Fred Pessaro -- a lifer -- was a long time BrooklynVegan and Invisible Oranges editor and show organizer before moving on to Noisey, CLRVYNT, Revolver, and other places. His taste in heavy music has helped shape not just our own coverage for over 10 years, but the music landscape as a whole. In addition to still occasionally contributing to BrooklynVegan and writing other places, Fred helped organize shows at places across the US including Saint Vitus, Brooklyn Bazaar, Union Pool, TV Eye and many many more. As the year is coming to a close, we’ve been publishing year-end lists from various music industry figures. Here’s Fred’s, who we're always happy to have back:
2020 was utterly bizarre for me, as it was for pretty much everyone else. Just like anyone involved in live music, my job evaporated into thin air along with any sense of normalcy and a large chunk of my sanity. Live music was, I thought, my identity and my life– I've spent the bulk of my adulthood going to at least one show a week and in the more than two decades that I've lived in NYC, at least five per week. Couple that with the passing of some friends and musical heroes and you can imagine how I, along with many many others, did a lot of soul searching.