Syracuse Hardcore Punk: Stab the Judge's "Erik Least Wanted"

Erik, we want to hear about your band Stab the Judge. For those who have never heard of STJ, give us a synopsis.

It's all a little hazy, but I'll do my best... As far as I can recall, the seeds of the band got sewn somewhere in 1998. I was in a band already, and one of my best friends, Bubba, used to hang around constantly. He would come and hang out at practice, and help us load in at shows and stuff like that. He loved our band, but he wanted some deeper involvement, so he bought a bass guitar and asked me if I'd join a new band with him. I agreed, but since the band I was in at the same time was my 'main' band, I told him I'd only be the singer, as opposed to playing guitar like I had been doing in other situations. Bubba and I ran in the same circles, so he didn't really know anybody else who played music, so he eventually came to just invite everyone else I was playing with at the time, except the bassist! But as things progressed, the original band folded, and we were without a drummer. We tried out a small number of drummers until we hit upon Steve, who I think we started playing with in late 1998, and I believe we played our first real show in January of 1999. 

We carried on for a few years, and we did the whole 'break up to make up' thing for a while at the end. Not that there was any bad blood between us; we just didn't really have a clear plan of how to go forward once we were all out of high school. Priorities seemed to change. I can't really give you a good date as to when the era of us being in a regular band ended, but I believe we had our final 'reunion' show in 2003.

What did you do in the band and who else was in it?

So, I was the singer, and I wrote about 95% of the music and all of the lyrics (I think!). Steve Buckley was our drummer, although when he bowed out we did try and continue without him for a little while, and we played one show with our friend Tyler Johnson (RIP). Chuck "Manic" Monday played guitars and sang. Bubba played bass, and also created general mayhem. 

Now, you wore a mask while singing! And this pre-dated Slipknot! Where did you get this idea?

Me and the drummer, Steve, were real tight and I'd crash at his house for weeks at a time. So one day, as we were waking up at his house I grabbed a Jason/Friday the 13th mask off of his wall. (He was a big horror movie guy *and* a collector, so he had stuff like that hanging around everywhere) I said, "Wouldn't it be funny if I wore this mask during our set?" and so I did. It was really just a lark, but this is as the band was still kind of finding our Sea Legs, as it were. I had always played guitar before; I'd never been front and center without a guitar to hide behind, so I was unsure what to do with myself and lacked confidence. But, when I wore the mask the first time, we had a wild show and everyone was like, "You should do that every time!" So I think it did help with that at first, but really it had become kind of a shtick. And a lot of people talk about shtick in a dismissive context, but I'm not necessarily doing that here. It just became something that was one of our calling cards. Plus, I eventually came to appreciate the anonymity it afforded me. I can't tell you how many times after our set I'd be outside with people talking, and they'd tell me how much they hated the band that just played!

Have you ever played a show without the mask? Would it still be Stab the Judge if you did? 

Yeah, in the beginning I didn't wear the mask. But once it became our thing, I pretty much always wore it. And after the first 5 or 10 shows I did with it, I started wearing the mask to the venue and until I was in a car or van on the ride home. Just to try and maintain some mystery, especially for people seeing us for the first time. I don't know if it would still be Stab the Judge without it, at least not in the sense we came to know it. At our height, we started bringing strobe lights and black lights and killing all of the other lights in the venue. We were trying to create an atmosphere, and I think the mask could aid in creating a disconcerting experience. You can barely see, and then you got someone running around and screaming, but you can't see their mouth moving, or the sweat pouring down their face.

What was the best show you've ever played?

I honestly couldn't say. I don't really remember. I think I was just really lucky to be playing with a lot of other bands that we were close friends with, like Ill Nature and Lost Soul Division, as well as bands we met along the way, like Disaster Strikes and Fallen Short. Actually, speaking of those two, we did go out to Boston and played an amazing show with some of them and a ton of awesome Boston bands. That show does stand out to me.

What was the worst?

The worst was easily one of our first shows. It may have been our second show ever. Chuck was out of town so I ended up playing guitar and singing, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But, for whatever reason, Steve was in a bad mood and just telling me how much the people at that particular show sucked, and how much they hated us, etc. I'm not really sure why, I think that was some kind of defense mechanism he had for when he was nervous or something! But he got me all gassed up and exceptionally bitter towards the crowd that day. So we started our set, and everyone was kind of just staring at us. So after the first song or two, I start harassing people in the audience- nothing vulgar or out pocket, but just telling them to move around a little bit, bop their heads, give us some symbolic gesture that they are at a rock n' roll show. Nowadays, I know this is a totally obnoxious thing to do. But I was like, 15 or 16 years old. Anyways, they continued to just stare at us with their hands in their pockets. So during the 3rd song (maybe?) I just lost it and took my guitar off and threw it to the floor. Flipped everyone off, yelled, "Fuck you guys. Fuck you all!" and walked off. However this was the Westcott Community Center, and if you've ever been there, you'll know that there is *NO BACKSTAGE*. So I retreated to the bathroom right behind the stage to hide. There was a lot of confusion, because there was no clear reason why I was pissed. I was just completely in my head. But the band didn't know why I stormed off, or if we were going to finish our set. After about 3 minutes, I had to slink out of the bathroom and collect my now-broken guitar, turn off and pack up my amp, and bring everything to the side of the stage so it'd be out of the way for the next band. Meanwhile, tons of people are coming up to me asking, "What's going on?" and "Are you ok?" and other things like, "Can I have your guitar? What are you going to do with it? It's broke." I couldn't really articulate to anybody what had happened, and I had to stand in front of the whole crowd and pack up after my random tantrum. That was embarrassing as all hell. I just wanted to crawl in a hole.

          

Do you think the Syracuse Hardcore scene embraced Stab the Judge?

You know, that's a good question. I'm not really sure. At the time, I didn't really think they did. But, looking back, I think that they actually did embrace us way more than maybe they should have. And they definitely did embrace us more than any other punk band. At least that I know about.

I went to punk shows for years and feel like you were a good fit there and very influential to the young punks of 1999-2001. Was your intent to play the same shows that Earth Crisis and Another Victim and other straight edge hardcore bands were playing? 

Initially, that was not our intent. But me and Bubba both went to a ton of hardcore shows before we ever made the band, so we definitely had an appreciation for that scene. We were the type of kids who'd go to *every* show, we didn't really discriminate. I saw it all as different branches of the same tree. But when we first started out, we just wanted to play rad punk shows. As things progressed, we got more abrasive, all the while the punk shows at the time seemed to be headed in a decidedly more pop-oriented direction. And then there was the politics, too. As we got more political, I felt like the punk scene was getting less political. It went hand in hand with the pop punk. This is not to say I don't love playing shows with a bunch of pop punk bands. I just feel we had as much overlap with them as we did with a lot of the hardcore bands of that day. It was really more of a matter of not really having a "home", so we tried to make one where we could. We borrowed some stuff from everywhere, and in turn, there were people in every scene that could identify with us in some way.

Do you have any plans to reincarnate the Judge? What do you think that would look like now in 2019? 

That would look terrible. Haha. Nope, no plans. Although I will say this- I'd be happy to play music with any of those guys. They're still my best friends and some of my favorite people, although I haven't spoken with them in a while. But even if I did play with one, or all of them- it wouldn't be Stab the Judge!

          

Would you consider STJ a political band? Who wrote your lyrics?

At first, we definitely were not political. Since I was already in a band when STJ got its start, it was originally kind of a joke band. The concept was to just be offensive and provocative. Our name was supposed to be The Don't Cares! What a terrible name... But as things got more serious, I started to embrace the political stuff more. That's not to say we were exclusively political- there were songs that were just for fun. Or about high school stuff. I wrote the lyrics.

Do you think songs like "Fuck You Nazi Motherfuckers" and "Good Little Vegan Warriors" would hit home with kids today? 

I don't know about "Good Little Vegan Warriors" haha. That song is more contained to a certain time and place. Hopefully kids today don't have to go through what we went through. Syracuse is a small city, and in the mid-90's it was the Straight Edge capital of the world. Per capita, there were more Vegan Straight Edge kids than anywhere else in the world! It's hard for people to imagine what that's like. But it was like Beatlemania, or Pogz. One of those things that every white, suburban teenage kid did at the time. It was a normal phase of growing up: the straight edge phase. While there were a ton of smart, sensitive, and thoughtful people attracted to the ideas, there was also more than your fair share of mindless dunces. The type who didn't really believe in anything, but would try to hard to outdo everyone else. And the sheer number of them that were around is inestimable. So that is really about a very particular mindset. I wouldn't want a song like that to be promoted today; I wouldn't want to discourage someone from trying out a lifestyle that could potentially work really well for them.

Fuck You Nazi Motherfuckers, on the other hand? Sure, there will always be a place for that. It's probably more relevant today than it was when we wrote it. Just as long as you listen to the other song we put out on that tape: Anti-Fascism is Fascism Too. It's like we predicted this whole tension 20 years ago.

Antifa, Donald Trump, Nazi Motherfuckers

Anything else on the horizon for your music?
I'm playing in a band with some good dudes, Mala Vista. I'm not singing or writing lyrics, just playing guitar. It's fun. We will have a 7" out soon, keep your eyes open. It will be up on Bandcamp and the other assorted places people can listen to music nowadays. Be warned- it doesn't sound like STJ. But it's awesome!

Thanks so much for the interview Erik, and thanks for influencing me and about a thousand other young punx just like me with Stab the Judge.