PLAYGROUND BOSTON

Photo by Sooz - photography.sooz.com

Hundreds of local Boston rockers descended upon The Bridge Sound & Stage up in North Cambridge on Sunday for a BBQ of epic proportions. The event was a collaboration by a number of local Boston music sites  – PGB, Boston Band Crush, Bradley’s Almanac, Exploit Boston!, Ryan’s Smashing Life, Tea Party Boston, Zed = Zee, and Agent Bishop Productions. In addition to some amazing food, tons of beer provided by our friends at Narragansett, and a charity raffle that netted hundreds of dollars for local children’s music organization Zumix, some instruments were set up on stage and musicians were invited to jam out together. Mick Murray of In Your Face Photography caught some great video of some of the better jams, here’s our favorites from the night. A big thanks to all the musicians who participated, and a lot of credit has to be given for the EXCELLENT selection of covers over the course of the night. We’ve provided links to the bands represented in each jam, if you’d like to help us with the ones we missed feel free to leave a comment or send an e-mail over to bryan@playgroundboston.com.

To see photos from the Boston Rock BBQ check out the collections of Mick Murray and Sooz

For more of Mick’s videos, check out the Eurogael YouTube Channel

Won’t Get Fooled Again (The Who) – Midnight Spin

3 Songs including In The Summertime (Mungo Jerry) – TAB The Band

Led Zeppelin Jam – Brendan Boogie, Adam Ritchie, Joe Packard

Blues Jam – Kevin MacKenzie, Joe Packard, JL Claybourne

Blues Jam – Shoney Lamar, Jordan Tavenner, Joe Packard

The Bridge Sound & Stage

Mick Murray @ In Your Face Photography

Sooz Photography

Friday, January 29th @ Middle East Upstairs

Mascara might be the closest thing Boston has to a local rock Supergroup (You know, now that the Holidad All-Stars are no more) Chris Mascara is the lead-singer avatar for the Rock Band games, and is doing work with Blue Man Group this year. He’s recruited two of the best and most recognizable musicians in town to help out on his original material, Bo Barringer of MEandJOANCOLLINS, and Matt Traber, one of Sarah Rabdau’s Self-Employed Assassins. Should be a great show, it’ll be the CD Release for the new album Fountain of Tears, as well as a tour kickoff. Also playing are Ho-Ag, Super 400, and Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.

Friday, January 29th @ TT’s

This Friday marks the kickoff of the “Blackbutton Presents” series, an attempt to better bring the local music scene together (We’re always fans of that here at PGB!). The boys of Blackbutton have put together a lineup full of some of their favorite bands in town, and will be offering compilation CDs as giveaways to the first 50 people through the door. These guys put out a LOT of sound for just a 2-man outfit – this past summer we dubbed them the loudest band at the P-Town Festival, up against some stiff competition. Their style is a new twist on the grunge rock you grew up listening to – check them out! Also featured on this bill are Dead Cats Dead Rats, A Wish For Fire, and Left Hand Does.

Saturday, January 30th @ Middle East Upstairs

TAB the Band’s received plenty of coverage on PGB – definitely an act worth catching. Their straightforward, irreverant approach to rock and roll is refreshing in a sea of so many acts taking themselves too seriously. This will be the CD Release party for their newest infectiously catchy offering, Zoo Noises. Make sure to show up in time to catch Trucker Mouth too, these guys have a great bluesy southern style that makes you want to stomp your feet and get down ‘n dirty. They’ll be joined by local rock rising stars Gold Star Morning, and NYC’s Edison.

Saturday, January 30th @ Precinct

Saturday Night at Precinct is chock full of some seriously impressive local talent, a perfect environment for singer/songwriters to show off their chops. Alice Austin is one to watch in the local scene – she’s poised for a trip to SXSW later this month, and its only a matter of time before you won’t be able to catch her in a cozy dark room like Precinct. She’s bluesy, she’s gritty, she’s got a powerful sultry voice that serves as a great accent to her twangy guitar riffs. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I distinctly remember thinking last time I saw her act that there was something undeniably Mike Ness-ish about her – and I certainly don’t say that about just anyone. See for yourself on Saturday, where she’ll be joined by Myra Flynn, Mary Casiello, Jesse McCullagh, and Stereo Soul Future.

Our lovable local scene looks to be well represented at the CMJ Festival down in New York this year. For almost 30 years CMJ has been an annual showcase of some of the best emerging musicians and filmmakers in the world, taking place across the entire city in over 75 different venues. This year’s festival will take place from October 20th through the 24th, so we here at PGB thought we’d clue you in on what Boston bands will be playing so you can start planning your schedule and making your travel arrangements now.

Early registration for the festival ends on October 18th, so make sure to get on over to the CMJ website to pick up tickets as soon as you can! In addition to early registration specials, CMJ also offers discounts for students, industry professionals, and groups – check their site for more details. The set times and locations for many of the bands are still being confirmed, but we’ll do our best to keep you posted as to when our local heroes will be performing as we hear about them. Without further ado, here’s our listing of Boston’s representation at this year’s festival…

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www.tabtheband.com

Tony (guitar), Adrian (bass/vocals), Lou (guitar) and Ben (drums) of Massachusetts’ TAB the Band are a young group that plays the type of catchy riff n’ roll that ruled the late 60’s and 70’s, and the guys have had a ton of success doing it, playing venues all over the world with the likes of Stone Temple Pilots and Modest Mouse. I caught up with the band through e-mail after their recent Great Scott set, where we discussed everything from exploding guitar amps, the Village People, and why you should listen to more classical music while stoned. Enjoy!

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Photo by Caroline Bridges

Great Scott hosted a rock show last Thursday night that Locks of Love would’ve loved to have gotten their shear-clasping hands on. I’ve never seen so much hair in one place in my life, especially in the beard department. And I’m not talking about that scraggly Bon Iver-esque face fuzz that passes for acceptable beardery nowadays, I’m talking full-on swamp Viking—that’s part backwoods redneck, part sword-wielding Norwegian badass—beard.

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