PLAYGROUND BOSTON

We’ve got an incredible weekend of some of the most aggressive music Boston has to offer coming up on Saturday and Sunday at Great Scott. Some of the biggest names in the local punk rock scene are coming together to benefit the family of Ron Holbrook, ex-drummer for the Welch Boys who passed away in August of 2007.  This has been an annual event of solidarity and compassion in local rock, with bands coming together to donate the entirety of their proceeds to Holbrook’s wife and two daughters for 3 years now.

This year’s lineup is flat-out incomparable. The Welch Boys are a rare treat in Boston – they don’t play very often but when they do you can expect a packed house full of drunken revelry, singalong choruses, and general madness. They’ll be headlining BOTH nights of this event. PGB Favorites Burning Streets, Beantown Boozehounds, and Dead Friends (all past PGB TOTW honorees) are also on Saturday’s bill, and The Snipes and Drago, two nasty bands in their own right, round out the lineup.

Sunday features local legends The Blue Bloods taking the stage for the first time in 2 years, gearing up to rock the faces off all those kids who forgot what Boston punk rock is all about. Sunday’s show will also be the record release for Refuse Resist’s latest effort “Socialized” – they’ll be donating 50% of the proceeds from album sales to Holbrook’s family in addition to their door money. Ashers will also be on this bill – a high-energy outfit featuring members of The Unseen and Bad Ash. The Murder and Full Powered Halo will also be rocking for the cause on Sunday night. These will be two great shows for a great cause – trying to make the best of a tragic situation however we can. Nothing says “Happy Valentine’s Day” like in-your-face punk rock and down-your-throat cheap beer, see you down there!

Dead Friends

“Dead Friends”

The Afterlife

© 2009 Self-Released

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Dead Friends

All Photos by Nicole Tammaro - www.nicoletammaro.com

[View with PicLens]

Thanks to Nicole Tammaro for the photos – www.nicoletammaro.com

This Friday Dead Friends has put together an incredible lineup of local Boston punk rock to help celebrate the release of their debut CD, The Afterlife. Dead Friends is a Boston punk and hardcore all-star team, consisting of ex-members of bands such as Nowhere USA, Strawhorse, and Splint, coming together to sing furious anthems about the city they grew up in and the people they grew up with. They put on an extremely high-energy show, highlighted by frontman Mark Doherty’s chaotic jumping all over the stage. The recording process for this CD began back in June, and both the release and the release party are among the most anticipated in the local scene. The first 100 CDs sold will be Limited Edition releases, only available at the show, so make sure to get there early and pick up a copy! The album features artwork and photography from local heroes Dave Tree (Tree, Superpower), Nicole Tammaro (Nicole Tammaro Photography), and Scruffy Wallace (Dropkick Murphys), so you know it’s going to look as badass as it sounds!

The bill put together for this show is unbelievable. The Welch Boys are on board, they haven’t played a show in quite some time but are coming out Friday to support Dead Friends’ new album. They feature a fast, aggressive style with powerfully angry vocals. Chris Skel & The Original Sins are coming up from New Jersey for this show as well. After the Skels went on hiatus, Chris recruited friends from bands such as Darkbuster and Hudson Falcons to help him put out his own CD. Check out his music – it ranges from mellow ballads to surf rock to Irish-style punk fucking rock! Gozu’s been terrorizing the Boston scene with their brand of hard stoner rock, look for them to tear the roof down Friday night. Gozu’s sound is best described on their website by Hackman’s Daryl Shepard, who says Gozu’s frontman Marc Gaffney “has the pipes Chris Cornell used to possess before he started modeling men’s cologne.” Rounding out the bill is recent PGB Track of the Week pick Burning Streets, ready to bring their triumphant punk rock style back to the Middle East. Their debut CD, released this fall, hit as high as #70 on the Interpunk charts – very impressive considering the stiff competition on that list from national headliners, large indie-label signees, and big major-label corporate darlings.

(continue reading…)

Superpower - www.nicoletammaro.com

Ashers - www.nicoletammaro.com

Dead Friends - www.nicoletammaro.com

Swaggerin' Growlers - www.nicoletammaro.com

(continue reading…)

This Saturday, October 3rd we’re looking at a hell of a show down at Church in the Fenway! Since the breakup of Boston hardcore legends Tree, lead singer Dave Tree has been fronting a new band, Superpower, who since forming has played hundreds of shows with a laundry list of some of the best bands the punk rock and harcore scenes have to offer. After putting out a few EPs over the years, Superpower is now set to release a full-length, “Phantom of the Alliance,” this Saturday at Church. They’ll be joined onstage by a can’t-miss lineup of some of the angriest (and in the Growlers’ case drunkest) bands the Boston scene has to offer. Ashers features Mark from The Unseen on vocals – The Unseen tore the roof off of the Middle East a few weeks back, now Mark’s getting ready to do the same to Church with his new band. Dead Friends is Mark Doherty’s new band (Nowhere USA), featuring members of Straw Horse and Splint as well. Click here for a PGB review of a Dead Friends show back in May – I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ve been doing since then. And the Swaggerin’ Growlers, well, they’re just incredible – beers everywhere, whiskey-soaked lyrics, and fiddles and flutes galore. You’ll just have to see it for yourself.

Oh yeah, one more thing – this show’s being sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon, meaning free shirts and other swag will be given away throughout the entire night. Punk rock and PBR? I’ll take that mix any day of the week! See you there!

Sponsored by The Weekly Dig, PBR, and Bekah the Wrekah!

Superpower

Ashers

Dead Friends

Swaggerin’ Growlers

Church

b

We’re just a week away from the inaugural Provincetown Rocks Festival, descending on Commercial Street in P-Town from July 22nd – 26th! This promises to be the premier Boston music event of the Summer, with some of the best bands our city has to offer ready to rip up the town for four straight nights of musical madness! Underground Control is bringing you bands, DJs, Burlesque shows, and so much more… its going to be a 4 day party, and you’re insane if you miss it. No question. This is going to be a musical riot across multiple venues, all within walking/stumbling distance of each other. We’ve got schedules for each venue in the form of incredible flyers created by the extremely talented Joey Mars – check em out! These are the main stages for music, but there are even more events going on at venues all over town! Start planning now, and pick up tickets in advance, as they’re going incredibly quick and you don’t want to be left hanging for this incredible event!

(continue reading…)

If you’ve never been before, definitely make it a point to check out a show at the Beachcomber in Quincy this summer. It’s an interesting little venue – small capacity, low ceilings, tables everywhere, and a stage and dance floor right in the middle to allow for as much mayhem as the South Shore can handle. They also have a great patio out front where you can drink, smoke, and still hear the bands playing inside. It does seem very out of place, however, that they have shot girls traversing the club inside and out, trying to get you to buy overpriced tubes of brightly colored drinks or Jello shots – it strikes me as much more of a “Fahk you, gimme a Bud Light and a shotta Jack” type of place. I will say that the sound has been consistently great every time I’ve been there. Everything’s miked right and sound checks are always done no matter how late it will make the bands start. Someone give that sound guy a raise… or bring him into Boston, I know a lot of clubs that could use someone as good as he is.

(continue reading…)