The Freeze

If you slammed at a hardcore show in Boston or on Cape Cod in the 80’s you probably saw The Freeze. Formed in late ’78 on the Cape, the members of the band were all in high school when they started. Basing their sound on a love of English punk rock and reinforced by the efforts of West Coast contemporaries like the Dead Kennedys and Black Flag, The Freeze developed their simple bid to avoid boredom into a legacy that still thrived over thirty years later. Clif Hanger, the band’s driving force/lone remaining original member, organized hardcore concerts on the Cape and eventually brought The Freeze into the Boston hardcore scene. The band’s first single, 1980’s “Don’t Forget Me Tommy,” backed with the local hit “I Hate Tourists,” gained the band airplay on WBCN and helped them earn an appearance at WBCN’s 3rd Annual Rock and Roll Rumble in 1981, which brought some measure of credibility to the unit. But the inclusion of eight songs on one of the essential hardcore documents of the period — the Modern Method Record label’s compilation This is Boston Not L.A. (the band provided the title track) — placed The Freeze as even partners on a playing field that included such Hub hardcore standouts as Jerry’s Kids, Gang Green and the F.U.’s. This truly indicated that The Freeze had arrived. If anyone thought otherwise — that this band of kids from the Cape was not part of the Boston scene or didn’t deserve to make the claim — then they clearly had the last laugh as the group went on to outlive all of its colleagues, releasing over 15 records and touring various areas of the world on several occasions. That irony alone should be enough to demonstrate the importance of elevating the name of The Freeze to the roll count of Boston’s best.
(by Carter Alan)