Boston | The Che Underground

Seen any good shows lately? Dinosaur Jr.

December 19, 2011September 25, 2011 by Paul Kaufman

(Father to a fast-moving toddler/ adoptive New Englander/ Ché fan at large Paul Kaufman currently makes it out of the house at night a couple of times a year, so they better count. This one did.)

In the future, I’ll have to contain the instinct to rile when I see current concert calendars loaded with bands you could have seen in the mid-’70s: Pat Benatar, America, Kansas, James Taylor. Sure, most of this stuff is hurl-worthy, but I can’t pretend that nostalgia is of no interest to me.

What were the last three shows I’ve seen? Sonic Youth, Pavement, and now, Dinosaur Jr. True, the first of these is a band still actively exploring new territory, but the others weren’t. The Pavement show was one-off reunion of my favorite band of the ’90s, playing their classics. This Dinosaur Jr. show was an even more specific revisit to a place and time: late-’80s Boston. “Playing the album ‘Bug’ (1988) in its entirety!” read the announcement. I bought a ticket the moment I saw the ad.

The show was at The Paradise Club in the student-centric Allston neighborhood, a few blocks and 22 years from the first time I had seen them. Back then, Dinosaur Jr. was the “it” band among the many Boston college radio stations, and they had joined the übercool SST indie label, but I was lucky to catch them at a small place (“Bunratty’s,” now defunct, still notorious.

Seen any good shows lately?

December 18, 2017January 9, 2010 by Paul Kaufman

(Distracted dad Paul Kaufman pops in for what is sure to be an infrequent concert review.)
Regular readers of this blog will understand why I’ve been pretty scarce lately: We have a newborn daughter in the house! She’s brought lots of joy, but naturally this means my extracurricular activities are pretty limited, and our baby-centric bedtime rules out most nighttime excursions.

I’ve made one exception since she’s arrived; a few weeks ago, I went to the first concert I’ve been to in quite some time (first since the Ché reunion, actually) to see Sonic Youth play.

People either love or hate this band, and I’m not writing this to promote my own fandom, but the show did make me think of a couple of things of more general interest. First, I couldn’t but help think about the fact that it was over 20 years ago I first saw them. That alone wouldn’t be so remarkable, except this show displayed no hint of nostalgia — they played mostly new material. (Though they never had chart-topping hits in the first place, “Teenage Riot,” their biggest college-radio tune, was not on the set list.)

Me and my monkey: Guilty pleasures

January 1, 2011June 10, 2009 by Mmrothenberg

(Tell-Tale Heart/Town Crier Ray Brandes puts out a call for your dirty laundry!)

We call them “guilty pleasures,” those indulgences we secretly enjoy but are embarrassed to admit. Unlike moral guilt, the shame we feel is really just a fear of others discovering our “low-brow” or “uncool” tastes.

I have a friend whose name, for the sake of confidentiality, will remain anonymous. He is a connoisseur of ’60s music, particularly garage punk, and has earned himself quite a reputation as a “cool” guy. He rarely takes off his sunglasses, plays in a ’60s punk band, and for all intents and purposes has committed himself to a total garage-punk lifestyle. Under his bed, however, lies a dark secret which would bring his carefully contrived image tumbling down if discovered by the rest of the world: the “Titanic” original motion-picture soundtrack. He doesn’t want you to know, but “My Heart Will Go On” brings him to tears each time he hears it.