Scream is a hardcore punk band from Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia active from 1981 to 1990. In 2009 the band reunited, and as of January 2012 it was on tour in Europe.
Scream was formed in Northern Virginia in 1981 by singer Peter Stahl, his brother Franz Stahl on guitar, bassist Skeeter Thompson and drummer Kent Stax. They are considered one of the benchmark bands in the history of the Washington, D.C. hardcore music movement. Along with bands such as Minor Threat and Government Issue, Scream ultimately merged the attributes of the movement, which were blinding speed, heavy political and social connotations in the lyrics, unpretentiousness of attitude, and shunning of commercialism. Their music is faithful to the roots of rock, but spun itself into other genres by employing sounds that predate the raunchiness of grunge, while saluting reggae and speed metal. Scream hated the classification of bands into certain types and considered what they played as simply 'music.' Recording their music in the basement of the now legendary Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia, Scream became the first band on the Dischord label to release a whole album, Still Screaming, as opposed to singles or 12 inch EPs. Like the hardcore band Bad Brains, they could play clearly at breakneck speed, but also played mid-tempo songs like "American Justice" and "Hygiene," which were metal-tinged reggae.
For their second album Scream added another guitarist to their line-up, Robert Lee "Harley" Davidson, to thicken up the sound in the studio and in their live performances. In turn this eventually led to a powerful dual-lead guitar style, with complex guitar tracking, a more powerful live sound and an over-all crunchier sound for their third album. For a few compilation efforts and some live shows they added a keyboard player, Bobby Madden, who was a colleague of Davidson's from the same metal scene.
After the third album Banging the Drum, Kent Stax left the band for personal reasons and was replaced by local drummer Dave Grohl, who then played on Scream's 4th album No More Censorship. The band then toured Europe; with their May 4, 1990 show in Alzey, Germany being released by Tobby Holzinger as Your Choice Live Series Vol.10. Scream then recorded their fifth and final studio album Fumble, (which was much later released in 1993 on Dischord Records) and then called it quits in late 1990. Pete and Franz moved to North Hollywood and started rock band Wool, while Grohl joined Grunge band Nirvana. In 1997, Franz Stahl joined Dave Grohl's newly formed group, the commercially successful Foo Fighters, for a two year stint. During this time Pete Stahl worked as a road manager for both the Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age, while continuing to record albums with several bands, including the Earthlings? and Goatsnake. Skeeter Thompson remained in the D.C. area and continued to work in bands, as did Kent Stax with the Skinhead/Oi! -tinged bands: the Suspects, United 121, Spitfires United, and Alleged Bricks. Stax has also committed himself to a family life. Davidson continued in the band Angelstorm, (in Huntsville, Alabama), from 1993–1995 and created the new bands Orangahead, Festival of Fools, (with Madden in 1998) and two different bands both named God Is Dead, (one in D.C. and one in Huntsville, Alabama) from 2002-2005.
The original line-up of the band played a reunion show on December 20, 2009 at the Black Cat nightclub in Washington, D.C.[2]
On February 7, 2011, the band supported Foo Fighters on a special show at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles, when the Foo Fighters showcased their new album Wasting Light for the first time from beginning to end.
