Bridgewater: Act Two, Scene One

I can remember when the Very catalog was like the hardcore bible. Anything and everything you could possibly ever want and/or need in hardcore music was in there. If you were in a band or a label and you did not have your records in the Very catalog well, it meant you weren't much of anything. So every six months or so a new Very catalog would arrive in my mailbox and like an 8 year old searching for the toy he wanted for Christmas in the JC Penny catalog, I would simply scan through every page and circle what I wanted to order. Now on one occasion I remember seeing a demo tape and Very usually was not one to pick up demos since I am sure every hardcore band under the sun wanted their demo in the Very catalog. I knew if Very was carrying it, well it had to be good. I went ahead and ordered it and just as I suspected, it was nothing short of amazing.

The band was named Bridgewater and they were from Baltimore, MD. They were described as emotional hardcore like Grade, New Day Rising or Boy Sets Fire, which in today's world would more than likely be a sound similar to Thrice or early Boysnightout. The band also featured a member of Torn Apart (who had just broken up after their Ferret EP was released) as well as Brett from Torn Apart doing back up vocals on the demo. The music had everything you would expect from a Torn Apart hybrid, it had melody, singing, screaming, breakdowns, etc. But while Torn Apart leaned more on being heavy and chaotic most of the time, Bridgewater was way more melodic and for the most part had a vocalist who would primarily sing rather than scream. The comparisons to Grade and New Day Rising are rather impossible not to notice, the music in every way resembles Grade's "And Such Is Progress" while the vocals could literally be lifted from the New Day Rising double 7" on Upheaval. Still though, this was a time when very few bands crossed genres, when there was a fine line between metal and hardcore, and emo bands were referred to as indie-rock, so to simply write them off as cookie cutter was a far stretch to say the least.

After the demo they would go on to record a 7" for the Erie, PA label SA Mob entitled "In One Act" which featured 3 new tracks while the CD version would have the band's demo added as bonus material. I am not certain when Bridgewater disbanded but I somehow stumbled upon their website shortly after their breakup. The band posted one last untitled MP3 for people to download and it was by far the best track of their short existence. Its unclear whether the track was supposed to be recorded for another release or if it was just an ill-fated compilation track, but what is clear is that Bridgewater should not be a band to simply fade into the background. Below in MP3 format is their last track, a track from their 7", as well as one from the demo.

Bridgewater "Untitled"
Bridgewater "Irony In Silouhette"
Bridgewater "Slow To Die"

Both the CD & 7" are still available by various online distributers like Very, Interpunk, and Revelation. However, their former label SA Mob still has copies of both for a very low price. I highly suggest you seek this out.

UPDATE: Chris from Bridgewater happen to find the site and got in touch with me. He gave me the reasons for their break up (which as I assumed confirmed it to be the usual lack of interest/differences amongst members which so often breaks up bands) and one piece of the puzzle that I was unaware of. The band had apparently signed to Dim-Mak shortly before disbanding. He also filled me in on what other members had been up to since the end of Bridgewater. Brodie (bassist) is in Stars Hide Fire, Scott (singer) was in a band called Brachiation, Chris (guitar) was recently in Tiny Black Dots. The band now has themselves a myspace page too (gotta love myspace for all these broken up band's pages)