FROM THE NYHC BOOK ARCHIVES: MIKE JUDGE INTERVIEW PART I

This interview with Mike Judge was conducted in the fall of 2013 for my second book, NYHC: New York Hardcore 1980 - 1990. The book has been out of print for awhile, but will be available again next month and can be pre-ordered over at Bazillion Points.

Due to the space restraints with Substack, this interview will be posted in two parts.

I remember we would get the Village Voice and take it home and see who was playing. We saw there was a matinee going on during a Saturday afternoon at CB’s. The first time I went to a CB’s matinee I saw Agnostic Front. This was back when John Watson was the singer. When I saw that show that was it. Every Saturday, I was there. I had to be a part of that scene.

It took a little bit before we decided to check out A7. Unless you were in New York and saw a flyer pasted somewhere, you didn’t know about them. Sometimes the A7 shows would be a spur of the moment type of thing. Once we got down there and saw all these guys we would see at the CB’s shows were hanging out on Avenue A and Tompkins Square, we started going in just to hang out and it went from there.

One of the first bands I ever saw was Adrenalin OD, but it was an Irving Plaza gig. It was hard to see shows in New Jersey for us. You had to drive to them, you couldn’t take a bus to them. I guess we could have taken a bus to them, but then how do you get to the actual club? It was so much simpler for us to take a bus into New York. After going to CB’s three or four times and seeing the same group of people hanging out together, I wanted to be hanging out with these guys. Maybe I was just looking for something to replace my own family.

It wasn’t easy for us Jersey guys to be a part of it. There was definitely a clique going on there (NYC) and they were definitely stand-offish. They would find out you were from Jersey and they weren’t exactly fucking thrilled. It wasn’t until I met guys from Queens that I felt tight with other people. Then I found out a lot of my favorite bands were coming from Queens. Then I find out that Cause For Alarm who are in the New York crew are from Jersey. That’s when things started coming together. I think after a while of standing up for ourselves at the gigs, those New York guys eventually thought we were alright.