For a certain demographic of local listeners, the heyday of the Seacoast music scene came in the late 1980s. The Queers were building an international following, and numerous hardcore punk bands were gigging across the region. Around 1988, a new band called The Bruisers took over the street-punk scene.
The Bruisers remained active for about a decade, disbanding in the late 1990s. They played a raucous reunion show at The Roxy in Boston in 2005, blowing the PA system. With fans hungry for more, they played another reunion show in the late summer of 2012, this one at the 2000 Tons of TNT festival in Hartford, Conn.
The show proved there was still a large appetite for Bruisers music. Thousands of fans attended, many of them singing along to tunes that debuted 20 years earlier. It was enough to convince some band members to keep the music alive with a new project.
“We had no plans on continuing, really, after the reunion,” said drummer Dan Connors. “But (guitarist) Scott Vieira brought it up and said we should keep doing something. We started practicing, learning covers, writing songs.”
The band that eventually formed out of those practices is called Iron Chin — a name taken from the title of a song The Bruisers were given by hardcore legends Agnostic Front. They’ll play a release show for their debut album, “Live Free or Die with Your Boots On,” at The Stone Church in Newmarket on Friday, Jan. 16, following opening sets from To the Gallows and Guns of Brighton.
For the band members, Iron Chin is both a throwback to a bygone era, and an entirely new venture with a long life ahead.
Musical chairs
When The Bruisers were rehearsing for their reunion show in 2012, they needed a bassist to fill in for Johnny Rioux, who was traveling from Texas for the occasion. Connors called Douglas Aubin, a coworker at a gun factory in Exeter.
“I called him at 6:30 at night and said, ‘You wanna practice tomorrow?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be there,’” Connors said. “He learned 12 songs overnight.”
Aubin had played mostly in metal bands, but he adapted quickly to the street-punk style. When the reunion show was over and Rioux returned to Texas, Connors and Vieira recruited Aubin for their new band. Aubin then recommended his friend Joel Pasquerillo to serve as a second guitarist, adding another layer to the sound.
The lineup didn’t last long, though, as Vieria left the band in 2013 due to other obligations. Former Bruisers front man Al Barr, now of Dropkick Murphys fame, recommended guitarist Joel Paul as Vieira’s replacement. Paul has played in numerous area bands over the years (including as a frequent fill-in for The Queers), and he opened for The Bruisers in 2012 as a member of The Uprisers. With him onboard, Iron Chin seemed ready for primetime. But they soon encountered another setback.
“One of us got thrown into jail,” Paul said, referring to himself. He served four months before rejoining the group. “The band definitely showed their true colors by waiting for me,” he said.
Prior to Paul’s arrest, the full band had only played together once. But they knew right away they were onto something. “That one time we played together, it was pretty obvious,” Paul said. “I knew after the first chorus of (Motörhead’s) ‘Bomber,’ this is good.”
This is the kind of band you see once in a while that can take over a room. There’s a lot of energy and a lot of chemistry between the members in the band. — guitarist Joel Paul
Ironclad
Iron Chin recorded “Live Free or Die with Your Boots On” last summer at The Wild Arctic in Portsmouth. The disc includes six original songs and one cover (“Bomber”).
From the opening track, Daily Aftermath, the music careens out of the speakers in a full auditory assault. Aubin and Connors anchor the sound with rapid, driving bass and drums. Paul and Pasquerillo, both proficient and versatile guitarists, pave an electric runway over which the growling, guttural vocals roar.
Iron Chin’s sound echoes the street-punk glory of The Bruisers, but with their own signature stamp on each track. Aubin’s metal influence occasionally sneaks in, particularly on “Before the First Punch.” “Hard Luck Chuck” is about a man on the run from the law — perhaps an ode to Paul’s time in the can. “Live Free or Die” loudly announces the band’s undying Granite State pride.
Aubin said all the band members take part in the songwriting process. “There’s always one guy that starts something, but we all finish it together. And it’s never the same guy that starts it,” he said.
The group played several shows in 2014 and has been encouraged by the response they’ve gotten. They’re carrying on The Bruisers’ legacy, but they’ve also attracted younger crowds.
“I feel that there’s a lot of respect that Iron Chin gets from the lineage, which is having Dan Connors in the band, having it come out of The Bruisers,” Paul said. “But this is the kind of band you see once in a while that can take over a room. There’s a lot of energy and a lot of chemistry between the members in the band. It comes across. All of our gigs have been very successful. You can feel the energy in the room.”
Branching out
It’s fitting that Iron Chin’s CD release show takes place at The Stone Church, where the band members attended countless punk shows in the ’80s. Paul remembers eagerly checking the Church’s schedule each month and marking the dates that were not to be missed — and poking fun at the snoozers. It was a time, he said, “when the music was important. It was a big deal.”
The new album will be available for purchase at the release show. It can also be found at Spun Records in Dover and Skeletone Records in Rochester, as well as online at ReverbNation and Bandcamp.
The band has another gig booked at the Dover Brick House on Saturday, Jan. 31, alongside Class Struggle, Taxi Driver, The Damn Garrison, and The Doppelgangers. They plan to expand their schedule in the months ahead and book some shows farther away from their home turf. They also plan to record another album.
“We’re working on new songs, bigger and better shows, expanding the radius,” Connors said. “We’ve got some irons in the fire.”
Iron Chin’s CD release show takes place Friday, Jan. 16 at 8 p.m. at The Stone Church, 5 Granite St., Newmarket, 603-659-7700. Tickets are $6 in advance, or $8 at the door. For more information, visit ironchin.net.
CD cover art by Kyle Lacasse