Hardcore Rewind: TREE - A Lot to Fear by Zirp

Hardcore Rewind: 

TREE - A Lot to Fear

Boston may not be the hub of the universe, but it was the hub of one of the first wheels of hardcore punk. Over the decades that followed, it has consistently been a breeding ground for many, many great and highly influential punk rock and hardcore bands. If this is your type of music, you’re undoubtedly a fan of at least a few of them. You may think you know all of them, and maybe you do. Then again, there may be some you’ve been sleeping on all these years. Let’s take it back to 1993:

I was 8 years old, and still a good few years away from discovering punk/hardcore. While I was either getting on my 3rd grade teacher’s nerves at the Curtis Guild Elementary School or watching Beavis and Butt-head (I was definitely doing one or the other), some dude named Menino was doing whatever it was that he did, and a band called TREE were taking the hardcore scene of my very own city by storm. That was the year they dropped their debut album, A Lot to Fear. 

Despite the title of this piece, this is truthfully less of an album review or a retrospective, and more of a demand to listen to this album, and to then proceed to listen to the rest of their discography. Though certainly a hardcore band, they really were always so much more than just another hardcore band. Those RIFFS. That GROOVE. That EVERYTHING. 

If you’re from Boston/New England and you’re reading this, I have a strong feeling that I may be preaching to the choir. However, bafflingly, I have met a lot of locals over the years, my age and older, who love punk and hardcore, but have somehow never heard of TREE. I mean, what?! 

While they’ve been a beloved New England musical institution all these years, far too many people just don’t know. For how truly phenomenal of a band they are, they rightfully should be every bit as well known globally as any “famous” hardcore band is. Under the right circumstances, this is a band that could have easily broke through and become full-blown rock stars, without changing a goddamn thing about their music. 

You know what, though? These are some real Boston area boys, and some real artists, still doing their thing in 2024. Perhaps they were meant to be one of this region’s finest bands to ever to do it, and a hidden gem for the rest of the world to dig up in due time. In the meantime, listen to all the albums they’ve released, get ready for the next one, and by all means, catch a show...BOSTON HARDCORE RULES!