Syracuse’s hardcore rock community celebrates 40 years of comradery
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While Christmas shopping with his family in December 2012, Lukas Reed recalls his older sister asking if he wanted to sneak out to a hardcore show later that night. As a middle school student, he felt like he had to take the opportunity.
“Your big sister wants you to do some cool, grown-up things? Obviously I said yeah,” Reed said. “From that point onward I was just so enamored by everything, just the energy and the comradery of it all, it felt so unreal.”
Whether there are 30 people in a venue or hundreds, hardcore shows have a spirit that Reed carries with him everywhere. He maintains that feeling when managing the Syracuse Hardcore Instagram page and organizing events for the local community.
Even four decades after the scene started popping up, the hardcore rock community in Syracuse still thrives. On March 15, crowds celebrated how far the scene has come with a hardcore exhibit at the Silver Street Community Center that included memorabilia dating back to the ‘80s. Newspapers and flyers from past shows decorated the walls of the venue and vendors sold items like vinyl records and clothing.
Hardcore is a subgenre of punk rock notable for its fast-paced rhythms and aggressive vocals. Syracuse has produced nationally beloved hardcore bands, including Earth Crisis and The Promise. For community members – from children to people who have loved hardcore since the beginning – the scene invites a sense of family and chances to celebrate the music and culture they love.
Colin Mras has been going to hardcore shows in Binghamton since 2006 and started going to shows in Syracuse in 2010. After moving to Syracuse in 2021, he joined the band Deal With God. Since becoming a part of the local scene, he said events like Saturday’s exhibit are vital.
“These people are my family,” Mras said. “It’s important for any subculture to know what came before you. It’s just going back and realizing what makes Syracuse hardcore.”
Bryan Krause, another Syracuse local, has been going to hardcore shows in the city for two decades. He said he listened to bands including Another Breath and Forfeit, and was gifted merchandise at shows as a kid. Now 36, he said he’s glad he’s able to do the same for kids of today.
“Ever since COVID there’s been such a youthful resurgence in the Syracuse scene and I think a big takeaway is to remind everyone this didn’t just come out of thin air,” Reed said. “This has been 40-plus years of ebbs and flows and it’s mostly a labor of love from most people.”
Reed said the local hardcore community values these experiences, calling it tight-knit to the point where everyone essentially knows everyone.
“It’s one of those things of paying it forward and passing it on to the next,” Reed said. “It’s not like this is a main job for anyone. It’s just that my friends have some shirts that they want to give to a younger person.”
Surya Vaidy | Staff Photographer
Attendees of the 315 Hardcore Exhibit look at old hardcore concert posters and flyers. The exhibition was a makeshift gallery showcasing photos, posters, as well as memorabilia from the hardcore scene in Syracuse.
Jamie “Pickslide” Talucci echoed Reed’s thoughts, saying that it’s great to not only see people continuing to be active in the community but to also see the city’s younger generation participate more.
Talucci has been around the Syracuse hardcore scene since 2003 and, along with his partner Thao Crash, is in punk rock duo War Lovers.
“(It’s about) making friends and then eventually making friends with those guys’ kids because their kids are in bands,” Talucci said.
The couple recently concluded a world tour where they played in cities including Syracuse, Seoul, South Korea and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The two artists don’t plan on resting as they have another tour starting this May in New Jersey.
From the time that she started recording concerts, Syracuse local Sarah Miller said that what she loves the most about the hardcore community is how inclusive it is. Miller also appreciates seeing more transgender people, people of color and women feel welcome in the scene.
Miller has been frequenting hardcore concerts since 1998 and runs an Instagram page where she posts hardcore sets recorded on VHS from as early as the late ‘90s.
“Everything is so inclusive it also makes me cry,” Miller said. “It melts me every time to see so many people together being happy.”
She started filming shows herself around two years ago using a VHS camera, quickly realizing that people loved seeing shows through a retro lens. After sharing her collection over the years, she said making her own is a unique way to give back to the hardcore community.
Whether through music, photography or art, Miller said the progress that the local hardcore scene and its members have made is inspiring to see.
“This started in Syracuse and it meant a lot to people then,” Miller said. “The fact that it still is now so much to so many people, it’s really important.”
