Madball

In the 1999 documentary film “N.Y.H.C.” filmmaker Frank Pavich caught on film the destruction of legendary hardcore rocker Roger Miret as his band, Madball, as they performed at Coney Island High. The location is now defunct, and Miret recovered after a year of traction. But Madball is back, ten years later, with new fury.

The band originally started as a side project for the band Agnostic Front. In fact the membership is nearly identical, but with one major exception. Roger Miret’s younger brother, Freddy Cricien, would revel in his brother’s letters from the tour circuit throughout the 1980s as Agnostic Front was seeing massive popularity. In 1988 Freddy hit the scene himself sporting the nickname “Madball”, and taking the mic for Agnostic Front. Then in the 1990s Madball took a life of its own. The members of Agnostic Front gathered behind Cricien and the band began recording albums and playing shows – one of which was caught on film by Frank Pavich.

Now Roger, Freddy, Mitts, Hoya Roc, and Ben Dussault are hitting the 10 for $10 Tour, where you can see them and nine other giants of the hardcore scene play for only ten bucks. Their latest album, “Infiltrate the System”, is available on Ferret Music.