My Guide To The Top 5 Venues Boston Bands Play

I have lived in Boston for nearly three years now, and much of that time has been dedicated to enjoying and planning live shows. I’ve seen great bands play in amazing venues to create a transcendent experience, but I’ve also seen these same bands play in venues that leave everyone involved with a sour taste in their mouth. To assist in avoiding the ladder, I’ve compiled a list of Boston venues and ranked them out of ten. Although this is not a definitive list, as I haven’t been ambitious enough to have been to every venue the city has to offer, these venues are by and far the ones that I get invited to on Facebook the most (what other proof of legitimacy do you need?) That being said, the one venue I really wish I had a chance to check out is Church, so if anyone has any thoughts on it, please share in the comments. It’s a public service, really.

For this review, I’ll be judging venues based on ambiance, quality of music, and ease of booking.

The Middle East

Ah this venue. Every band has a story of when they played here. Even my brief stint as a performer resulted in a (poorly-attended) corner show.

The Middle East refuses to be contained in one venue; it consists of two restaurant portions, both of which lead to a stage area, one called “the upstairs” and one “the downstairs.” Not satisfied with that amount of confusion, the owners added a restaurant in between the other two called Zuzu, which also hosts musical acts on occasion.

Ignoring the tiny restaurant performances, the upstairs and downstairs venues are actually pretty decent (once you find them.) Having attended many upstairs shows, the bands that play there are generally of at least decent quality, and a good portion are of great quality. The sound varies depending on the night (moody sound engineer perhaps?) but it’s never unbearable, and generally is above average. If you can stay in between the random pillars on either side of the room, the sight line is great and grants a visual of the entire band.

The downstairs is a venue I am more familiar with behind the scenes. I’ve managed a couple shows there and management has been very accommodating. It’s a larger capacity room, with two bars and a larger stage. It’s great for rock and punk bands, as it’s underground and has that grungy, dirty vibe to it. My main suggestion would be to bring your own sound guy, because at least one of the house engineers is kind of a dick.

There are two separate booking contacts for the upstairs and the downstairs, but both respond to emails and will give any band with decent pitching skills a chance.

Rating: 6/10

TT The Bear’s Place

I seriously love this place. Having only made it out there for the first time a few months ago, I was surprised to discover that it’s right behind the behemouth that is The Middle East. It definitely deserves a spot with higher visibility.

The venue is separated by a half wall (and some pillars) into two rooms. One hosts the stage area while the other contains the bar (there’s also an area to play pool, but that didn’t really appeal to me.) There’s something about this setup that is just perfect – when I’m in the stage area, it feels like the band and the audience have formed together to create their own little ecosphere, where the audience feeds off the music and the band feeds off their sweaty, dancing energy. The sound is great and, although I’ve only been there a few times, I thoroughly enjoy the music showcased.

The other side of this musical ecosphere, the bar area, is perfect for people who just want to take a step back during a set that isn’t really their style, or are tired of standing and jumping around, or just want to get wasted. It’s far enough away that the music isn’t overpowering to conversation, but close enough to feel the pulsing energy coming from the stage.

The one thing that brings this venue down is that management can be difficult to get ahold of. I have tried, and failed, a couple times to make contact with their booking agent, but in this industry, I might just not know the right people.

Rating: 8/10

The Red Room at Cafe 939

There may be a bias in the sample here, seeing as this venue is run by the very college I attend. But I can assure you it’s not just a “college venue,” they have many larger acts, such as The Civil Wars and The Lumineers, come in quite frequently – often right before they hit it big.

I have attended and managed shows at The Red Room, and the best thing about this venue is that it has high sound quality. Let’s be real though, as a Berklee-run venue, it would have to unless it wanted to hear every other sound engineer-in-training bitching about the room’s shitty acoustics or the apparent deafness of the sound guy.

It’s also a very unique atmosphere. It’s a small venue with a classy yet cool feel to it – the walls are decked in dark red and the stage area looks like a mix between a recital hall and a jazz club. The music is extremely varied, ranging from students singer/songwriters to jazz-funk ensembles to country bands and back.

A downfall is that working with The Red Room management can be frustrating…they are extremely busy and tend to take a while to respond – even sometimes double booking nights. That being said, they really are passionate about the music and try their best to be accommodating.

Rating: 7.5/10

PA’s Lounge

Consider this a PSA for the musicians of Boston. Please, for the love of everything great about music, never play here. I’ve only been once, but that experience was enough to put me off the place like it’s day old Chinese food. Not only is it a bit too far of a trek outside the city to easily draw a huge crowd, but the sound is horrible and the management is pretty much nonexistent. I was there to watch a friend’s band and ended up having to pester the sound guy for a different microphone cable, seeing as the one they were using was opposed to the idea of actually staying attached to the microphone. Unless they change their ways, I would highly recommend staying far, far away.

Rating: 2/10

Midway Cafe

Midway is an underrated venue, mostly because of its inconvenient location in Jamaica Plains, but it has a great vibe and deserves more credit. It’s a small venue with a low stage and dive bar attitude that allows for a feeling of closeness with the band. I’ve never noticed issues with the sound, although I’m sure you could bring your own engineer if desired, and the bartenders are always extremely friendly and accommodating. It feels more like a community than any other venue I’ve been to in Boston.

My suggestion with this is to maybe make a night of it and try to get an after party in the area. Or to focus promotion out there instead of primarily with friends in Boston. At the very least, check it out sometime – it re-inspired my passion for music and it could do the same for you.

Rating: 7/10

An Open Letter To Spotify

Dear Spotify,

Lemme just get this out of the way right now so we can move on to what needs to be said: I love you. So very, very much. It’s a big step, I know, but hear me out.

A little less than two years ago I was stuck using iTunes, a service that I once used with amazement, but which was proving to have more and more pitfalls daily. Then I heard a rumor about a revolutionary start-up in Sweden – one that discarded the need to store mp3s and transfer them from device to device (which has caused me to lose not only my iTunes playlists, but entire chunks of my previous library,) and instead let them live in the cloud, jumping, nay sashaying, from laptop to iPhone to desktop with grace.

As you can imagine, my excitement could barely be contained when I heard they were planning to release in the U.S. in just a few months. My high expectations were well met. I was tempted into the free month of premium and was immediately hooked, taking Spotify with me wherever I went. iTunes is now as outdated to me as MySpace.

Me. Except I have contacts because I’m not hipster enough for glasses.

Now that my adoration has been establish, know that perfection is an elusive little shit, so there are a few things I’d like to request.

1. Automatically Updating Artist Playlists

I love the fact that I can make playlists that include anything I want. I also love that I can search any artist and find the entire catalog that’s currently on Spotify. You know what would be even better? Combining the two so that I can have a separate section of playlists that are for artists – playlists that automatically update when that artist releases a new song or album.

You got closer when you added the ability to “subscribe” to an artist…but it’s not quite enough to be notified of the artist’s activity, I want their songs to be in my library the day they’re released.

2. More Features in The Artist Profile

Discovering music is one of my favorite aspects of Spotify, whether that be through the radio or searching for a band whose catalog I really want to delve into. Being of the generation that demands immediate access to ALL of the knowledge, however, it irrationally irks me when I have to use multiple sources to learn about these bands. (I’m not proud of it, but that’s the world we live in. Or so I’ve heard)

So please please please provide a little more in depth bio/profile for each musician. Even just a link to their website or social media would satisfy my need to Google one less thing.

3. Start The Radio On The Selected Song

Spotify’s radio is like Pandora in that it never plays the song that it’s based off of first. I understand why Pandora has this inconvenient feature – they have a non-interactive license, so the listener can’t actually choose the songs they listen to. Spotify, however, is based on the very fact that the user CAN choose what to listen to, so I see no reason why the feature remains. Maybe there is a legitimate reason that I don’t see, but until someone proves to me it’s not possible, I will continue to preach from my soap box. Slash blog.

4. Etc.

• Sort Playlists (alphabetically, by genre, most obscure indie name, etc)
• Remove the requirement to choose whether I want to search a song, track, or album on mobile version. Sometimes I just don’t know.
• Starting from a web browser, don’t ask for my login information if the application is already open. It confuses me.

All that being said, I believe in what you’re doing, forget the haters.

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Fall in love for yourself: Download Spotify

Some Spotify news and opinion articles:

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/11/clearing-up-spotify-payment-confusion.html

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2013/03/spotify-eyes-video-streaming-unveils-first-ever-major-ad-campaign.html (please do this)

http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/12/spotify-6-million-paid-users/

Band of The Week #11 – Opium Symphony Review

Band of The Week: Opium Symphony

Genre: Hard Rock, Metal

Listen If You Like: Stone Temple Pilots, Audioslave, Jane’s Addiction

 

 

 

 

In the world of music, “Hard Rock” has taken a turn for the worse. It’s been diluted, altered, and fed back to us as a shell of its former self. However, I was recently introduced to a band that brings back aspects of the Hard Rock genre in the best way possible. Opium Symphony is a band who understands that “The idea that ‘rock is dead’ is almost as old as the genre itself,” and is striving to make sure that idea remains as ridiculous as it was in 1958.
 
Opium Symphony manages to walk the line of reminding its listeners of the brilliance of bands like Stone Temple Pilots, Audioslave, and Jane’s Addiction, while at the same time avoiding cliches that come with the Hard Rock territory. They’re recently released CD, “Blame It On The Radio,” is filled with heavy drums and gritty vocals – staples of Hard Rock – while maintaining an individuality that keeps it from being a mockery of the genre’s former glory, instead creating something that’s unique to themselves.

 

 

Band of The Week #4 – Art Decade Review

BAND OF THE WEEK:

Art Decade – Western Sunrise

Genre: Symphonic Rock, Progressive Rock

Listen if you like: The Mars Volta, Muse, Radiohead

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Based in Boston, Art Decade is a titillating combination of Classical, Pop and Punk Rock, known as “Symphonic Rock.” Ben Talmi was raised on classical music and received in-depth classical training while attending Berklee College of Music – and it shows.

Their debut LP, Western Sunrise, starts off with no pretenses – a playfully descending strings line ushers in the beginning of “A Lie” – to let you know this is more than your average rock album. The classical introduction is quickly followed by a high (and highly distorted) vocal line and a rockin’ drum groove to prove it’s inspired by more than Mozart.

The intricacies and layers of each song don’t overshadow the clear rock influences; the epic feel of the album brings to mind the likes of Muse and Radiohead, while the vocals and screaming guitar take us to the Alternative Punk realm of Brand New and Forgive Durden. The thought put into each aspect of the album reflects the band’s understanding of music, and their mastery of both theory and popular music. The title track exemplifies this, with strings woven throughout, supporting and elevating the entire song.

Lyrically, the band sticks to simple ideas, mainly of love, meaning, and hope. The album starts off with a cynical thought, “As usual nothing’s perfect/as usual you’re not there” and stays consistently in a dark place, with such emotional lyrics as “Looking down on myself, it’s clear/I’m not supposed to be here,” until the two final songs, “Daydream” and “Kids and Kings,” end on a more uplifting note.

Despite the technicality of Western Sunrise, it’s not over-thought. Each song manages to meld the multitude of genres together and avoid coming off as pretentious or inaccessible. With the ability to get you singing and nodding along, and the scope to inspire any music scholar,Western Sunrise crosses borders and challenges the status quo of popular music.