Wrecking Crew was a Boston hardcore band that is often credited with putting Boston hardcore back on the map (alongside Slapshot). Comprised of Glenn Dudley, John Darga, Ralph DiNunzio, Keith Bennett, and Taras Hrabec they formed in 1986 and soldiered on with the original lineup until ’91.
November 18, 1989 – WRECKING CREW opened for Mordred and Nuclear Assault at the Paradise Rock Club. I was 16 years old.
Between April 13th, 1988 and November 17th, 1989, I was incarcerated in treatment centers for problematic children. If you have done your homework, or you know me or my advocacy, life, and work, then you know I am a child victim.
I am a white Jewish kid from a respectable family near Boston, Massachusetts. Therefore, it was unacceptable for anyone to know what was being done to me.
For the fucking record, I am the evidence. I’m the living proof.
I was not supposed to survive, thus, I am not living in the United States for a reason.
I’m alive today because I chose to protect myself and because I chose to be a happy, free and contributing member of society.
Talking about what happened gets me in trouble, but talking about it allows me to heal and be happy.
Talking about what happened to me is me taking back my power.
You: the 18 year old hardcore kid in Ukraine whose future may linger in the barrel of a gun. You: the 40 year old Mexican woman who was so hurt when she was young that she has struggled her entire life. You: the 50-something-year-old Boston hardcore punk metal superstar and current beast of recovery.
You know who you are.
You were one of my original heroes. You too have a story!
Whether you tell it today, or you tell it in 5 years my dear Ukrainian, Mexican and Bostonian friends – and all who have a story to tell!
You can tell it and you too, can take back your power!
On November 17th, 1989 – After 19 months of forced, illegitimate, cruel and unnecessary treatment and inescapable sexual abuse resulting in me having reconstructive surgery, I was deemed “cured” and released back into the community. I don’t think it needs to be said, but anyone who thinks that returning an adolescent to his abusers is a good idea is sick!
On November 18th, 1989, after years of listening to metal and hardcore on the radio, and getting magazines and ordering fanzines; I walked into the Paradise Rock Club and WRECKING CREW was hitting the stage!
Never in my life had I been exposed to something so raw and rabid and violent yet happy, and exhilarating and healing!
I watched each band with my most open heart – for in my own special way, a mere 9 days after the Berlin Wall fell, my Newton, Massachusetts Wall also fell, and this is where I became a hardcore punk for life!
I know that many people don’t want to read this shit, but there are people with stories like mine out there who have never been able to speak and heal.
If you are my age, then your list of friends lost to suicide, overdose and all sorts of avoidable demises, is between 40 and 100 if not more.
On October 6, 1990, I went to see The Exploited, Biohazard, Type-O Negative and Toxic Narcotic, at the famous Channel in Boston.
In between bands, I saw Keith Bennett, the bassist of Wrecking Crew with his unmistakable long red hair, and said hello.
I understand this entire story is crazy. It is about to get even more crazy!
I took a whole bunch of my abusive mother’s famous world class chocolate chip brownies, to this show, with the specific intention of giving them to the guys from Biohazard. While talking with Keith, I don’t remember exactly how, but he asked for one of the brownies.
I denied him!
I told him that the brownies were for Biohazard.
Keith, I am sorry. If I knew then, what I know now, I would have given you a brownie.
Nevertheless, this began a love affair between me and hardcore punk that has persisted to this day.
WRECKING CREW gave me my first taste of hardcore punk and if you don’t know about Wrecking Crew; you do now!
Respect must be given when it is due!
I am still a hardcore punk today, March 1st, 2022, here in Mexico, thanks much in part, to Wrecking Crew.
This blog is dedicated to everyone I know back in Boston, alive or gone, who had my back in the pit, on the street and at the shows, and especially for everyone who never gave up on me!
Crusty Craig “Gregorio” Lewis is a longtime contributor to IDIOTEQ. Gregorio is a punk rocker from the United States, living in México, and after traveling to forty countries around the world giving talks and workshops on how he has Survived the Impossible, both professionally and for the Punx, he has been living in his mountain pueblo for nearly four years. Contact Gregorio directly at [email protected] and check out his numerous published books, at Sanity is a Full-Time Job.
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