All We Love We Leave Behind
As a scene, we’ve placed a lot of attention on teaching ourselves to live. Hardcore is only just starting to learn how to talk about death.
I.
Over the years, I’ve told several different versions of this story. When you’re handling loss, there are always several stories to tell.
I will always remember that day in 1988 when I first met Chris. He had just started dating a girl I was friends with and he was waiting in the parking lot of my high school to pick her up. Back then, any time you met someone with even a passing interest in hardcore, it was a given that you’d become fast friends, and by the time he pulled out of that parking lot, I knew we’d crossed that threshold. Within months, Chris and I became so close that he started coming over to my house every weeknight after his girlfriend’s curfew. We’d hang out in my room, listening to music and listening to each other talk about our lives until my mom would kick him out—most nights not until well after midnight. I remember going to shows with him, on Long Island o…