WAB plays final riff at NYC hot spot

By Casey Sky Noon

Despite the fact or maybe because the infamous CBGB’s in New York City is closing late this month or early October, the post-hardcore indie band We’re All Broken (WAB) rocked the joint this past Saturday, Sept. 16. The northern New Jersey gang played two unreleased songs from its upcoming album, in addition to three crowd pleasing favorites.

“My parents came out and fans from all over the East Coast were on the floor, so I was a wreck about playing the new tunes,” admitted guitarist Frank Giokas. “Not to mention that our singer showed up after we’d set up and only seconds before getting kicked off stage.”
Fortunately, the dancing audience loved every second of the band’s performance. Ryan Bland, another musician in the East Coast hardcore scene, can barely wait for its new album and urges the band to put it out.

“F--- everything else you heard, the new We’re All Broken songs will make you say “f--- all the music that is out there,” he said. And to the band, he said, “get those songs on record now!”

After a national tour with Thursday, Minus the Bear and The Number Twelve Looks Like You, WAB is home writing the follow-up to its debut album called Campaign Moving Slowly. Close friends and peers have only the best to say about the new tracks.

“These songs are [in] no way deserving of the name sequel, as in never as great as the first,” said Tucker Rule, the drummer for Thursday. “I’ve watched these guys develop with one another and are making some tight music.”

Influenced by underground punk and hardcore such as Orange 9mm and Quicksand as well as paying homage to bands like Tool and Deftones, the gentlemen of WAB have created a sound undeniably indefinable by conventional standards.

With complex drum beats, thick bass lines and both heavy and haunting guitar riffs, WAB transcends post hardcore classics and marketability.

“We’re not an easily marketable band,” said guitarist Jarret Quintana. “We don’t know who we sound like, and labels don’t know exactly who to market us to.”

Without the backing of Fidelity Records, the band has managed to travel every corner of the nation, playing everything from tiny New Brunswick basements to sold-out House of Blues ballrooms.

“It gets to a breaking point sometimes, but other times it feels good,” said bassist Joe Sudano. “When someone asks who’s your booking agent and you say, ‘Well, you’re looking at him.’”

People who haven’t heard the sounds of We’re All Broken before can pick up Campaign Moving Slowly or wait for the new album’s release.