State of Alert

State of Alert (or S.O.A.) was a punk rock group from Washington DC. They formed in October, 1980, and disbanded in June, 1981 and released one EP on Dischord Records. They are sometimes regarded as one of the earliest groups playi

State of Alert (or S.O.A.) was a punk rock group from Washington DC. They formed in October, 1980, and disbanded in June, 1981 and released one EP on Dischord Records. They are sometimes regarded as one of the earliest groups playing what would later be dubbed hardcore punk.

SOA played a total of nine gigs in and around Washington DC. Rollins later described their performances: "All of them were eleven to fourteen minutes in duration because the songs were all like forty seconds ... and the rest of the time we were going, 'Are you ready? Are you ready?' Those gigs were poorly played songs in between 'Are you ready?s"