60 Miles East: Riverside’s Underground Rock Scene Event at the Riverside Art Museum

60 Miles East: Riverside’s Underground Punk Rock, Hardcore & Ska Scene, from the late 1980s to early 2000s is a celebration of the Punk, Ska, and Hardcore music scenes in Riverside, California from the late 1980s through the early 2000s. In the 1980s and 90s Riverside was at the outermost edge of suburban sprawl. If you went any further you were well into the wilderness. The 1990s LA and OC underground music scenes were a juggernaut. Riverside was close enough to feel the gravitational pull, but far enough away to not want to make the drive. So they did their own thing. Riverside wore the outsider badge with pride…Before the internet. Before social media. Bands promoted shows with photocopied flyers. Fans found music through friends, record stores, and ‘zines. The photography reflects this immediacy—moments caught, not constructed. The distance from LA meant something. Riverside had its own sound, its own venues, its own way of doing things. These photographs document a community that existed in a specific time and place, sixty miles east of the center of everything.

About the curators: Zach Cordner and Ken Crawford went to Riverside Poly High School together in the 1990s. They bonded over skateboarding and hardcore music. Three decades later they reconnected as Publisher and Editor of Riversider Magazine. Zach and Ken often talked about the romance and excitement of the 1990s music scene in Riverside and had a realization that they have the contacts and resources to tell that story well. 60 Miles East is that story.

Presented by Travis Barker & 98 Posse.

60 Miles East will run at The Riverside Art Museum from November 1, 2025 through April 12, 2026.