R.I.P. Chris Taylor
I love to write but I hate to write what I’m writing about now.
Chris Taylor, a drummer in the local punk/hardcore scene for many years passed away a week ago. He was a great drummer, a great person and that is why I hate having to write this, though, I know I must.
Andy Bang and I were constantly going together to punk shows in the eighties. Our lives took us away from the scene in the nineties and sometime, in the middle zero’s we started bouncing back. And then in 2011 we started our website.
When I realized there was still a punk scene in Boston, thanks to a forum called The Noiseboard, from The Noise fanzine. There was one band that became my favorite and that was a band that Chris played drums for-The Dimwits.
They were a wild, exciting and fun band. A mix of skate punk and hardcore with shouting, snarling, melodic vocals- charging, changing rhythms that somehow found the perfect spot between skate punk, hardcore and musical mayhem.
And all of this music was propelled by Chris. He was not a fancy drummer but he knew, very well, how to kick ass. And in this style of music that’s the quality you should look for the most, and he unequivocally, delivered.
I loved a lot of other local punk/hardcore bands at the time- The Spoilers, Over The Edge, Zippo Raid- but The Dimwits were certainly my favorite.
And actually, I guess, they were my favorite band in the world at that time, as the local scene, once again became my focus in music.
Chris was always soft-spoken and humble, and what I always admired about him was- though he was not “a player”. He seemed to be always appreciated by women, including Allie who became his wife. I sensed that Chris really knew how to treat women well, and with respect and that’s why they reacted accordingly, though I never saw any accordions in sight!
I can still hear him saying hesitantly, in a slightly, raspy voice to me in a nightclub, “So, Slimedog…”
The last time I saw Chris was at TNB’s Xmas Show last December at The Midway. He was playing drums for Disco Rice, a band that I really like but play in a much more abrasive style than The Dimwits, or his hardcore band after that, By The Throat.
Disco Rice’s style is power violence but Chris adapted to his role adroitly. I’m so happy I have a picture of me with him and Allie from that show.
My mother who passed away last year, once said to me, “I don’t believe in the afterlife. But I believe you’re still alive in a way if you’re still in someone’s memory. I’m the only one alive who remembers my grandmother, so after I’m
gone, so will she.”
I love to write but I hate that I have to write what I’m writing now.
And that I realize that my recollections are now going to have to end. I feel it is an honor just to say a few words
about someone of our punk community who meant so much to me and so many of you.
And for those who knew him so much better than me, I don’t have the slightest doubt you’re not only remembering Chris not only as a great drummer but an even, greater guy.
I’ve tried to write this remembrance as not to embarrass him, as if by chance, he is looking over my shoulder. He was such a nice, quiet guy. I feel that I must apologize to him now, if he happens to be reading this.
But some things need to be expressed even if they’re painful. Some things need to be said even if you wish you didn’t have to say them. Some things will never be forgotten till the end of our days.
R.I.P. Chris- we loved, still do and will always love you.
(Slimedog)
