We Are The Chestpains: This Is Our Bio

It all began in the summer of 2004, when Greg Barbera found himself drinking beer with Tim Ristau during a sweltering North Carolina summer night in the heart of Durham.

Barbera was bar backing for the summer music series at Fowlers that Ristau’s wife Lora Booker was running. After the season’s opening gig, Ristau and Barbera we’re introduced at the local watering hole Federal and spent the night talking about their mutual love for punk rock.

Ristau was fresh off a stint playing with current scene-stealers Jett Rink, while Barbera – a former local music critic for the defunct Spectator weekly – was trying to add some excitement to his already chaotic life as a stay-at-home-dad. After several weeks of discussions of music and a few informal jams with Ristau on guitar and Barbera on bass, the Chestpains were born. Named after a near-fatal encounter Barbera had with Sudafed, the two set out to write some songs that reflected their mutual love for old school punk rock. But most importantly it was to just have some fun.

Two songs later, Ristau put in a call to drummer Eric Hermann.

And the Chestpains became complete.

Together, the three-some have a collective life experience that befits their unique approach to making – and living – a punk rock life style.

Guitarist Tim Ristau – who once played in a band called Snotwhistle and drove a cab in Madison, Wisconsin - now whittles away his days hot wiring custom guitar amplifiers for Carr Amps in Pittsboro, North Carolina. He likes old cars, Chuck Taylors, The Wipers and a good bratwurst. Tim always has beer in his fridge for band practice. It may just be one, but the beer will be there.

Drummer Eric Hermann is a juvenile delinquent from Fort Collins, Colorado who is a veteran of local punk bands like The Fly Bitches and Grand Prix and well as the legendary Colorado band Uncle Clem (which featured ex-members of South Dakota’s seminal punk band Dissent). He also plays in Pleasant and Simple. He likes to wear long sleeves shirts with the arms rolled up, propagates leftist poli-sci literature via the Web, listens to the Angry Samoans and, lately, always brings beer to practice.

Bassist and singer Greg Barbera hails from Aspen Hill, Maryland, and spent his high school years going to see bands from his neighborhood like Government Issue, Marginal Man, No Trend and The Obsessed. The former singer of his high school-era thrash band, Youth Terrorists (1984-1986), went on to become a music journalist, bicycle messenger, pool boy and pizza delivery guy – anything to avoid getting a real job. He spends his days raising his two boys on heavy doses of DEVO, Turbonegro and Thin Lizzy while trying to finish a novel ten years in the making. He almost always brings beer to practice.

The Band: