Dresden 45 was formed in October of 1985 to participate in a battle of the bands competition sponsored by our high school. As fate would have it, the original members of Dresden 45 all attended Episcopal High School in Bellaire, Texas (a suburb of Houston) and wore starched uniforms five days a week. Exactly why four parochial school dudes were interested in playing hardcore (thrash, punk, whatever you want to call it) is anyone's guess. Why we didn't win the damn thing is also something of a mystery.
The original members were Brumby Boylston, Charlie Hardwick, Oscar Gray, and myself. Looking back, I'd say that Brumby's influence on the band was substantial and lasting: First of all, Brumby probably had the clearest vision of the band Dresden 45 would become at the beginning. Also, the guy had a great record collection and introduced the rest of us to a slew of very cool bands that existed a little beneath the radar: Agnostic Front, Black Flag, the Crumsuckers, GWAR, Minor Threat, the Minutemen, the Offenders, Rich Kids on LSD, Suicidal Tendencies, and TSOL.
Brumby also named the band, suggesting the name after reading Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut's autobiographical novel in which he describes being a prisoner of war during World War II. If you've read the book, you know that Vonnegut was held prisoner in Dresden, Germany and witnessed the devastating firebombing of the city in 1945. "Dresden 45" was suggested and it stuck. To be honest, if our singer had been reading something else that week we might've named ourselves Animal Farm or Fahrenheit 451. Vonnegut's novel is well worth reading, but I'm afraid that we have joined the ranks of bands who insist "it's just a name, dude."
Not long after its founding, Dresden 45 was blowing the roofs off some legendary Houston area clubs: Cabaret Voltaire, the Apocalypse Monster Club, Rockefellers, Fitzgerald's, Power Tools, and the Axiom. During the Dresden 45's most active years (1985-1990) we shared the stage with touring bands like All, the Descendents, DRI, the Exploited, Firehose, MDC, NOFX, and the Goo Goo Dolls, as well as great Texas bands like Dead Horse, the Hickoids, the Party Owls, Sugar Shack, and the Pain Teens. Dresden 45 played its last show of the 20th century on January 6, 1990 at the Axiom and went into a kind of hibernation.
As with most bands, Dresden 45 has seen a few changes in line-up. Recounting who replaced whom--and when--is tedious, so I'll skip that chore. Let me say this, though: When I decided to attempt to reunite Dresden 45, I wanted to include all four original members. I ended up with three: Brumby, Charlie, and myself, which isn't bad. Next, we recruited Jeff Chavez (from Blatant Disregard) to fill Oscar's sizeable shoes. We played two reunion shows in November of 2003. About a month after the shows Arclight Records reissued an expanded and re-mastered CD version of our LP "Paradise Lost." We played two more reunion shows in July of 2004. At the final gig--after the last note of the last song--Charlie smashed his bass to pieces like a punk rock Pete Townshend, and the year-long reunion was done.
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