One Way Artist · Boston, Massachusetts

Shake the Faith

Three musicians from Boston’s fractured 1980s club scene forged power pop, punk and metal into one direct, physical rock-and-roll language.

Read the Story Listen to the Record

Casey LindstromLead guitar, vocals and songwriting

Jesse MayerDrums

Todd EriksonBass guitar and vocals

Boston Music AwardIndependent Rock · 1987

Updated 2026

Primal and Professional

Shake the Faith formed in 1986 from the wreckage of two Boston bands that had appeared ready to break through. Guitarist, singer and songwriter Casey Lindstrom came from New Models, whose “Sight and Sound” had been produced by Ric Ocasek. Drummer Jesse Mayer came from Fingerpaint. Todd Erikson completed the trio on bass. What might have looked like a regrouping became its own identity almost immediately.

Within months Shake the Faith had released a debut 45, drawn heavy local airplay, entered WBCN’s Rock & Roll Rumble and established itself in Boston clubs. Carter Alan’s September 5, 1987 liner notes caught the essential contradiction: this was a power trio with roots in the 1960s, but without revivalism; a band surrounded by programmed pop and elaborate metal staging that relied instead on songs, volume and the chemistry of three players in a room.

Phil Greene produced the self-titled seven-song record at Normandy Sound. The release moved between power pop, punk and hard rock at a moment when those audiences were often treated as separate camps. Shake the Faith crossed that boundary naturally and won the 1987 Boston Music Award for Independent Rock. The band shared stages with The Replacements, Soul Asylum and Mother Love Bone, shortly before members of the latter formed Pearl Jam.

The first chapter did not become the whole story. One Way documented a second album, Revival, released March 18, 2000. Two decades later, Lindstrom, Mayer and Erikson reunited for Sean McNally’s Legends of Boston program at the Magic Room in Norwood on November 5, 2021. The reunion brought the band’s history into the physical landscape now developing as SONO: the South Norwood cultural district.

Jesse Mayer provides another route forward. His later performance for Live from the David Bieber Archives returned a member of Shake the Faith to a new multitrack archive, connecting the original One Way catalog to Motherlode’s continuing recording practice. The story is therefore not sealed in 1987: the record, the Channel footage, the Norwood reunion and the Archives session are separate surviving transmissions from the same band.

Shake the Faith promotional photograph — Casey Lindstrom, Jesse Mayer and Todd Erikson.

One Way Release · 1987

Shake the Faith

Seven songs produced by Phil Greene at Normandy Sound—the record Carter Alan called proof of the trio’s primal, professional force.

Open the Complete Release

The Record

Track Listing

Wild World
Already Gone
Skip on a Record
That’s What We’re In For
Believe in Me
Mixed Emotions
Whipping Boy

The Second Album · 2000

Revival

Released March 18, 2000, Revival returned Shake the Faith to One Way as a seven-song CD. An earlier One Way sales page listed the disc for $9.99 and credited mastering to Marisa T. Dery at the Tape Complex in Boston. Its RealMedia links no longer function, but the complete sequence survives.

Against the Wall
Cross the Line
Here It Comes Again
Throw Me to the Wolves
Election Day
Ready to Die
Nothing Lost

The Channel · 1989

Shake the Faith Live

The surviving performance film returns the record to the room where it made sense.

Carter Alan’s Original Liner Notes

WBCN · September 5, 1987

It’s ’87 and rock is still flying around Boston. Although the scene has fragmented into a few epicenters of club activity and a wide range of styles, an insane number of groups still take on the odds. With an endless stream of supply, the fight to avoid being disposable is the toughest. Being around and in people’s minds in a year is an enormous effort for a band, and nobody’s even talking about keeping up with the bills yet.

When the New Models broke up, I cried. One of Boston’s best for years went ignored by the record honchos in New York and L.A.; the members could simply keep the faith no longer. Then there was Fingerpaint, who went from 0 to 60 so fast that the group seemed destined for the stratosphere, only to blow apart once victory appeared to be at hand. So Casey, from the former, brought his axe and Jesse, from the latter, loaded in his drum kit. Somewhere along the way the two found this incredible bass player without an attitude; when they jammed the cartoon light bulb went on somewhere over their heads.

Shake the Faith was born and no time was wasted. In only a matter of months, the band had stamped its imprint on Boston with a debut 45 and massive local airplay, an appearance in WBCN’s Rumble, and a steady supply of club gigs. So, for some, the boys are back; for others, the faces are new. Either way, this band is good! Leave your visions of drum-machine and synthesizer-programmed rock at home because Shake the Faith isn’t a mechanized bunch of automatons humming along on stage; they are three fiery rockers who bash the best sound systems to bits. This is rock, primal and professional. This is a power trio lifted from the pretentious ’60s roots to an exciting dance powerhouse. This band’s songs and desire for glory should take them as far as they would like to go. This record is proof! Of course, there are a lot of you who don’t need any proof, so stop reading and start listening!

Original One Way Sales Record

Preserved from the earlier One Way Productions site.

The self-titled seven-song CD was listed for $8.98 and Revival for $9.99. The page credited mastering to Marisa T. Dery at the Tape Complex in Boston and linked both albums through RealMedia audio.