‘Downeast Hardcore’ debuts locally to a packed house in Bucksport
Penobscot filmmaker captures stories from those who found home in a ‘Kave’
Ricky Leighton and Kathy Findlay after the showing of Downeast Hardcore: Stories from the Kave. Photo by Maizy Weirich.
Aug. 31, 2026
By Annie Means
BUCKSPORT—Local filmmaker Ricky Leighton screened his film Downeast Hardcore: Stories from the Kave to a sold-out house on Aug. 27.
Downeast Hardcore is a documentary about a converted barn in Bucksport that became an oasis of the area’s underground hardcore, punk and metal music scene. The venue, known as the Kave, grew into a venue that attracted hundreds of young people for shows each weekend featuring bands from as far away as Europe.
At the center of that underground movement was Kathy Findlay, a Bucksport teacher whose kindness and dedication shaped a scene that was loud and chaotic, yet gave many who passed through it a lasting sense of safety and community.
On the evening of the film screening in Bucksport, folks dressed in black jackets crowded outside the doors of the Alamo Theatre, waiting for entry an hour before the screening.
Christian Gerquetch, a hardcore fan and friend of the bassist for the hardcore band Biohazard, was one of the early arrivals. He had already seen the film at a Waterville screening.
“I just had to see it again,” Gerquetch said.
A line began to appear for the film an hour before start time. Photo by Maizy Weirich.
When asked how hardcore fans would describe the unique music scene, a sense of belonging was the prevailing throughline, a theme central to Leighton’s film.
“To me, the scene is a place where everyone is allowed,” Gerquetch said.
Nancy Delanie of Bucksport came to the screening to support her two sons, one of whom was in the film as a musician, and both of whom frequented the Kave.
“I went to all of their shows, all of them,” Delanie said.
Even those who were too young to experience the Kave came to pay their respects to the film. Thirty-year-old Chase Uy, from New Jersey, moved to Maine the year the Kave closed. Many of his friends in the hardcore scene grew up going to Findlay’s venue.
Uy drove an hour and a half from Machias to attend the screening “to hopefully see some of my friends in their high school and college years on film.”
Inside, as hardcore fans mingled in the lobby and took their seats in the theater, Leighton walked around exchanging hugs and handshakes with the close-knit audience, many of whom were “Kave Kids”—the group of young music fans who frequented the Kave when it was operating from 2000-2015.
“It was a place where weirdos could fly their weirdo wings.”
When asked what the Kave meant to her, Kali Ausplund, said the first word that came to mind was “family” before a passerby and longtime friend pulled her into a hug.
Once a Kave Kid, always a Kave Kid.
Ausplund is now a clinical social worker in harm reduction, something that she and her 14-year-old son, Orion Dionne, continue to bring to their hardcore community.
At hardcore shows, Ausplund and Dionne routinely set up a harm reduction booth. The booth is normally a table stocked with hydration packets, Narcan, tampons, condoms, naltrexone, first aid kits, snacks and water to ensure that concertgoers can enjoy the hardcore music as safely as possible.
That sense of safety and care was something many Kave Kids first felt while in Findlay’s Kave.
Ricky Leighton, right, answers a question during a Q&A with The Rising Tide’s John Boit. Photo by Maizy Weirich.
“It was a place where music brought people together and provided a family and community they didn’t have,” Ausplund said. “It was a place where weirdos could fly their weirdo wings.”
Jude Stevens, a friend of Leighton's, echoed similar sentiments before the screening. “I feel like this will be a representation of a chosen home for a lot of young people,” she said.
As the lights dimmed, a participatory audience watched the screening. At the sight of Findlay’s first onscreen interview, an audience member yelled out, “My queen!” to whoops and cheers.
The evening wrapped with a standing ovation for Findlay, who was seated in the back of the theater. Filmmaker Ricky Leighton then sat down with The Rising Tide’s founder and editor, John Boit, to host a Q&A about the film.
The final closing remark from an audience member summed up the sentiment of the evening.
“I turn 44 this year. I’m from Ellsworth, and I never thought someone would tell our story. Thank you.”
To learn more about Downeast Hardcore: Stories from the Kave, visit the film’s website.
