Photo by David Hsu.
This year at the Black N Blue Bowl (formerly the Superbowl of Hardcore), event organizer and Madball frontman Freddy Cricien took a few moments out of his busy schedule to talk to me. Here's what he had to say.
--On putting together the Black N Blue Bowl:
FC: It's a lot of hard work, a lot of effort from my partner and I. It's a family business, so we have a lot of shoulders to lean on. We like to keep it that way, in the family--production, the whole nine. Everything is organic, grassroots. But it's like anything, hard work. Getting all the bands to come together for one show. There's all kinds of touring going on, bands have different schedules, so trying to get everyone to agree to this show is a tough deal in itself. Making it happen smoothly is a whole other project. But so far I'm thankful that this is gonna be our fourth year and it's been a success every year across the board--turnout, crowd acceptance. No violence, no thieves, no dumb shit during the shows. Overall, it's been really good.
--On playing a set in addition to organizing the event:
FC: Obviously I could be relaxing right now and just waiting to play, but being that I'm one of the promoters, I have to constantly be running around, making sure that everyone else is doing their job. I almost forget that I have to play. I'd almost rather not play, but we skipped last year and the year before we were just a guest appearance. It made sense--Agnostic Front, us. We haven't played together for a long time. We both skipped New York on our last tours. It had to happen.
--On being in Grand Theft Auto IV:
FC: Yeah, they threw us in there. They have this whole old school hardcore station or something, and I guess some of us are on there. And that's great, man. It's a great game, a cool fuckin' game. Rockstar [GTA developer] is one of our sponsors this year and they were totally cool, totally helpful in every aspect. It's cool that it's something we're into. We're not ever gonna link up with something that doesn't fit our personalities.
--On what songs may appear in the game:
FC: I haven't heard yet. I think it's "Smell The Bacon." I think it's one of the old tracks.
--On picking the bands for the Bowl:
FC: We try to make it exciting for the people. We try to think of the bands that people wanna see. It's always a little New York heavy because it's based in New York City. Traditionally speaking, the Superbowl started in New York. It moved around, but it's really a New York thing, it always was, and we try to keep that tradition alive. It always ends up being more New York bands, but we also want to broaden the horizons, to make it a whole universal thing. We got Terror from the West Coast, we got Backfire from Holland. Last year we had Aggressive Dogs from Japan. We want to keep it New York, but we also want to showcase all the great bands from everywhere and the great scenes going on everywhere else. We try to balance it out and pick the bands that fit the picture and make it exciting for people, so they want to come out and be a part of it.
--On the history of the Superbowl:
FC: I can't say exactly when it started, but I know it started in the '80s. Madball even played a Superbowl in the early '90s. Agnostic Front used to play 'em back in the '80s. It's an old tradition. I can't even say who started it, but I know it started in New York and then traveled to D.C. and it moved around a little and then it just disappeared into thin air. And then Joey and myself took control of the name and turned it into what it is now. Obviously, this year we've changed it to the Black N Blue Bowl for legal reasons, but it's still the same concept, the same thing. It's been going on for year and years, but since 2005 it's been our thing. From the looks of things, I think we've been doing an alright job of keeping it going.
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