This Is Rock ’n’ Roll

The BU Today Sessions: Rockin' Bob

By Alan Wong

Click on the video above to see Bob Cenci perform “Eleven Roses.” Click here to watch “Happy.”

Check out songwriter and guitarist Bob Cenci’s credentials: a résumé that includes legendary Boston hard-core punk bands Jerry’s Kids and Gang Green, plus shows at former local clubs the Channel and the Rat and several European tours. Clearly, the Information Systems Planning and Support systems administrator has skills way beyond tech support. Cenci has been bringing punk’s simple three-chord sound to fans since the early ’80s.

“At the shows, a cop would be hired to patrol the activity — some crazy stuff was happening,” says Cenci. “This was the birth of slam dancing and stage diving, which were not received well by the authority figures.”

For his longtime side project as solo musician Rockin’ Bob, Cenci trades in his Gibson Les Pauls and SGs for an acoustic guitar, taking what he calls a welcome break from “the yelling and screaming of the typical punk rock singers.”

Cenci can be seen in the 2006 documentary American Hardcore.

Click here to watch BU Band, Forest Henderson, perform. Click here to watch Spitzer Space Telescope. Click here to watch Interrobang.

Alan Wong can be reached at alanwong@bu.edu.

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