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For decades, aspiring bands were given the same advice: If you want to get noticed, play as many shows as possible. But in the algorithm-driven era, does that wisdom hold up? Haywire would say yes. In 2024, the Boston punk band issued its debut LP, Conditioned for Demolition, and the For Better or for Worse EP, but it took until the following year, when they embarked on a grassroots DIY tour that hit all 50 states, for wider audiences to hop on board. As the tour trekked on, they added impromptu guerilla shows in unconventional, not-always-legal locations and viral footage ensued. Regional covers stirred up even more buzz: Title Fight in Wilkes-Barre, Trapped Under Ice in Baltimore, and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones (with the Bosstones’ Dicky Barrett) in their shared home city. From there, the word-of-mouth excitement made way for tours and a split release with hometown heroes Dropkick Murphys, slots on major music festivals, and, finally, their signing to Roadrunner for their second album, I Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye.
On “Flex Your Head,” a 79-second hardcore song with a title that nods to the classic Dischord compilation, bandleader Austin Sparkman points a finger at newcomers on the scene—“You think you know what’s good? You been around a week!”—before referencing the adage that hardcore is “for anybody, but not everyone.” In the context of I Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye, where the song’s scene politics and old-school sound make it an outlier, it comes off as a disclaimer, and Sparkman is right to believe that I Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye could be a gateway for a whole lot of people. He’s no newcomer himself, having spent over a decade playing in hardcore bands including Buried Dreams and Rude Awakening, but with Haywire, he’s cooking up something a little sweeter.
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As hardcore’s tough guys often do when they want to show that deep down they’re big softies, Sparkman turned to oi!, the aggressive-yet-melodic street punk offshoot that’s had a resurgence in recent years. The first inkling of Haywire’s soft side came on Conditioned for Demolition’s “Love Song,” a melodic track that stood out from the rest of the LP’s blunt force, and which stood out even more when Haywire released the acoustic version on For Better or for Worse with guest vocals from Citizen’s Mat Kerekes and Fleshwater’s Marisa Shirar. The next turning point came on the rousing “Always by My Side,” released on a split with No Guard in 2025. It was the first Haywire song that sounded like it could’ve been a hit during punk’s mainstream boom (maybe that’s why Dropkick Murphys covered it), and it set the stage for I Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye, which Kerekes signed on to produce. It’s as rowdy as you’d hope for from a band who set off fireworks while playing on the streets of Brooklyn last year, and it’s tender and melodic even by usual oi! standards.
I Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye reads as a breakup album, one on which Sparkman pairs his punk instincts with melodies aimed at the masses. A fleeting moment of happiness comes on “Interstate Love Affair,” on which our narrator is road-tripping with the windows down, chanting “I don’t care where I’m going as long as I’m with you.” Otherwise his perspective is summed up on the title track, where he’s begging someone to stay, accompanied by three members of Nothing on vocal harmonies. He trades barbs with an ex on the compelling duet “Trouble in Paradise,” with Cheyenne Snider (daughter of Dee) voicing his former partner. On “Perfect Strangers,” he cries, “I need you! I miss you! I can’t live without you!” over a peppy backdrop that could almost pass for blink-182 if not for Sparkman’s gruff bark. The self-hatred and misery sets in on “Forever Alone,” a chugging, pit-opening song with help from fellow drill sergeants Aaron Butkus of Death Threat and Bruce LePage of 100 Demons.
That song and “Flex Your Head” act as a bridge back to the more violent material on Conditioned for Demolition, though it’s during the gritty singalongs that make up the remainder of the LP that Haywire stand out the most. The album’s closer, “Sincerely Yours,” is a bittersweet punk song with a hint of emo melancholy and guest vocals from Kerekes. It offers the album’s first semblance of acceptance, opening with the concession, “I hope you get everything you wanted,” sung in a way that doesn’t sound totally sarcastic. And then, I Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye comes to an abrupt close, less than 20 minutes after it started. It could’ve been satisfying to hear what additional layers another few tracks might’ve allowed, but maybe that was the point: I Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye burns as quickly as the ill-fated romance within.
