Miret - My Riot

Copyright 2017 Jon Wiederhorn and Roger Miret

Lyrics from My Riot! by R. Miret copyright 2006 by One Voice Music. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.

Lyrics from United Blood by V. Stigma copyright 1983 by Agnostic Front Publishing. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.

Lyrics from The Eliminator by R. Miret/P. Steele, copyright 1986 by Agnostic Front Publishing. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.

Lyrics from Public Assistance by P. Steele copyright 1986 by Agnostic Front Publishing. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.

Lyrics from Still Here by R. Miret/J. Jasta copyright 2004 by One Voice Music. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.

Lyrics from Take Me Back by R. Miret/J. Jasta copyright 2004 by One Voice Music. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.

first published in the united states of america in 2017 by :

Lesser Gods, 15 W. 36th St., 8th Fl., New York, NY 10018,

an imprint of Overamstel Publishers, Inc.

phone (646) 850-4201

www.lessergodsbooks.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by means

electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise,

without prior consent of the publisher.

distributed by : Consortium Book Sales & Distribution,

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phone (800) 283-3572

www.cbsd.com

first edition august 2017 / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

printed and bound in the u.s.a.

isbn : 978-1-944713-40-9

library of congress control number : 2017938504

NOTE: Some names and identifying details have been

changed to protect the privacy of certain individuals.

My Riot!

By Roger Miret and The Disasters

I was a teenage war

Punk rocker

An urban outlaw

Couldnt care at all

No feelings, back off!

Destroyed it all

This is my riot! My warmy hate!

This is my riot! My warmy hate!

This is my war! My hate!

Hate and war! This is my riot!

I was no disco bore

Punk rockin

Loud, fast and raw

My riot!

Spray painted the walls! My riot!

Smashed bottles, pissed off! My riot!

I fought the law! My riot!

Walking down these dark streets of New York City

Reminiscing on yesterday and now today

This riot in me never ever seems to fade away

Never an end to my war or my hate!

Foreword 1
A Lesson Well Learned:
Evolving Beyond Feuds and Living in Unity
Al Barr of the Dropkick Murphys

It was 1984, and the first wave of hardcore was going on, which felt like the second wave of punk. Id been entrenched in it for almost three years, but I wasnt in a big city where the action was. I was living with my folks in New Hampshire.

When I saw Agnostic Front for the first time, I was 15. My buddy Keith Eaton invited me, and I thought we were just going to a punk concert. That show was a life changer.

Agnostic Front started the show with a wild bassline and then guitar and drums. There was a mic stand but no singer. Then out of nowhere, this guy flew in, grabbed the microphone, sprung up into the air and started screaming. When he went into the chorus of Victim In Pain, Why am I going insane? he ripped his shirt off and I saw his tattoo of a crucified guy with a gas mask. He was muscular but lean. When he ripped off his kerchief, I saw he had a Mohawk. I thought, Fuck! He has the same look as me!

Keith and I went to the front and watched Agnostic Front from a few feet away. There was a rift between Boston and New York and this was a Boston crowd with a grudge, so they wanted to make a statement. Almost everyone was standing against the wall with their arms folded. AF was onstage ripping from one song to another, and no one was dancing!

Keith and I couldnt believe that they werent blown away by all of AFs energy. I had never seen anything like this division at a show. There had always been a feeling of unity: Everybody danced and shared in an us-against-the-world mentality. Something was weird that Keith and I didnt understand. Thats because we werent part of the city politics.

We later became aware of the rift between New York and Boston. Some bands from Boston had gone to CBGB, said some disparaging things about New York and gotten their asses beaten. In response, these Boston kids were giving AF attitude. At some point AF stopped playing. The drummer, Dave Jones, made a speech about how they had driven six-plus hours to get there. Wheres the love, Boston? he asked. What the fuck is this?

The band continued playing, but the tension grew. Eight or nine New York skins started bouncing through the crowd and beating the shit out of everybody. A young Dicky Barrett (later of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones) got punched in the face by Jimmy Gestapo from Murphys Law. It was a knock-down, drag-out fight. Chairs were hoisted and swung at people.

Intimidated by the violence, my friend and I left early, but not before I learned about the power of NYHC. Roger taught me all about furious, sincere facial expressions, and he leapt around the stage like an acrobat. During the slower parts he was the master of that New York stage stomp that his brother Freddy later perfected in Madball.

The first time I met Roger was in 1988. My band The Bruisers played a show with Agnostic Front at Man Ray in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Anticipating AFs performance made us more energetic during our set. When they went on they were explosive. When we started doing shows together I briefly feared Roger. They had come up to New England, and they stayed in New Hampshire on a day off. Roger wanted to go to some bike stores. Then I sent the band down a seacoast road, which was a beautiful drive that went directly to the club. When we got to the show the next day, Roger had just found out that his squat had burned down. Freddy was in the hospital with smoke inhalation. I went up to him not knowing anything had happened.

Hey, man! I said. Whatd you think of the shops and isnt that ride to the coast amazing? Did you like it?

I dont fuckin like anything! he yelled.

He had a crazy temper. I didnt know what to think until someone told me his living space had gone up in flames. Any fear I had of Roger dissipated. We did a bunch of shows together over a couple months, then they gave us a song they had never recorded but had always sound-checked with called Iron Chin. We recorded it in 1993 for our first full-length, Cruisin for a Bruisin . It became known as a Bruisers song and our fans loved it. This legendary group Agnostic Front gave a band from the sticks their song. And it wasnt some shitty leftover track. They didnt have to do that.

Once I became friends with Roger, he was like a big brother. He was someone I could talk to and look up to. On my first tour with Dropkick Murphys we opened for Agnostic Front, and I knew Roger better than the guys in my band. We were friendly, but friendships develop over time. Suddenly I was on a three-month U.S. tour with people I hardly knew followed by a month in Europe. Every day, there was a time when Roger and I talked about life.

Even though I had been in the punk scene and singing in bands for 15 years, I struggled to find where I fit in with the Dropkicks. There was a learning curve, but I had to learn fast since we were on the road. Everyone in the band was frustrated, including me. Roger was encouraging, and that boosted my confidence. I could be in a shitty mood, and wed go have coffee, complain and laugh. Suddenly everything didnt seem so stressful.