PLAYGROUND BOSTON

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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The ProblemAddicts - Photo by Katherine Taylor

So many shows, so little time. This weekend is absolutely chock-full of great local music. We’ve already featured a few in separate posts – BBC’s “What’s your Major” Series, Hempfest, etc. – but there are so many more we think you should know about! Here’s a little rundown of what’s going on this weekend in Boston Rock.

Friday, September 18th

Boston Band Crush “What’s your Major” Day 1 – Church –  check out the preview here

MassCann Boston Freedom Rally Preparty & Awards Show – Middle East Upstairs – featuring performances by Casey Desmond, Keep Me Conscious, Final Hour, and the ProblemAddicts. Band4MassCann will also be giving out awards for the best Boston music acts of the year.

Boston Music Spotlight Battle of the Bands – Oliver’s / Cask & Flagon – featuring PGB favorites Silent Century, as well as In Like Lions, Polyethylene, Shadwell, and Taste. Grand prize is worth over $5k, come out and support your favorite band!

Lauren Flaherty Acoustic set – Middle East Corner – Lauren will be performing two separate sets with her band at the Corner on Friday night. The first set will start at 10:30 and will feature a more traditional singer/songwriter style, while set #2 at 11:30 will get a little crazier and more upbeat. Lauren’s one of the nicest people I’ve come across in the entire local music scene, and a talented musician to boot!

The Wrecking Coast Debut show and EP Release – Copperfields – The Wrecking Coast will be joined by a great lineup featuring This Blue Heaven, Birds Make Birds, and Cola War Vets. They’ll be giving away free music all night too! Presented by Hear Now Live!

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For the short time they’ve been playing together—a little under a year—Philadelphia’s Misstallica has been kicking ass with their take on old-school Metallica songs. Included in their ranks is: Gina Randazzo (lead vox and rhythm guitar), Gigi Gleason (lead guitar and backing vox), Allie Thrower (lead guitar and backing vox), Teddi Tarnoff (bass) and Kaleen Reading (drums). The group met at the Philly chapter of the Paul Green School of Rock Music and has been sonically pummeling their crowds’ heads in, both as Misstallica and as Queen Diamond, their King Diamond tribute band, ever since.

I managed to catch up with the band backstage for a quick interview at Harpers Ferry after their successful introduction to Boston, where they were comparing blood blisters on their finger tips and talking about how excited they were to see that a couple of the guys from Anal Cunt had stopped by to enjoy the show—you know, the usual. Talk of corpse paint, taste in rap music and the licking of legs during guitar solos ensued:

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Photo by Caroline Bridges

Metalheads wearing Slayer t-shirts—SLAYYERRRR!–mixed with middle-aged women decked out in cocktail dresses around the bar at Harpers Ferry on Saturday night- an unusual crowd for your typical concert if it weren’t for the fact that Misstallica, an all-female Metallica tribute band, would be supporting Tragedy, the all-metal tribute to the Bee Gees that evening. Needless to say, I was pumped.

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Tragedy with Misstallica

Have you ever wanted to hear a metal cover of the Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love?” Me too! Now’s our chance as Tragedy, a metal Bee Gees tribute band is coming to Harpers Ferry on Saturday, May 30th. If the premise alone doesn’t sound entertaining enough, I hear they put on a ridiculous stage show too. See for yourself!

(what’s the deal with the dude dancing around in his underwear?)

Also on the bill is Misstallica, an all-female tribute to Metallica. These ladies rip! and I would venture to say (sadly) they may even put Hetfield and the gang to shame these days.

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