"Making a Scene: New York Hardcore 1985-1988"
By Bri Hurley

Making a Scene is a pictorial history of the New York City hardcore punk scene circa 85-88. Although “Making a Scene” does feature the usual suspects of NYC hardcore – Agnostic Front, Sick of it All, Youth of Today - this book avoids “weren’t the old days great” trap of many punk rock books by focusing primarily on the stories of fans that came to see the bands. By doing so “Making a Scene” successfully documents the heart and camaraderie of the punk rock fans that came along with the anger and badly played three chord punk songs. As for the photography in the book, imagine the out of focus pictures of punk rockers you would see in mid 1980s issues of Maximum Rock and Roll shot properly and you have a pretty good idea of what you are in for with “Making a Scene”. Any book that makes me pull out and play my old False Prophets LP is OK in my book. It is a pity that this book wasn’t longer.