Welcome to the latest installment of CREEM’s cocktail column, Born to Booze, where we celebrate running away from our feelings. In this installment, our resident bartender/ musician, Kirk Podell (Subversive Rite, Anti-Machine, Neo Cons), gets in the ring with Vinnie Stigma, a man who’s had both a band and—more important—a drink named after him. Now Vinnie’s knocking heads in the squared circle and bringing the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of fringe cultures—hardcore and wrestling—together at last.
Of all the things that come before a guitar solo in a great song—whether it be an impassioned yell or an unmistakable drum fill—nothing gets anyone with two ears and a heart as amped up as hearing the word “STIGMA!” It’s basically a sign of quality, like a Michelin star.
I wandered into Queens Brewery in Ridgewood, NYC, a few weeks ago to get a drink and witness hardcore legend, guitarist for Agnostic Front, and onetime serious (to me, at least) United States presidential candidate Vincent “Vinnie Stigma” Capuccio enter a new venture as an amateur wrestling manager for Outlaw Wrestling.
Boy, let me tell you, he’s up to the task.