If It's Too Loud...

Even though there were six total acts playing this night for TT the Bear's final blowout week of shows, I'm going to focus on Willy Mason and Evan Dando. The Grown Up Noise started playing maybe five minutes after the doors opened and stopped with maybe 50 people in the venue total, The Dazies played a solo four song acoustic set, and I left before Runner & The Thermodynamics because they went on at 11:30, and I'm a grumpy old man with work the next day. The Thalia Zedek band was great, but I just never can connect with her music. I know it's great and I know I'm losing out, but it just doesn't grab me. This last week of shows at TT the Bear's has been absolutely packed, with insane bills every night. Since the shows were booked last minute, and since Willy Mason isn't in the middle of a tour, I assumed it would just be him with a guitar. Instead he had four other musicians with him, because who could miss TT's last week of shows? They played...

Photo by Shervin Lainez With TT the Bear's closing forever this Saturday, I wanted to share some of my favorite memories of the iconic Cambridge rock club. Some of my most cherished musical memories took place within its walls. It is going to be missed greatly. I almost didn't go to this show. It was on a Friday the same week I started a new job after a couple months of unemployment. I really shouldn't have been spending the extra money on a concert. But then I heard Ripely Pine , which came out the same week. I hadn't had such a strong reaction to a brand new album in years. I was completely blown away by how unique it all sounded, and how every song veered off in completely unexpected directions. I knew I had to finally get out and see her live. And what a show. The show opened in complete darkness, with her opening with "Up in the Rafters," an a cappella song first heard on Mammoth Swoon. The few people in the audience that were still chattering awa...

With TT the Bear's closing forever this Saturday, I wanted to share some of my favorite memories of the iconic Cambridge rock club. Some of my most cherished musical memories took place within its walls. It is going to be missed greatly. If memory serves me correctly, this was the very first show I saw at TT's. It was dirty, set up poorly, cramped, hot... I immediately loved it. One of the truly great things about going to shows in the Boston area is how many Brits live in the city. You'll get bands that play arenas and stadiums in England, but when they come to the US they play tiny clubs. Fans that are used to seeing them as little dots from the cheap seats can now see them from mere feet away. The energy at one of these shows is simply epic. There were maybe a handful of Americans just discovering the band at the show, and the rest were die hard Brits. Ocean Colour Scene had just come off a tour opening for The Who, so they brought their arena rock show to TT's...

With TT the Bear's closing forever this Saturday, I wanted to share some of my favorite memories of the iconic Cambridge rock club. Some of my most cherished musical memories took place within its walls. It is going to be missed greatly. This was one of those stacked bills that can only happen at a TT the Bear's benefit show. It also included local heroes The Gravel Pit along with The Sterlings and Boy Wonder, who were both great forgotten late 90s Boston bands. Happening back in my college radio days, I mentioned I was going to see Sloan to my contact at whatever company was promoting them back in 1998. He told me he was going to put me on the list, and I said I didn't mind paying since it was a benefit. He insisted, so I figured I'd do the free show thing, which is really what college radio is about. After driving an hour into Cambridge, I got to TT's to find out there wasn't a list since it was a benefit show. I pleaded my case obnoxiously for at least ...

With TT the Bear's closing forever this Saturday, I wanted to share some of my favorite memories of the iconic Cambridge rock club. Some of my most cherished musical memories took place within its walls. It is going to be missed greatly. This was by far the craziest show I attended at TT's. Those Darlins were headlining, and for a while leading up to the show it was advertised that they'd have a "special guest." An hour before the show, they finally announced the special guest was Deer Tick, who had just outgrown the small confines of TT's. Since John McCauley and Nikki Darlin were engaged at the time, and Deer Tick are based less than an hour from Boston, this was kind of a no brainer. Deer Tick only played an 8-song, 30 minute set, but it really sticks out. First, they came on stage wearing dresses procured from Those Darlins. I believe the drummer, Dennis Ryan, was wearing a ladybug print dress. After a song or two, McCauley announced that the band ha...

With TT the Bear's closing forever this Saturday, I wanted to share some of my favorite memories of the iconic Cambridge rock club. Some of my most cherished musical memories took place within its walls. It is going to be missed greatly. Back in 1997-1998, Rivers Cuomo played some small, side project shows in the Boston area. The band had a rotating line-up, but this one in particular stands out. Weezer drummer Pat Wilson came out to join the band for this show, and it also included soon to be Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh. To show how far Weezer had fallen out of the mainstream post- Pinkerton , tickets were available to see half of Weezer at a 300 person club. By this point the casual fans had strayed off (an earlier show at TT's in October had some fratty guys asking where the mosh pit was before the band started) and this was just filled with die hards. It was a short eight song setlist, and of course it consisted of Weezer favorites such as "Getchoo," "No O...

Via Facebook For anyone who doesn't know, last week is was announced that Cambridge, MA club TT the Bear's was closing this summer after over 40 years. This might be the first club closing to truly upset me. By the time I was regularly going to shows (1996?), The Rat was catering to mostly punk and hardcore bands, and Avalon and Axis were always the bigger, corporate clubs (even though they've been replaced by the even more corporate and gigantic House of Blues). TT's had an equal love of national and local bands, and felt like a home base to bands like Letters to Cleo and Lady Lamb the Beekeeper even as they got too big to play a 325 person club. For an example of how great this place was in the late 90s, check out the ad to the left. Jennifer Trynin, Allstonians, Velvet Crush, Boss Hog, Bikini Kill, and a Squirrel Nut Zippers/Magnetic Fields double bill in less than 2 weeks??? Plus, it was the site of the legendary Pixies/Lemonheads pairing on "nu muzik"...

My obsession with Benjamin Booker has been pretty well documented on this site. Having missed him coming through Boston twice in the spring (opening for Hurray for the Riff Raff and Courtney Barnett), but catching him live at the Newport Folk Festival this year, I jumped at the chance to see what I believe was his first headlining show in Boston. Plus, he was playing the 300 capacity TT the Bear's. I can't imagine he'll be playing small clubs like this one for much longer. Live, Benjamin Booker is an absolute revelation. He's what Kurt Cobain could have been if he had followed his bluesy side further. His three piece band tore through his first and only album. His folk side came out when he put down his guitar for "Slow Coming." Accompanied by his drummer on ukulele and his bassist on fiddle, somehow the most mellow song of the night was one of the highlights of an otherwise fiery set. For an encore, he closed with an 8 minute noise jam of "Have You...