PLAYGROUND BOSTON

Beantown Boozehounds - Photo by Nicole Tammaro - www.nicoletammaro.com

The Welch Boys – “Friend Or Foe”

Beantown Boozehounds – “DUI”

Buddha & The Boys – “We’re Goin’ Down The Bar” (Wretched Ones cover)

Thanks to Jacqui for the great videos! See more videos from this show at the fakenameJD Youtube Channel!

The Welch Boys - Photo by Billy Korecki - www.calmovita.com

The Welch Boys

Beantown Boozehounds

Buddha & The Boys

Rock On! Concerts

Middle East

Thursday, April 29th @ Great Scott

Former WBCN personality, local rocker, and creator of the amazing Quiet Desperation Allston reality sitcom Rob Potylo is putting on his own version of the WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble down at Great Scott this Thursday. He’ll be filming for the 20th episode of his show, giving away prizes, and drumming up support for an initiative to get local radio stations to play more Boston music rather than cookie-cutter-corporate rock. The former Roadsteamer has assembled a great lineup for this event, with performances by his own band, Humanwine, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, and New York’s King Hell. Great local sponsors + great local rock = a great fuckin’ time!

Friday, April 30th @ TT The Bear’s

This is an unbelievable lineup of some of the best indie rock in town. If you’re a PGB reader, you’ve heard us scream bloody murder about the merits of Aloud and The Lights Out, and how amazing their live sets are. If you’re not familiar with them, click those links and get yourself caught up! They’ll be joined by 2009 BMA Pop Act of the Year winners The Everyday Visuals, easily one of the most critically acclaimed bands in the city. The driving force behind them, singer Christopher Pappas, departs our fair city for the smoggier pastures of LA later this summer, so this may be one of your last chances to see this amazing band! Rounding out the bill is New York powerpop outfit Flying Machines, freshly back from SXSW and a live performance at Rolling Stone HQ. Don’t miss this show!

Saturday, May 1st @ TT The Bear’s

Very cool event happening Saturday at TT’s. Rock photographer extraordinaire (and PGB contributor) Nicole Tammaro will be turning the venue into an art gallery, featuring artwork by local Boston musicians bringing their talents to a new form of media. The night will also feature performances by (in order) Squallie Greenthumb, Paul & The Strings, The Other Girls (local supergroup featuring Andrea Gillis, Linda Khoury, Amy Griffin, Melissa Gibbs, & Michelle Paulhus), Bryan McPherson, and Gene Dante & The Future Starlets. This was an extremely popular event last year, and this year’s rendition promises to be even bigger and better. Support local music and local artists, all wrapped up in the same event!

And don’t forget about our BBC & PGB Presents show, the main event, coming at you Saturday, May 1st from The Hard Rock Cafe… More info coming soon!

This Saturday at Precinct in Union Square NTP Productions has put together a strong lineup of bands to celebrate the release of the Young Tremors new album on Teenage Heart Records, a local indie label well established in punk and garage rock circles. The collection of bands on the bill are perfect compliments to each other, and are extremely fun to catch live. The Young Tremors describe their sound as “The Kinks caught huffing the fumes of Motown in Elvis Costello’s garage.” Tad Overbaugh is opening the night up, the former frontman for The Kickbacks debuting his solo project, The Late Arrivals. Memphis 59 are bringing their rootsy twang up from Virginia to add a little southern flavor to the bill – and hey, look! Is that Rich Lewis from Sam Black Church on bass? You damn right it is! PGB Favorites Watts will be providing rock ‘n roll hooks, sneers, and struts for the masses. Dirty Truckers, who have also received plenty of coverage on PGB, will be closing out the night with their 90’s style rock that’ll stay stuck in your head the entire ride home after the show.

Watts - Photo by Johnny Arguedas

Good music and good people not enough for you? OK, well how about a ‘Gansett sponsorship? Still not enough? How about FREE FOOD?! The $10 price of admission gets you all the appetizers you can eat all night long, courtesy of Nicole Tammaro. Stuff your face and rock the fuck out tomorrow night at Precinct, 70 Union Square in Somerville.

Tad Overbaugh and the Late Arrivals – 8:30pm

Memphis 59 – 9:15pm

Young Tremors – 10:05pm

Watts – 10:55pm

Dirty Truckers – 11:45pm

Full Body Anchor - All photos by Nicole Tammaro

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Thanks again to Nicole Tammaro for the photos! Check out her website here

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.

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Photo by Nicole Tammaro - www.nicoletammaro.com

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RIP to a nasty band, definitely wish I had a chance to catch them more often. Here’s hoping to see Duncan and the rest of the band in other projects down the road.

Thanks to Nicole Tammaro for the great photos, check out her website – www.nicoletammaro.com

Destruct-a-thon

Superpower

Mob Hit

Buried in Leather

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Superpower - www.nicoletammaro.com

Ashers - www.nicoletammaro.com

Dead Friends - www.nicoletammaro.com

Swaggerin' Growlers - www.nicoletammaro.com

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All Photos by Nicole Tammaro - www.nicoletammaro.com

In my opinion, Watts is a Boston band not to be missed.  My most recent favorite description of their sound is Psychedelic Furs’ vocalist Richard Butler singing with the catchiest of Tom Petty-style rock.  The result makes it hard to pinpoint which aspect of Watts is more memorable:  Dan Kopko’s vocal melodies or John Blout’s guitar lines.

It’s been said in one of my previous reviews that I’m a huge fan of Watts drummer John Lynch (also the drummer for the Dirty Truckers).  For my full opinion on his musicianship, check out the Dirty Truckers review, also found on Playground Boston.

I’ll just say that Lynch continues in this project to provide the same solid drumming and tasteful dynamics that I’ve come to expect, but this time in a smaller venue demanding a lot from a band so easily tailored to great loud Rock’n'Roll.  In any case, the band didn’t disappoint in their command of the sound and stage alike.

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