follows to check what the fuck is up. Screaming in the other room as instruments halt.

Apparently a band intro’ed a song like, “This song is why planes crash into buildings!” Steve basically pulled them off stage and wrecked the set after 1 song screaming, “This is why fists crash into faces!” An argument ensued, which I have on tape where Steve Gallo rightfully calls them out on what they said to which they had no intelligent reply.

On the Rise had his back and shit got squashed quick as did that bands set. Right quick, NYHC style.