PLAYGROUND BOSTON

All photos by Nicole Tammaro. See more of her work at www.nicoletammaro.com

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After a 4 year hiatus, The Marvels have reunited and are ready to wreak havoc upon the Middle East Upstairs on Friday, August 21st. Ask around town, ask anyone who’s been in the Boston scene for a while and you’re bound to hear some crazy stories about their experiences at Marvels shows in the past. Now they’re getting ready to start the band up again and rock Boston’s face off. They’ve put together a great lineup for this show, teaming up with the Dirty Truckers, VAGIANT, and Pulp 45 to bring you a great night of rock madness. With a bill like this the show’s VERY likely to sell out, so we’d recommend picking up tix in advance at the Middle East’s box office or online through Ticketmaster. PGB caught up with The Marvels before the big night to welcome them back, talk about the reunion, and find out what’s in store for the future. Here’s what they had to say…

Oh, and while you’re reading, check out the song “Hate Myself” off of their most recent CD, Cheat to Win. It was actually licensed by FX and appeared on Season 4 of their hit television show “The Shield.”

The Marvels – “Hate Myself” – Cheat to Win

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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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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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Last Friday the New Alibis put together one of the best local punk-rock bills Boston has seen in recent memory to celebrate the release of their latest CD Hard Promises. Joined on stage by The Have Nots, Razors in the Night, and Burning Streets, the Alibis sold out the Middle East Upstairs and lived up to the high expectations of the tattooed and unruly crowd.

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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!

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There are so many punk rock bands out there with songs that all sound the same that it’s refreshing to catch a band that knows how to mix it up, let alone two on the same bill. The New Alibis and Deadly Sins do just that, and they do it well. Thursday night’s show at Great Scott was fast-paced, high-energy, and flat-out nasty.

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