Over the past year or two, the Boston hardcore workhorses Haywire have been on an absolutely insane run, becoming online cult heroes simply by playing ridiculously fun live shows in front of crowds that get bigger and more fired-up all the time. Last year, over the course of one calendar year, Haywire played shows in all 50 states, an absolutely wild undertaking. They busted out covers — Title Fight in Wilkes-Barre, Trapped Under Ice in Baltimore, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones in their hometown. Earlier this year, I seriously considered driving two and a half hours both ways to see them play what appeared to be a rental office space in Roanoke. I would've been a zombie the next day, but I should've done it. Wild videos from Haywire live shows are in my feed all the time. They are poised to make a huge leap, and maybe that'll happen when they drop their new album.
Haywire's full-length debut Conditioned For Demolition ("full-length," in this case, meaning "19 minutes") came out on the hardcore label DAZE in 2024. Haywire released their For Better Or Worse EP later that year, and they followed it by dropping splits with No Guard and, earlier this year, their tourmates the Dropkick Murphys. Last weekend, Haywire headlined LA's Sound And Fury, the biggest hardcore festival of the year, and played what looked like a truly epic set. In the process, they announced that they'd signed a deal with Roadrunner and shot $5,000 in cash into the crowd. Look at this shit! Insanity!
Just a couple of years ago, I saw Haywire open up a Drain show, and they were the first band of like six. Now, they're doing this! That's beautiful! At Sound And Fury, Haywire distributed cassette copies of "Interstate Love Affair," a new song that has nothing to do with Stone Temple Pilots. As it turns out, that's the lead single from the band's sophomore album I Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye. Citizen's Mat Kerekes produced the LP, and Taylor Young, of bands like God's Hate and Twitching Tongues, mixed it. It's got guest appearances from members of Nothing and the Aggrolites, as well as various friends of Haywire.
It's a fast, muscular, anthemic singalong. The singalong chorus has a lot of pop-punk melody, but they deliver it oi-style, with a whole mob of screaming voices. Great song! It's got a hell of a music video, too. The Luis Hernandez-directed clip, which is about to get its own making-of DVD, opens with Haywire shooting all that money into the crowd via leafblower at Sound And Fury. From there, we see the guys in the band rolling around in a van and pulling Jackass-style stunts. We don't have a tracklist for I Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye yet, but below, you can check out the video, as well as Haywire's upcoming tour dates, including shows with the Circle Jerks and their brand-new labelmates Turnstile.
TOUR DATES:
9/09 - Milwaukee, WI - The Rave / Eagles Club ~
9/18 - Louisville, KY - Louder Than Life
9/19 - Richmond, VA - The National #^
9/20 - Chicago, IL - Riot Fest *
9/21 - Toledo, OH - The Abyss $
9/22 - Harrisburg, PA - Capital City Music Hall #^
9/23 - Wilmington, DE - The Queen #
9/24 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club #
9/25 - Pittsburgh, PA - Four Chord Music Festival
9/26 - Brooklyn, NY - CBGB Fest
10/02 - Sacramento, CA - Aftershock Festival
10/10 - Birmingham, AL - Furnace Fest
10/17 - Storrs, CT - University Of Connecticut (Free Show)
10/24 - Dallas, TX - Sick New World
11/13 - Springfield, MO - Pressure Point Fest
11/15 - Orlando, FL - Vans Warped Tour
~ with Turnstile & Texas Is The Reason
# with the Circle Jerks & Negative Approach
^ with Municipal Waste
$ with Bad Beat, the Sissy Boys, Mankind, & Sour
I Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye is out 10/2 on Roadrunner. Pre-order it here. I wish someone would let me know the deal with the logo mascot guy. I know they don't mean anything sketchy with that imagerhy, but it's why I didn't post Conditioned For Demolition when it came out!
