Maximum RockNRoll Magazine issue 425 “There’s never been a better time for freaks getting into heavy music.” Renovated Victorian houses in Pittsburgh don’t change much, particularly not their basements. Layers of paint build up over decades, wooden stairs get replaced, leases expire. But the basement shows you can hear from the back yard are as driving and explosive as ever, the shows are still BYOB, the grass is still littered with cigarette butts, small crowds are still sardined together to be manically catharsized by the screaming freedom of rapid-fire three-minute hardcore songs punctuating the night. But sitting down with Cecelia Martuscelli of Pittsburgh’s Het Ward Collective, all we can talk about is what’s different- what’s changed and how it’s enabled a small revolving group of post-punk and hardcore musicians to own their corner of the scene and drawing a crowd of similarly-alienated queer punks. The music is hard as hell, but at Het Ward shows men no longer own th...