- Fire Party
Fire Party were a hardcore band from
Washington D.C. They were together from the autumn of 1986 to the spring of 1990. The band members were Amy Pickering (vocals), Natalie Avery (guitar), Kate Samworth (bass), and Nicky Thomas (drums).Amy Pickering had been involved in the D.C. hardcore scene as a high school student at Woodlawn High. ["Dance Of Days - Two Decades Of Punk In The Nation's Capital", Andersen & Jenkins 2001 p. 92] She then went on to work at
Dischord Records . On her first day of work there, she tore down a sign that said "No Skirts Allowed." ["Dance Of Days - Two Decades Of Punk In The Nation's Capital", Andersen & Jenkins 2001 p. 141]Fire Party released a six-song self-titled EP, an eight-song album and a complete discography on Dischord. They played some Midwest shows with Scream, and in early 1988, they toured Europe with them. ["Dance Of Days - Two Decades Of Punk In The Nation's Capital", Andersen & Jenkins 2001 p. 252]
Despite their small discography, Fire Party, along with related "
Revolution Summer " bands like Embrace andRites of Spring , had a lasting influence on the artistic direction of American punk. ["Dance Of Days - Two Decades Of Punk In The Nation's Capital", Andersen & Jenkins 2001 p. 230, 231, 237] Apart from being an all female band, a rarity in hardcore punk music, drummer Nicky Thomas was also one of the fewAfrican American women involved in the hardcore punk music scene."Revolution Summer" had been a phrase Pickering used in notes she sent out to people to reflect "a climax, the end of something" and to re-inspire punks in D.C. ["Dance Of Days - Two Decades Of Punk In The Nation's Capital", Andersen & Jenkins 2001 p. 173, 209] It led to events like the punk percussion protest which protested
Apartheid in South Africa and PresidentReagan . Tomas Squip of Beefeater credited Pickering with "setting a season into motion." ["Dance Of Days - Two Decades Of Punk In The Nation's Capital", Andersen & Jenkins 2001 p. 182]Notes
References
* Citation | last=Andersen | first=Mark | last2=Jenkins | first2=Mark | title=Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capitol | publisher=Akashic Books | place=New York, NY | year=2001 | isbn=1-888451-44-0 | url = http://www.akashicbooks.com/danceofdays.htm .
External links
* [http://www.southern.com/southern/band/FIREP/ Fire Party] page on
Southern Records
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