Complete the Cycle: Brother's Keeper Returns to Erie
30 years later, Mike Ski and Chris Bazan reflect on Erie's formative scene
Thirty years ago, the local music and arts community used to gather at hardcore and punk shows to hear local bands, meet up with like-minded individuals, and even learn something from one of the many zines that were scattered on tables at every show. This was a time before you could hear just about anything, at any time, with just a few taps on your smartphone. In 1996, the internet was still new, and for many teenagers and young adults, discovering new genres of music happened through word of mouth or being handed a flier, usually from someone in a band performing at the show being advertised.
Something was stirring in Erie and the hardcore scene that grew years earlier from punk roots, through bands like My 3 Scum and Lost, had bloomed into something new that drew hundreds of kids to local shows. By 1996, bands like Shockwave, Disciple, Digression, and Neverfall played to packed clubs to the point of constituting fire hazards in makeshift venues – but no other band could draw quite like Brother's Keeper, who could inspire a crowd to erupt into an intense mosh pit, with kids storming the stage to sing along to the songs they learned, only to then fling themselves off the stage onto their friends, who were also singing from the front of the stage.
It's now been 30 years since the aptly named "199sick" hardcore scene ruled Erie's underground, and Brother's Keeper have decided to make a surprise return to their 814 roots, featuring reunion shows and new music. Brother's Keeper will be playing two shows, Friday, Oct. 16 and Saturday, Oct. 17, both at Centennial Hall (145 W. 11th St.).
Erie Reader contributing writer Larry Wheaton sat down with Mike Ski and Chris Bazan of Brother's Keeper in the band's rehearsal space for their upcoming reunion gigs – they discussed the past, present, and future of Brother's Keeper, and the legendary Erie hardcore scene.
This is the full version of the interview. The version in the Oct. 2026 print edition was edited for length.
Larry Wheaton (LW): It's been 30 years since the release of The Continuum in 1996, which was also one of the biggest years for the Erie hardcore scene. It's also been 25 years since the release of Fantasy Killer. Were these the impetuses for the Brother's Keeper reunion?
Mike Ski (MS): Nobody ever thought that we would play again, but it kept getting brought up to me. Then I thought about it, and if there is ever a time to do it, it would be this year. Chris (Bazan) and I live in the same city, near Philadelphia, so we would see each other often. Eric ("EMS" Schauffele) and Bobby (Williams) were already in a band and Scott (Emhoff) lives in Philly, but we all really didn't all talk for a long time – not for any reason – so we just had to become friends again, and start hanging out. That was kind of a big inspiration for me – I really like hanging out with these guys and thought this could be something really fun to do, an opportunity to find our place back in the world of hardcore and music and have something to contribute to how f**ked up the world is right now.
I feel like we are all still punk hardcore kids; we still feel compelled to contribute as far as how crazy things are right now. So not only are we excited to hang out and play together and celebrate these records, but we also have another project and we released the first new music that we've made in a really long time … 25 years.
LW: The weekend of shows has quite the lineup. I would say maybe one of the biggest to hit Erie in a long time. Was it originally planned as two shows, or did that just happen organically after the first one was announced?
Chris Bazan (CB): I think yes, when we first thought of the idea of the shows, we knew that the Bunker was relatively small, but we didn't know where our place was in hardcore in general, let alone in Erie – in terms of whether people were going to give a shit or not. So, I think our thought was that we hoped that there could be two shows, that was part of the idea of it. We didn't fully know if it would pan out that way, but I think that's the way we planned it: let's do a show night one, let's get these awesome bands together, while at the same time simultaneously booking Show Two, which is what we did.
I think our goal was to put together a really strong lineup, but also (perform with) bands that we are familiar with, like bands that we played shows with back in the day that we felt could create a line-up that looks, sounds, and feels awesome.
MS: Snapcase was a band that, if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't exist musically. Like as hardcore kids, they were the first bigger band to trade shows with us and they took me out as a roadie in 1994 – so that was the first time I left the Northeast, as a roadie for Snapcase. They are one of our favorite bands and biggest influences, so we have a lot of gratitude to them for agreeing to share the stage with us. The first full U.S. tour we did with a co-headliner in 1997 was with them. So we managed to remain friends with all these people over the course of time, touring over the years. There are always a handful of people that stay in the net, so those were the people we picked from. Also, the feedback is so overwhelmingly like, "Oh my god this feels like the lineup that takes me back to a time that was the best time of my life." And that's really meaningful for us and we feel the same way. We can go back and pull up fliers and some versions of these shows are like what happened in Erie 30 years ago. Aside from this one successful attempt at it, it would never f**king happen. The last goal was to make something legendary happen in Erie in 2026, so I think we are doing it.
LW: I remember seeing Snapcase around 1996 and buying the Steps CD at the show; that was one of the first hardcore CDs I bought, along with the local bands that put out 45s.
MS: It's crazy because there are photos on the front and back of that (Steps) record and I'm in the photos. The photos were taken at Wetlands in New York City and I was onstage at that show.
LW: So, Erie hardcore is well known in the music scene. I have been in record stores across the U.S. and even Radiation Records in Italy, and when I tell them I am from Erie, someone working at the store asks me about our hardcore scene. Why do you think it has such an outreach and an impact in the underground music community?
MS: This is an observation I've only had years late. We grew up all thinking that if you wanted to be in a successful band, you had to be from New York City, LA, or whatever. Even as a person who lived in New York, I remember when Saddle Creek broke and then there were all these bands from Omaha and I thought that's so cool that there's this weird pocket in the Midwest that is breeding these amazing bands. I feel a big reason that phenomenon happened and perhaps why Erie is a good example: Erie was never a place that was handed things, and the people around at that time, not just us, but all the people that were participating, were really putting in a lot of work to make it happen. So I didn't take it for granted. When we were growing up, we were doing it in Erie because we wanted a scene to make something to do – there was just nothing to really do – and it was a cool thing to be a part of and witness and think about fondly after.
It was really a time when people weren't being selfish about it. They believed in the bigger idea of Lake Effect Hardcore and that fervor created an opportunity for us to trade shows with bands from Buffalo and Pittsburgh and Cleveland, and then I think that Erie Hardcore was the culmination of the region. It was otherwise a tertiary, skipped-over market, but then we made it a market. Over time bands Like Disciple, Shockwave, and Digression, all these bands that were a couple years younger than us, put out records and toured, and everyone's merch (we were just going through an old bag of merch downstairs) says Erie Hardcore on it because it was, well f**k it, we are also a thing, you know.
CB: From a somewhat outsider perspective, because I'm not from Erie, I moved to Erie in 1996 to join Brother's Keeper, but I had been to Erie a couple times prior to that to see Brother's Keeper. At that point it was pre-internet, so the only way to find out about it was to maybe see something in a fanzine or hear by word of mouth. So, I was in Central Pennsylvania, drove up to Erie for a couple times to see shows, and when you drive up and you are a kid from somewhere else and you see this show with 400, 500 people and the walls are dripping sweat and people are going nuts at the Continental Ballroom – it feels like the biggest thing in the world.
So when I joined Brother's Keeper and moved up here, and we went on our first tour and we're somewhere in the Midwest and there are 40 people at the show, you realize it's not the same everywhere. But here there was that "magic in a bottle" moment of everything just being off-the-hook. I would say that Erie rivaled the larger cities we would play around the country in terms of the number of people attending and the chaos that happened within that room when it happened. It felt like it meant something – and it did.
It's important to take your aging body's limitations into account if you plan to attend one or both of the upcoming Brother's Keeper shows in Erie – Larry Wheaton covers slam dancing over 40 and much more when he spoke with Mike Ski and Chris Bazan of Brother's Keeper. (Contributed photo)
LW: I remember the crazy pits, the stage diving. Personally, I can't do that anymore. I had a lot of energy when I was young, in the circle pit doing the pizza maker. Are you worried about people getting a little too excited at this show?
MS: Breaking a hip?
LW: I was trying not to say that.
MS: I am mostly worried about myself!
LW: That's what I mean! People used to jump up there, looking back on some of the videos from that time, those stages just erupted with people going on and off stage at the same time. I know we are all older and it probably won't be that intense, but if someone gets enough of that energy in them and they want to have that moment are you concerned about the pit?
MS: I mean, as a testament, Chris is in great shape, he runs. We are working out to get in shape for it. I have been doing things to see if I can jump rope like the length of three songs. I am trying to be on my feet for 45 minutes, trying to stay in good shape. We are all pretty healthy and that, but I won't say it's not a concern, because it is. But I'm excited about the opportunity to be in a room with all those same people and to see who else comes out. We were joking last night that I want to invite everyone who brought their kid to have their kid come on stage and do their first stage dive during our set, that would be incredible. I guess with that said, I have an opportunity to say this is perhaps not just a reunion, we are doing a full gig with new music, a record, and plans to continue playing. So hopefully one of us doesn't explode into a million pieces – we will see if show two happens.
LW: I am sure you will feed off the energy, any good show will do that to anyone performing.
CB: One thing I want to add to all that – I think our perception of what defines an awesome crowd response is different now than it was 30 years ago. We're not expecting f**king crowd killing or Walls of Death or anything like that. Our perception of "good" is having everyone cram in and jumping up and down, singing along, which hopefully some older people can ease into a little more than perhaps spin kicks and windmills and stuff like that. But… we still want to see a lot of stage dives.
MS: I do want to get pulverized.
LW: I think the first time I met you (Mike), and a lot of people my age, was at the mall handing out fliers. I think you were looking for people wearing Pearl Jam t-shirts and would go up to them and encourage them to go. Which was great marketing because there was no place for all of us underage kids that were into music to go – until we found out about places like the Continental Ballroom and IQ Records. What were some of your first local shows when you were young that helped shape the music you got into?
MS: I'm from here, I grew up here, and my first time seeing music at all was the local punk scene, mainly My 3 Scum, who even just in the last few months I relistened to their music and its f**king phenomenal. I say often that a thing that has shaped me, our band and my music interest throughout my life, is the eclectic nature of the Erie music scene. There was always a punk band, a metal band, and eventually a hardcore band all sharing the stage at the same show and I loved that about it.
Our proximity to Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo was an opportunity to get to see bigger bands. So, my first show of a national touring band was at Peabody's in Cleveland where I saw the Circle Jerks and 7 Seconds, which is a pretty good one. I did my first stage dive during 7 Seconds. We really spent all our time going to those cities to buy records and see bands and stuff like that.
CB: I didn't grow up in Erie, but in central Pennsylvania, so I still think PA Hardcore is a thing, like there are so many different bands regionally across the state. Same sort of thing, I was in ninth grade and just started (before that I was listening to metal), then got into local bands that people from here never heard of, but then we had this little record shop and that's how I met Brother's Keeper. They let us do shows in the back of the record shop, so we started bringing in bands like Turmoil and Brother's Keeper and Fury of Five and all these bands that were local or regional at the time. That's how I met these guys, by booking them in the back of that record shop.
MS: It's interesting – going back to something we were just talking about – for me that sort of fear factor or dangerous nature of punk and hardcore, especially at that time, was very much a part of the allure. But I do think that another reason the Erie hardcore scene was so interesting and so strong was that it had more of an inviting nature. We were really trying to do whatever the opposite of gatekeeping is – we were trying to impress upon people that this will change your life and give them a place to be part of something cool. You had Dan Briggs, who is the bass player in Between The Buried and Me, a brilliant talented musician, who experienced a lot of cool opportunities in his music career. His dad called me when he was 14 and asked if he brought his son to a show, would I make sure his son was okay. I said yeah, and that's f**king cool. I think about that kind of stuff all the time – like it was a lot of people's first shows and there was crazy shit happening, but at least in our area you could count the fist fights on barely one hand. People were there to protect each other. It was the craziest mix of negative energy with a positive aftertaste – it's so interesting.
LW: The new music that's been coming out sounds great – what's the future for Brother's Keeper?
MS: Along with the new song we recorded, we have a full album of re-recorded old songs, that are career spanning, so it's like everything from our first six-song EP to Continuum, Fantasy Killer, and everything in between. So that's really cool for us as evidence that the songs were good and interesting – because they hold up on a modern produced record. We started peppering those singles out before the show, then the Erie show will be the record release for the physical album – then beyond that we are already writing new songs for after. A lot of this is ambition, but we wanted to give ourselves evidence that there was an appetite for it. We are motivated and excited to continue to make music and play shows.
CB: I think that first song that we wrote came along very easily for us. I think with current technology it was easy for us to send ideas back and forth and Mike would record vocals, then Bob would record drums, so that came along real easily. I think since then, we have been busy recording and now we want to get these current songs ready for the upcoming shows, but we will still write. Unbeknownst to some people, while Bob and Eric live here, me, Scott, and Mike live in Philly, so it's definitely every other month we get back-and-forth. We will get through these shows then home in on writing some new stuff, too.
LW: Are there plans for a tour, or playing some other cities?
MS: We got some interesting offers that we are thinking of taking. Not necessarily a tour, but…
The Brother's Keeper shows have both been moved from the Bunker at Lavery's Brewery to the adjacent Centennial Hall building due to an overwhelming response to the shows. Brother's Keeper are headlining both evenings with a packed line-up with some great hardcore bands that have all performed in Erie in the past. Friday Oct. 16 is Brother's Keeper with Snapcase, One King Down, Taste The Steel, and Sweetheart Grip. On Saturday, Oct. 17, expect Brother's Keeper with Earth Crisis, Ringworm, Fractured Wake, and Do Crime. This will be one for the books, and you don't want to miss this one, so start stretching now and wear sensible shoes because it's time to relive your younger days.
Doors both nights at 6 p.m. // Centennial Hall, 145 W. 11th St. // $41.86 for advance tickets, available for purchase online // For tickets and info: tellyourfuckingfriends.com
Some of the first shows that Larry Wheaton attended as a teenager were hardcore shows, including many by Brother's Keeper. He still has a collection of 45s from that era and continues his love of underground music to this day, both playing music and attending shows regularly. He can be reached at wheaton1138@gmail.com
