It’s going to get a little crazy again in Detroit on May 31st and June 1st with the annual TIED DOWN fest. This year AMERICAN NIGHTMARE & FOUNDATION will be headlining alongside Speed, Fiddlehead, Judge, and so many more great bands. Grab tickets HERE!
American Nightmare celebrating 25 Years: Feb 2025 / NYC (UPDATE: SOLD OUT)
AMERICAN NIGHTMARE is starting its 25th year with a show in Brooklyn, NY on February 25th, 2025. Special guests include NO WARNING! Tickets go on sale Friday, Dec. 6th HERE!
Bridge Nine featured in The Athletic (New York Times)
Chris Wrenn (left) and Wes Eisold of American Nightmare (right) selling “Yankees Suck” merch after a Red Sox game (Sumer 2000, photo by Kate Bowen)
The Athletic just released an article written by senior editor Sunaya Sapurji that delves into the origin story of Bridge Nine Records, and the outside-of-the-box way that we financially kickstarted the label, by selling “Yankees Suck” merch to Red Sox fans after every game at Fenway Park in the early 2000s through an effort that later became the Sully’s brand. Learn about how Boston's sports fans (unknowingly?) helped launch the Bridge Nine label, and how both brands have grown side-by-side over the past two decades! Read it HERE!
(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; photos: Getty Images, Smith Collection / Gado, Dina Rudick / The Boston Globe; courtesy of Bridge Nine Records)
American Nightmare LIVE at Bridge Nine on June 9th (recap)
American Nightmare live at Bridge Nine on June 9th, 2023. Photo by Chris Wrenn
It was an honor and a privilege to invite American Nightmare to perform live in the Bridge Nine warehouse on Friday, June 9th, 2023.
Our label would not have been the same had we not once shared an apartment with members of American Nightmare as they wrote the songs that became the band’s debut EP in the fall of 1999.
American Nightmare set list photo, courtesy of Jameile Cawley
To have the band return and be a part of the community we are trying to build here in Beverly was nothing short of one of the most memorable evenings we’ve experienced as a label, and we are thankful to have been able to share it with those who were able to make it.
A special thank you to Wes, Josh, Brian, Alex, and Jim for performing. Thank you to Linas Garsys for the fantastic imagery, to Chris Padgett for running sound, to Larry Kelley for helping everything run smoothly, to Anthony Moreschi, Bill Fulkerson, Chris Padgett, Todd Pollock, Adam Tanner, Aaron Pepelis, Dom Dinardo, Johna Jo, Pats Polaroidz, Al Quint, and others for helping to document the evening. And thank you to Liquid Death for murdering our guests’ thirst!
Performance #3 is in the works; details soon…
American Nightmare photo image courtesy of Linas Garsys
American Nightmare photo gallery courtesy of Chris Padgett:
American Nightmare photo gallery courtesy of Dominic DiNardo:
American Nightmare photo gallery courtesy of Todd Pollock:
American Nightmare Announces Two New England Shows
American Nightmare has announced two shows in New England in support of the release of their new EP, Dedicated To The Next World. One will be in Cambridge, MA on 6/8, and the other will be in Portland, ME on 6/11. Stay tuned for the announcement of supporting acts for the Boston show! Tickets go on sale this Friday, May 12. More info and tickets will be available HERE.
American Nightmare Announce New 10" EP, Bridge Nine Has An Exclusive Variant
The new EP from American Nightmare and their first 10" vinyl release, which will be officially released on 6/01/23. This is the "evergreen" variant of their new EP on vocalist Wes Eisold’s Heartworm label that is limited to 250 copies and is exclusively available from Bridge Nine. Pre-order your copy HERE!
Dedicated To The Next World is AN refusing to rest on legacy. The legendary hardcore punk band returns with four new songs that sound like classic and future AN, stripped down and sped up to their trademarked urgency and live violence. With stream of conscious lyrics and existential dread, these are revival songs for the modern disenchanted.
"How I Got Away" recalls AN's anthemic hardcore sound ala tracks "We Are" and "The World Is Blue." "Self Check-Out" is a minute-long punk blister. "Real Love" flies like speed fueled Stooges and "Praying Hands..." nods to the influences of Bad Brains and Negative Approach.
Having started in 2000 and initially breaking up in 2004, the band reunited in 2012 and subsequently launched a second life of lauded shows and records proving that there is life after youth.
Recorded live to 2 inch tape by American Nightmare drummer Alex Garcia-Rivera at Mystic Valley Recording Studio in Boston. Mastered and cut for vinyl by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service.
Shipping late May 2023.
Track Listing:
01. How I Got Away
02. Self Check-Out
03. Real Love
04. Praying Hands On Fire
American Nightmare announce 20 year anniversary tour
To dub American Nightmare “iconic” would be a vast understatement for the hardcore vanguard — the band has indisputably solidified themselves as legends within the genre and beyond. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Year One, a compilation of the band’s first two EP’s, American Nightmare will embark on a North American tour and re-release the album via Heartworm Press and Bridge Nine Records in Winter 2020.
In February 2000 Wesley Eisold, the singer and lyricist behind American Nightmare, self-booked the band’s first-ever show in a church in Portland, Maine. The show not only spurred one of the most prodigal tenures of hardcore punk, but it also set a precedent for the band’s relentless DIY ethic, volatile musicianship, and bleeding heart lyricism. As a band and as a philosophy, American Nightmare set a new standard for the worldwide hardcore community.
American Nightmare’s first two EPs, American Nightmare and The Sun Isn’t Getting Any Brighter, were released as an LP by Bridge Nine in 2001. Defying styles, trends, and even names, American Nightmare quickly rose as a bellwether to the giants of punk, metal, and mainstream music. After releasing several EP's and two LP's, the band split in 2004 before reforming in 2011, with Eisold pouring time and talent into his new wave outfit Cold Cave in the interim.
The Year One reissue will be released via Heartworm Press and Bridge Nine Records early next year.. A full tour itinerary can be found below. Stay tuned for more updates.
American Nightmare — 20th Anniversary Tour:
02/13 - Boston, MA @ Royale
02/14 - New York City @ Brooklyn Steel
02/16 - Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of the Living Arts
02/19 - Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
02/20 - Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
02/21 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
02/22 - Minneapolis, MI @ Fine Line Music Hall
02/25 - Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
02/26 - Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex Grand
02/28 - Portland, OR @ Hawthorne
02/29 - Vancouver, BC @ Imperial Theatre
03/01 - Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
03/06 - San Fransisco, CA @ The Fillmore
03/14 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda
American Nightmare is:
Wesley Eisold
Josh Holden
Brian Masek
Alex Garcia-Rivera
Jim Carroll
How Bridge Nine Turned "Yankees Suck" into Hardcore Punk Gold (& launched American Nightmare, Terror, Have Heart & more!)
If you like hardcore music you've heard of Bridge Nine, and if you like Boston sports you've heard of Sully's, but did you know the sports brand was originally started solely to fund punk albums? When Chris Wrenn was just 19 years old, he started a record label in his dorm room. Then, in the spring of 2000, he walked to Fenway Park from Boston's Mission Hill with friends from his bands and a backpack full of "Yankees Suck" bumper stickers. The plan? To make the much needed money to release a record with his roommates in the band American Nightmare. What happened next took the hardcore music scene of the early 2000's worldwide and cemented Bridge Nine Records as one of its most recognized ambassadors. Read about it courtesy of No Echo HERE!
*Circa 2000 photo of Chris Wrenn and Wes Eisold (American Nightmare) hawking to Sox fans by Kate Bowen.
Read the digitized 2001 B9 catalog featuring interviews with No Warning, Carry On, + more
We’ve digitized the 2001 Bridge Nine catalog for your reading enjoyment this Thanksgiving! A true blast from the past featuring 16 pages of old advertisements and interviews with No Warning, Carry On, Stop and Think, Death Threat, and more. Check it out HERE.
Amazon digital specials for February
$6.99 ALBUMS [until 2/26]:
Candy Hearts - All The Ways You Let Me Down
Give Up the Ghost - Year One
Goodtime Boys - Rain
$5 ALBUMS [until 2/12]:
Ruiner - Hell Is Empty
Alcoa - Bone & Marrow
$3.99 ALBUMS [until 2/26]:
Ceremony - Covers EP
Antidote - Thou Shalt Not Kill EP
Paint It Black - Amnesia EP
$0.69 SONGS [until 2/26]:
H2O - "True Romance"
Polar Bear Club - "Living Saints"