By: Summer Chu

In the late 70s, the first New York City punk and alternative bands had moved on to encompass larger audiences by moving to bigger to larger venues and the international touring circuit. While the start of punk alternative rock can be traced back to 1967 by The Velvet Underground, it only started overtaking New York City in 1977.

As these bands became more and more popular, it remained true that the bands were made up of many dropouts and runaways; some were even from the suburbs. Almost all of them were under 18.

In the next few years, these bands spent their nights creating their own rock scene, playing witty, sophisticated but intense, and aggressive pop and punk for mostly fellow teenagers in places like CBGB, Max’s Kansas City, Hurrah, and TR3.

Among these teen stars was Eric Hoffert, whose weekdays were filled with four hours of homework from Bronx Science, then another four hours of guitar practice. His weekends were filled with his band, the Speedies.

Another teen was 16-year-old Arthur Brennan from Groton, Connecticut, a town so small that he had to hitchhike 20 miles to a newsstand before could run away. He would walk the 20 miles regularly just to look at the magazines that contained articles about new music before he changed his name to Darvon Staggard and ran away to New York to join a punk rock band.

Kate Schellenbach, a ninth grader at Stuyvesant, had heard a rumor that groups her age were playing the most famous music clubs in the world, just blocks from where she lived. 1979 was when Schellenbach first was exposed to punk rock music.

“I remember going into the girls’ bathroom,” she said cheerfully, speaking via video chat, “and this girl, Nancy Hall, who was the coolest, was sitting on the sink.” Nancy suggested that Kate go see a band playing at CBGB later that week called the Student Teachers.

There Schellenbach fell in love with the music, and it influenced her to become a drummer.