Kent Stax

Kent Stax is the original and current drummer of the DC hardcore punk band Scream, considered, with perhaps the exception of Minor Threat (both of these bands recorded on the now famous underground Dischord Records label), one of the most influential and successful hardcore punk band to emerge from the music movement which thrived during the 1980s. Along with brothers Franz and Peter Stahl and bassist Skeeter Thompson, Stax helped create the lightning-fast tempo that was a trademark of the punk rock genre. Considered one of the fastest and most energetic drummers in the field at that time, his talents lent themselves to keeping a thrashing powerful musical force under control, giving Scream its homegrown reputation as pioneers in the genre which transcended into some international notoriety. In the late eighties Stax left the band for personal reasons and David Grohl, a local drummer who was working with local band Dain Bramage replaced the longtime drummer. Stax played drums in a series of bands throughout the 1990s that drew influence from English punk and Oi music, most notably The Suspects (a band that had many muttering about a DC hardcore revival not seen since 1983) United 121 and Spitfires United. In the 2000s he played drums in the DC Oi-core band Alleged Bricks.

Kent now lives in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC and has retired from punk rock and hardcore bands. The last bands he played for were DC Oi-Core veterans Alleged Bricks and the short lived, although well appreciated Critical Condition, which later changed its name to Pure Filth.