PLAYGROUND BOSTON

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All photos by Pete Legassey – Thanks Pete!

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All photos by Seth Drury – thanks again Seth!

Well, for better or for worse, we’re back in Boston now. What a crazy night to end things on. We had PGB Henchmen running all over Commercial Street, trying to get the best and most widespread coverage we could. I caught a bunch of new bands in addition to a couple I’d already seen… and I can honestly say this night was by far the most fun I had all week. We’ll have a complete festival recap for you posted up in the next couple of days, but for now here’s what went down on Saturday night.

Click for recaps of Day 1, Day 2, Day 2 continued, and Day 3.

Venue: Governor Bradford

Scene: Things got a little heated down at the Gov on Saturday. There were issues all night with the restaurant upstairs complaining that the music downstairs was too loud and bothering the customers, eventually culminating in the venue cutting off all shows until food service upstairs was over. A few bands got screwed as a result, but I feel especially bad for the Wynotts. I heard they were pushed back twice due to sound and scheduling issues, then as they were setting up for the third time they got the bad news that all music at the venue was postponed. Rather than stick around and play a shorter set later, they decided to just say fuck it. Ah well, I’ll be looking to catch them back in Boston as soon as I can (August 8th @ All Asia!). I did get there in time to catch local P-Town favorites The Antibodies prior to everything getting shut down though…

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The Legendary Elephants Gerald at The Vixen - photo by Seth Drury

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All photos by Seth Drury. Thanks Seth!

Onto day three of the P-town music bonanza.  Our trusty photographer Seth Drury was able to join us for the weekend, so at last we have some proper pictures for you all.  The weather has steadily improved as well, so things are looking up!  Though as soon as we found parking near the fest we heard rumors that Good Times was shutting down its music, we were quickly able to quash the misinformation and we can assure Good Times was most certainly rocking! And will continue to rock through the weekend.  Also scheduling mayhem seemed to be much improved, and bands we wanted to catch actually played (for the most part) in their advertised time slot.

Click for recaps of Day 1, Day 2 and Day 2 continued.

Click here for a complete listing of bands and venues participating in the festival!

Day 3 – Friday, July 24th

Photo by Seth Drury

Starting the night at The Vixen, we caught the tail end of The Shills’ main stage performance.  These guys were tight, playing a lot of fast palm muted riffs underneath singer Bryan Murphy’s zero-to-howl in .02 vox.  While the crowd was certainly lacking, the rock was not, and the Shills ended things with a nasty jam– Dave Sicilian strummed out meaty bass chords while Murphy and guitarist Eric Ryrie wailed intricately harmonized guitar solos.

The Shills – “The Fire” – Ganymede

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All photos by Billy Korecki - www.calmovita.com

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Thanks to Billy Korecki for the photos! Check out more of his work at www.calmovita.com

Click here for Noah’s Day 2 recap

Click here for a complete listing of bands and venues participating in the festival!

Festival still seems to be going pretty well. My only real complaint so far is the scheduling. Bands are getting their set times pushed back, changed around, etc. The schedules will at least tell you what band is playing where, but the when has kind of been up in the air. That’s frustrating for me as a spectator, I can only imagine how annoying that is for the bands themselves. Hopefully that’ll be a little better tonight, I’ll keep you posted. Other than that everything’s been good – and the sound in the venues I was at was definitely better across the board last night than it was on Wednesday. Alright, anyway, on to the tunes…

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Ah day two on beautiful sunny Cape Cod. Well actually, by the time we pulled into Provincetown the soggy Thursday evening mist had turned into actual droplets of light chilly rain that would only get steadier before turning into full-on downpour by the end of the night. No to be deterred, after getting the lay of the land and chatting it up with The Lights Out on Commercial Street, we headed to Old Colony Tap to catch some local atmosphere, some beers, and some singer/songwriters.

For day 1 recap click here

Click here for a complete listing of bands and venues participating in the festival!

Day 2 – Thursday July 23rd

Venue: Old Colony

The Scene: The first word that comes to mind when entered Old Colony Tap is “Crusty.” From the dark cave-like lighting, the low ceiling, the old buoys and fishing memorabilia hung everywhere on the walls, to the leather-skinned fisherman/biker local clientele, Old Colony is a place for serious drinking, and that’s about it. The doorman Keith (commercial fisherman by day) was friendly and chatty, and as he explained, helps out at the bar at night after selling them his day’s oysters. With Anchor Steam on tap, reasonably priced well drinks, and music set up in the corner, I had no complaints! (memorable sightings include a dude in a sweet Sam Black Church t-shirt and Punk-Rock Ron Jeremy hanging out at the bar)

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Stuck in Boston this weekend? Can’t make it down for the inaugural Provincetown Rocks Music Festival? Don’t worry, don’t fear, don’t cry – the friendly folks at PGB have you covered! We’re down on the Cape this weekend in full force for this monumental occasion, and we’ll be doing our best to bring you updates on how everything’s going each and every time we can find a wi-fi signal to steal! We’ll have quick reviews of some of the bands we’ve caught, a few songs to check out from intriguing artists, and maybe some reports of weird, insane, and/or drunken encounters over the course of this long rockin’ weekend! And if you’re planning on coming down to P-Town, either to perform or to check out the scene, we’ll try to give you the heads up on bands playing multiple sets so you can catch them for yourselves!

Click here for a complete listing of bands and venues participating in the festival!

Day 1 – Wednesday, July 22nd

So the action on the first day of the festival was limited to just a few venues. We stuck primarily to the main stage at the Vixen and the bar Good Times, and caught some pretty decent bands. Contrary to popular belief (ahem Michael Marrotta at the Herald), the festival seems to be going along without too much of a hitch. Sure there’s some scheduling issues, sure the sound engineering could be a little better – its the first year of this festival and like 150 bands playing over the course of 5 days, you thought everything was going to be perfectly smooth? Event organizer Martin Doyle remains fully confident with the way things are going – I think I bumped into him about 20 times over the course of the night all over Commercial Street, taking a hands-on approach to make sure everything goes as planned. It seems things are looking good, and so far I have no reason to expect that’s going to change. Anyway, onward to the meat and potatoes…

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