A Boston hardcore label funded by Yankees Suck stickers just took over a wall in Las Vegas. Fenway Punk: The Bridge Nine Records Exhibition opens Friday, November 13 at The Punk Rock Museum, and it runs through February.
Opening weekend is stacked. Roger Miret of Agnostic Front leads guided tours on November 13 and 14, and the Saturday night film screening is free.
A Rivalry Paid for the Records
For three decades, Bridge Nine Records has helped put Boston's hardcore punk scene on the map. The label has released music from American Nightmare, Have Heart, Agnostic Front, and New Found Glory.
None of it starts in a boardroom. Founder Chris Wrenn and friends from the local music scene sold bootleg Yankees Suck stickers and T-shirts outside Fenway Park, and those sidewalk sales helped fund the label's earliest releases.
The exhibition is inspired by Wrenn's new book, Fenway Punk: How a Boston Indie Label Scored Big on Baseball's Greatest Rivalry. Read the origin story first, then go stand in front of the evidence. That is the smart order.
Opening Weekend, Hour by Hour
- Friday, November 13: the exhibition opens, Miret leads guided tours, and a new Bridge Nine compilation debuts in the Three Star Bar, where it plays throughout the weekend.
- Saturday, November 14, 6 p.m.: a Fenway Punk discussion and reading with Wrenn, Miret, Mark McKay of Slapshot, and Jaime Scirappa of SSD.
- Saturday, November 14, 7:30 p.m.: a free screening of The Godfathers of Hardcore, Ian McFarland's documentary about Miret and Vinnie Stigma, with doors at 7 p.m. and a Q&A with Miret and Wrenn after the film.
- Sunday, November 15: Wrenn hosts a book event featuring Fenway Punk.
Tattoo people, plan ahead. The weekend also brings Bridge Nine and Fenway Punk inspired tattoo flash courtesy of Jeffrey Scott.
Pick your day by your priority. Tours on Friday or Saturday, the free film on Saturday night, the book event on Sunday. Trying to do it all in one lap is how people miss the 6 p.m. reading.
Find the Sign He Yanked Out of the Ground in 1997
Do not skip the artifact of the month. It is the original highway marker sign that inspired the name Bridge Nine, in Wrenn's own telling.
Wrenn wanted to call his label Bridge Records, but another label had been using that name for years. On trips to Boston for shows, he noticed every bridge along the highway had a numbered sign, and when he spotted one with his favorite number, Bridge Nine clicked.
Late one night in 1997, after a show at the Middle East nightclub, he yanked the sign and its eight-foot post out of the ground. The post took up pretty much the entire length of his 1989 Subaru station wagon, he covered it with Bridge Nine T-shirts, and that sign has hung in every office he has had since.
The museum is at 1422 Western Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89102. Go this weekend, while the people in the story are still in the building. After Sunday, the exhibition stays through February, but Miret, Wrenn, and the free film do not.
