Boston Rock Photos And Stuff
Muck And The Mires. The songs of ’64 meet the spirit of ’77. This band never disappoints.
The Dirty Truckers were back in action Friday night. The band was celebrating the release of their new Tiger Stripes EP and the 7″ single for the song “Human Contact.” It had been a while since the last time I saw these Boston wranglers. I was starting to get the shakes. Their set at Radio was just what I needed. The Dirty Truckers blasted out one of the best sets I’ve ever seen them play. They played the new stuff. They played the old stuff.* They rocked the in-between stuff like nobody’s business. “Sea Pines” and “3 Weeks To Go” blew the doors off the joint.** They threw in a couple of covers to keep themselves honest. In the end, the ‘Truckers reminded everyone that they’re one of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands around, not that we’d forgotten.
* Including “Backpack” from their first record.
** Both off of 2008’s fantastic Loose In The Joints
The Scars brought the punk rock to Radio.
Friday night found an art show at Moe’s Lounge in Radio’s basement. This was the third installment of the Drop Ya Mic Pickup Yer Paintbrush series that is curated by Nicole Tammaro. There was a slate of musical performances to entertain the art aficionados in attendance. I got there late, but I managed to catch some of Chestnut Growler’s set of stripped-down punk folk tunes.
I’m going to keep this one short. Motherboar took Prelim Night #6 with the most ferocious Rumble set I’ve ever seen. Awesome.
Brownboot slayed. The band’s Rumble set had the feeling of a huge rock n’ roll band playing a secret show in a small club as a treat to their die hard fans. The guitars were loud, the songs brought the house down and everyone got sweaty. Talk about a band rising to the occasion. This was Brownboot’s finest moment. That was one hell of a show.
Preliminary Night #5 Winner: Bow Thayer And Perfect Trainwreck
In the grand tradition of Puppet Show and Spinal Tap comes Paper Airplane Fight and Mellow Bravo.*
* Yes, I know this wasn’t technically a Mellow Bravo show, but I didn’t know what else to call it.
Watts was the seventh band to play at Radio. When they performed their song “Radio”, they became the fourth band to perform a song with the club’s name in the title.
I posted this little tidbit on Facebook.* The next day I saw a comment from Wattsman Dan Kopko asking “Yes, but how many of those bands have a song entitled ‘Radio’?” I informed him that the answer to his inquiry was three.** Everybody chuckled.
This has to be some kind of good omen for the club.***
* Hey! Did you know that Daykamp Music has a Facebook page? Go like it. I’ll wait here.
** Sidewalk Driver, The Rationales and, of course, Watts all played their own songs called “Radio”. AM Stereo played their song “Southern Rock Radio”. Unfortunately, no one covered Elvis Costello.
*** And/or clever booking by Ashley Willard.
*AM Stereo are criminally underrated. Their sound is cut from the same cloth as The Replacements, but ends up coming off more like Superdrag meets Superchunk. Superdrunk, if you will. Just listen to the songs. “Drink Club”, “Money Store”, “The Company Line”… damn, there are so many great ones. They’ve got meaning and still manage to knock you silly. I love these guys.
Oh, they also played their song “Southern Rock Radio”, making them the third act in Radio’s young history to play a song with the club’s name in the title. Remember this when we talk about Watts’ set from this night…
* Purveyors of Boston’s finest disaster rock since 1998.
The Organ Beats are lighting up the Radio stage with their bombastic power pop. The band is tight. The crowd is into it. They’ve already forgotten the brief blackout that delayed the start of the set. A good hook will do that.
Two bands into Radio’s existence and I’ve already got a good feeling about this place…
