By: Abigail Weintraub

The first thing that hits the audience’s ears is the gripping drum beat. Lyrics are barely audible between blaring guitar riffs, and the air instantly fills with song and rhythm, loud and jolting like electricity. What’s more is that most of these band members, rocking the stage, are only in high school.

One was a 16-year-old formerly named Arthur Brennan. Renaming himself Darvon Staggard, he’d hitchhike from the local newsstand to see his favourite bands in each new issue. After running away from Groton to New York City, he ended up joining a band called the Blessed.

Another was Eric Hoffert, a student from Bronx Science. Juggling guitar practice and schoolwork, he played in a band named the Speedies, joining his pals in strumming tunes before boisterous fans.

There were many more that lived a similar lifestyle, most under 18. Some displayed their punk lifestyles through their clothing. Their routine was studying by daylight and rocking under the moonlight.

“If I hadn’t seen the Student Teachers that fateful night, I might never have been a drummer,” said 13-year-old Kate Schellenbach, who would go on to found the Beastie Boys. She spends concerts decked out in clothing like overdyed painter’s pants and her signature boots from Reminisce.

“This certainly isn’t how we would have expressed it at the time, but it was living life as a performance art piece,” said Nicolas Petti, co-founder of the Blessed. After the passing of Howie Pyro, founder of the band, Petti would remember the team’s lively pastimes. Tackling liver disease, Pyro died at 61 years of age when Covid took the final blow. “We wanted to be a three-ring circus,” Petti said.

Beginning in the late ‘70s, the teenagers’ punk-centered lives changed them forever. Although music and excitement paraded the lives of many, being an underage musician came with some difficulties. “Only recently have I begun to recognize how vulnerable we all were,” said author Christopher Sorrentino. “This goes double for the girls, who at 15 or 16 often had ‘relationships’ with men in their late 20s and early 30s.” This didn’t always seem like the case, according to middle schooler June Cuniff; “Night was freedom, and it felt like we were really safe.”

Even after waves of talented underage musicians emerged, their popularity began fading in the 1980s. In recent days, teenage rock stars aren’t as spotlighted as they were in the past. Although times are changing, the inspiring stories of previous musicians remain in tact.

Links:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/howie-pyro-dgeneration-dead-obit-1343029/