Connecticut ’80s hardcore punk band 76% Uncertain broke up in 1989, the year Jon Bartlett became active in the genre—crafting zines, booking shows, and forming his own band.
Two decades later, 76% Uncertain are back and Bartlett, who grew up in Connecticut but now resides in the Valley, gets to open for the reunited stalwarts with his new project, Powerblessings. The two groups join forces with Peace Creeps and Gimlet Slip on Nov. 7 for a high-energy punk cavalcade at the Florence VFW Hall.
76% Uncertain formed from the ashes of two influential early ’80s Connecticut punk bands, C.I.A. and Reflex from Pain, who both left indelible marks through live shows and recordings. Bartlett is not alone in his praise of the group; in an interview with Jewcy.com, legendary Operation Ivy frontman Jesse Michaels ranked one of their releases with some of the greatest documents of the genre.
“When I grew up you had these classic punk records, many of which no one has ever heard of anymore. There was the Bad Brains’ first album, Jerry’s Kids’ Is This My World. 76% Uncertain, that was a Connecticut band; their album, Estimated Monkey Time, was a classic to me…. So here are these records that, in my world, are these huge things. I expected our record would be much smaller and less important than any of those.”
Powerblessings came together after the dissolution of guitarist Nick Pappas’ band Classic Face. Pappas quickly began recruiting acquaintances for a new project, pulling in The Mitchells’ Jon Herbert on bass, old friend Chris Cressotti on drums, and Bartlett on vocals. The driving idea behind the band is to get back to their collective musical roots.
“We formed to play satisfying, high-energy music that we feel like we haven’t heard in a while,” says Bartlett. “We share a love for the more urgent or emphatic songs of post-hardcore bands from the late ’80s to mid-’90s. Nick and I often discuss what it would be like to have a set that is totally made up of rockers, never really slowing down or letting up. We’re gradually putting that together; I’ve just got to figure out how to keep my throat from burning out.”
Bartlett says the quartet doesn’t want to reinvent the wheel. “I don’t look at this band as an attempt to be clever or original. I look at it as an opportunity to play my music, the music I grew up on… I feel grateful to be able to claim a genre or a scene as my own—I think it would be a burden to be unencumbered by specifics like time and place, to feel like the musical world is a grab bag instead of an expression of singular personal and cultural experiences.”
Powerblessings recently finished work on a seven-inch self-released record, plus a tune for a split seven-inch with N.C.’s Young Blondes.
The Nov. 7 Florence VFW show kicks off at 7 p.m. 76% Uncertain will unleash numerous tracks from the C.I.A. back catalog as well, and, thanks to them, the show’s price of admission is one measly Abraham Lincoln. “When I asked 76 if they’d come and play, they said sure,” Bartlett says. “When asked what they’d need, [they] said ‘gas money.’ Rarest of the rare, these days. In that spirit, this show has that rarest of the rare door prices of five dollars.”
For Powerblessings songs and info, visit www.facebook.com/powerblessings. For more on 76% Uncertain, click over to http://www.myspace.com/76percent.
