Several years ago, I somehow found out about some Boston area street punk bands, The Welch Boys and the Blue Bloods. For years, I thought it would be cool to see them play. Unfortunately, both bands sort of disappeared for a few years. Fortunately, they are both back at it again.
Last weekend, I hopped on a plane to Providence, RI where I was greeted by Earthdog and his two children who picked me up at the airport on Friday afternoon. We spent the night catching up, having a few beers, and watching the Great Lebowski (first time for me).
Saturday, we hit the British Beer Company restaurant for lunch where I had a few beers, some mac n cheese with grilled onions and jalapenos, and a steak sandwich. From there we hit the local Newbury Comics record store near East Walpole, MA where Earthdog lives. I dropped a Franklin on some CDs as usual on record store visits. After a nap (2 hours!), we watched a little bit of The Decline of Western Civilization Part 2, and then headed to the Great Scott.
The Great Scott was a nice small club that surprisingly had a great draft beer collection. I tried a few of them before switching to Bud Light because I new it was going to be a long night. Tonight was the first of two consecutive benefit shows being hosted by The Welch Boys. We got there around 7pm for a show that started at 9pm and went until at least 1:30am.
Up first was Darkbuster frontman, Lenny Lashley, playing an electric acoustic set with his Gibson. He started off with a cover of The Clash's "Spanish Bombs". I remember a song called "Hooligans" that was pretty good too. It is on his solo release, The Gang of One. The set was calm, but it was nice to ease into the evening as I had not been to a show since Punk Rock Bowling in May.
The Old Edison played next. They had no drums, but had a violin, mandolin, banjo, acoustic guitar, bass, and singer. I'm not sure there was room on the stage to put a drum kit. They played some punked up folk songs. Again, we were easing into the show so this was fine. Earthdog and I could still talk and drink beers while crowd watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnayhfSaen4&noredirect=1
The McGunks from the Providence, RI area were up next. Now these boys know how to rock. Lots of beer drinking singalong songs including a Kenny Rogers cover. I had been listening to them for the last week or so, and recognized a few tunes they played - "Maybe Tomorrow" and "Shut Up". I would be happy to see them play again sometime.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHQzEoeLdTY&noredirect=1
Mark Lind of the Ducky Boys played next with another band of his, Dirty Water (probably named after The Standells song about Boston). This was the first set with some noise. It was the right time for some. I was glad I got to see them play. There were a few songs that I recognized from listening to them for the last few weeks, and I am glad they played them - "It Starts with You" and "Are You Dying".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66f11EQ4Egc&noredirect=1
Finally, one of the bands that I was there to see - The Blue Bloods. Now we finally moved closer to the stage and it was loud. There were not too many songs that I recognized from the few releases that they have out. I did speak with the lead singer after the set, and he did say they have a new release about ready to come out. They did play a few songs from their last release, Death of a Salesman, that I was excited to hear - "Left Out in the Cold" and "Losing Streak" (sans the "Fuck you, Jobu I do it myself" excerpt from Major League that is on the CD). I believe they ended the set with a cover by The Trouble (who I wish I could have seen during their reunion show this year at the TNT Fest in Hartford, CT), "This One's For You".
Burning Streets played next. They have a few releases out on Sailor's Grave Records along with the Welch Boys and the Beantown Boozehounds. I was not too excited to see these guys after listening to their songs the few weeks prior to the show. However, they sounded better live and made for an enjoyable set including the three guitar attack.
Finally, it was time for the headliners, The Welch Boys. Unfortunately, it seemed like half of the crowd had split already. I felt bad for the band as they put this weekends benefit shows together, and didn't get to play to a full house. Well, others loss was my gain as I got to get very close to the stage. So close that I got to sing some backup vocals into the guitar players mic! There are lots of videos from the evening that someone posted on youtube, but I couldn't find any of me singing "Les Paul" with the band (edit: my noise shows up at about the 36 minute mark of the video below). You will see lots of pics below of others singing with the band too. Just like the good old days before the barriers came into play. The band did not disappoint. I am very glad that I came out to Boston to see them play. I grabbed the setlist from the stage which helped me get the list of songs they played. It was pretty heavy with new material from their Bring Back the Fight CD that came out earlier this year on Sailor's Grave Records. I wish they would have played longer. I could have listened to them play at least a 90 minute set. I don't think they played 45 minutes at most. The singer looks like Jon Gruden to me, and you will see a Jim Carey lookalike in some pics too.
Bring Back the Fight
Flesheater
Where Have All the Boot Boys Gone?
Pervert
Head in the Sand
Johnnie Black
Belly of the Beast
I Feel Like Drinkin'
Drinkin' Angry
617
Someone's Gonna Die
Whiskey and Beer
Les Paul
I wore a Beantown Boozehounds t-shirt to the show. Their lead singer, Chad Beantown, chatted me up and some girl offered me $20 for the shirt. Apparently, you can only buy that shirt from Sailor's Grave.
Me and the Blue Bloods singer.
Me and some Welch Boys after I bought some raffle tix for the autographed guitar. I guess I didn't win since I have not heard from them yet.
Another great weekend in Boston. That town is quickly becoming my third hometown.
More pics can be found on my Flickr page under my name:
lewdd.
