Sacred Hate Live at The West Shore Democratic Club, Enola, PA 1986. Photo by Chris & Crystal DiPietro
Sacred Hate were a Harrisburg, PA based hardcore punk band who formed after members met each other at a Beefeater, Late Teens, 2nd Crisis show at Strawberry Square in downtown Harrisburg in May 1986.
Sacred Hate were active from 1986 to 1987, and played a lot of shows that year opening for GI, SNFU, Dag Nasty, etc, and always tried to borrow the bigger band’s equipment very occasionally successfully. Mean age of the band was 17.
Members were:
Sean Linwood – Vocals
Joe McRedmond – Guitar
Mike Harbin – Bass
Craig Montgomery – Drums
Sacred Hate recorded a 5 song demo tape, “Experience the Insanity” in April 1987 at Sawdust Studio with Jeff Meglio.
Sacred Hate changed their name to The Homecoming when they added Hans Bowers to lead guitar and became a five piece, as Hans was present in the studio when the “Experience the Insanity” demo was recorded, and he asked to join the band. Joe McRedmond used Hans’ Fender Stratocaster on the recording . Members later went on to be in Fuse, Admiral, Lost Summer Days, Soft Complex, Hoover, Navio Forge, The Crownhate Ruin, Black River Mafia, etc, etc., and are still active in bands up to the present. Sadly, Craig Montgomery, rest in peace, passed away in 1997.
Sacred Hate Demo Tape Cover 1987. Designed by Mike Harbin.
Sacred Hate “Experience the Insanity” Demo 1987 Lyric Sheet.
Sacred Hate Experience the Insanity Demo Release Flyer Advertisement
For the hardcore heads, I am including songs from Sacred Hate’s “Boombox Tape 1986” that were not ever recorded in a studio, but were played at the many shows occurring over the 1986/1987 time period:
Track 1, New Instrumental
Track 2, Campus Life
Track 3, Impression on Route 22
Track 4, Anarchy Girl
Track 5, Pizza Deliveries
Track 6, Trust
Track 7, Our Forces
Track 8, Our War Song
Track 9, Tired Eyes
Track 10, Hall of Fame (GI Cover)
Track 11, For Your Love (Yardbirds Cover)
Track 12, Show Us What You’ve Got
Track 13, Impression on Route 22 (Alternate Version)
After The Crownhate Ruin broke up, Fred immediately started a new band called The Boom. Initially, they rehearsed in the basement where we lived, and then Fred moved and they rehearsed over there. They released two LP’s, “Movin’ Out” and “Any Day of the Night” on Slowdime and did a US tour.
I ran into Fred in the winter of 1999 at The Raven, and he told me they were planning on a European Tour in the late spring of that year. I jokingly said I wished I was going, and also told him that when I saw them recently at the Galaxy Hut, I loved the new songs where he played trumpet instead of guitar. Maybe I could play guitar with you I asked. And suddenly I was in the band. I learned all the songs from mostly Any Day of the Night, and some from Movin’ Out. The line up that rehearsed in the Spring of 1999 was:
Fred Erskine on trumpet
Carlo Cennamo on saxophone
John Wall on bass
Joseph P. McRedmond on guitar
J. Carrier on drums
I believe we played at a party in Mt. Pleasant, WDC right before we left for the tour. We started the European tour landing in Amsterdam by way of Iceland and had a hell of a time and played everywhere. John Wall was booking more shows to the end of trip as we went along.
After we returned home, Fred and Carlo got to work on writing new songs, and recorded a 4 track demo to show us their ideas. It was at this time also that J. Carrier decided to join the Peace Corps, and he left the band to be replaced by Justin Wierbonski. Josh LaRue joined on electric piano.
We played only 2 shows with this line up. One at the Black Cat, and one in Baltimore at the Ottobar. We also recorded the material at Trans Am’s National Recording Studio, which was broken down into 7 tracks, but meant to be presented as one whole body of music. We had a tour planned of the US in August with this line up, but Justin suddenly left the band just prior to the start date and could not be replaced. The tour was cancelled. The gentleman in Belgium who was going to put the 3rd record out disappeared off of the face of the Earth. Fred and Carlo moved to Chicago to form HIM, and John went to Law School.
The songs are below to listen track by track, and if you like, the zip file is available below that for your downloading pleasure.