Burnaby Green party city councilor Joe Keithley is swapping out his suit jacket for his denim vest for the 40th Anniversary of D.O.A’s Hardcore 81, presented by The Rickshaw and Sudden Death Records, with guests Bishops Green, The Spitfires, and Grrl Circus. 

D.O.A and the album Hardcore ‘81 helped establish and gave a name to the term the genre of faster, more aggressive, and often politically influenced style of punk-rock that we refer to now as “Hardcore Punk” or more simply “Hardcore”. Alongside founding groups like Bad Brains,  Black Flag,  Circle Jerks, D.O.A, and Joe Keithley helped pioneer the genre in the late 70s and early 80s.

Growing up in the 2000s the biggest way I was exposed to Hardcore and ironically still the biggest influences on my taste in music TO THIS DAY was through Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Underground Jam series of video games and through those video games I learned that I really loved hardcore.

This probably might go without saying, but I was a bit of an angry child and with my ADHD problems I often felt left out, or like people weren’t giving me a shot, and hardcore was one of the few genres that I felt accurately captured what I was feeling. 

While D.O.A isn’t on any of the soundtracks (they really should be) I learned about them when scouring the internet for more about the musical style and you can imagine my excitement as a 10-year-old Canadian kid interested in something mainstream that a group from your city played such a pivotal role in its early years (even bigger shock when you find out the founder is also on city council). It just always felt like “cool” stuff wasn’t from Canada, it always had to be from America, but something I really loved about punk and hardcore was the way it wasn’t just “American” or “Canadian” there was a lot of crossover and collaboration across North America and I for one love to see an event like this happening. 

Ticket Info is here: