Remembering Jimmy Flynn, hardcore promoter with an encyclopedic memory and a gentle side

Jen Deaderick says farewell to Jimmy Flynn, a presence in Central Square and the Boston hardcore scene who died Christmas night, just 40. She recalls the bad and the good times, including how he introduced her to the scene when she was at a low point of her own:

After we connected, he invited me to one of the hard core Middle East shows he’d put together. I was stressed and miserable and feeling lost. Then the bands started playing and that was all pounded out of me. I left feeling lighter. This was going to be my new thing, I decided. My therapy.

John remembers Flynn:

The most stalwart torchbearer and lynchpin in Boston Hardcore has passed on. Jimmy Flynn has officially become a local legend well before his time. No one before today who regularly attended punk and hardcore shows in the region or toured nationally was unaware of the man or the fixture which Hardcore Stadium has become.

Alex Garcia-Rivera, who was once in a band called Get High, says good-bye to "Boston Hardcore's encyclopedia and #1 "Get High" fan."

Colin Campbell says farewell:

If you know about me and Jimmy Flynn you know of hundreds of hilarious and frustrating stories filled with love, hardcore, obscure boston historical events and probably some fireball. While most know Jimmy from shows he was my friend and my roomate for a while. Jimmy’s persistent nature at the parole office got me out of the clink sooner than later. Hope you’re giving St. Peter a weird baseball card or a WBCN sticker.

Jesse Kim writes:

I’ll miss you, bud. Even the hour-long calls about nothing and everything all at the same time. You were a kind soul, and I hope you’re at peace now.

Al Quint asks: "Can 2023 just be over already?"

A tireless champion of Boston punk and hardcore. A scholar of the most obscure facts about the city imaginable. He even called a house space he did shows at The Movie Loft, named after an old show on Channel 38. And just a nice guy who I considered a friend.

Tommy Hines writes:

So many conversations I can recall of the joy of seeing the unity of punks, skins and the hardcore kids and every late night of bullshitting on the phone about nothing. When everyone talked about the glory days, you made the present feels like the glory days. You booked stacked gigs that were some of my first introductions to hardcore as a young kid feeling like I didn’t belong anywhere.

Some more remembrances.
GoFundMe page for his family.