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11/22/2008
During my years in the music scene I have been through many a club closing…there were some great ones...
we've said "Good-Bye" to some legendary places; of course the Rat comes
to mind first…
and then there is the infamous close of the Underground… and we bid a fond adieu
to Cantone's and The Club; the places that were the foundation for
this Boston scene we have now.
Then there were others…Streets, Storeyville, yeah yeah Bunratty's too
and Green Street Station…the list does go on….
so this Thanksgiving Eve, November 26th, 2008 we said "so long" to another club
that I am sure will be a legend in Boston Rock: The Abbey.
When the Abbey first opened it was that awesome mix of townies and the new kids
on the block; the rockers, taking over an old dive. At first there was some tension
but the place quickly became a cornerstone in the Boston music scene. Andrea
Gillis was booking the place at the time and she had that little club booked
with awesome bands every night!!
Also when The Abbey first opened, everyone likened it to Cantone's because it had that divider wall in the middle, besides the great booking and the dive feel it had, the aura of the Cantone's legend cemented it in the scene as an important club.
There were months in which I didn't go to any other clubs; everything I wanted
to see was at The Abbey!! Kudos too must go to Michele Paulhaus,
who took over the booking after Andrea, she too kept the shows at a high caliber
of rock'n'roll that was above most of the other places in town.
Then the job was handed over to Skinny Mike, who started doing the booking.
Well my friends, things change and troubles happen and here we are and The
Abbey had to close…the end of an era…..
So I knew it would be a packed and probably sold out night, I got there at 9:20
and yes, it was packed! And it stayed packed until 2AM when I l left! Like the
special event it was, it made for a special kind of electric, high energy in the
place. Everyone was friendly; all the bands did their best. The Curses
were crazed; lead singer Brian was his weird combo of punk and David Bowie inspired
mania,….Spitzz were awesome and the lead singer was the quirky, jerky nerd
I remember him being when I saw them the first time and LOVED them.….Muck and
The Mires , well they are always great and they didn't disappoint this night
either, they weren't as smiley as usual though, maybe they were really bummin'……
The Konks were super high energy and infectious, I wanted their set to
go on and on! They started smoking cigarettes on stage, hey why not right? What
are they gonna do, close the place?.....Sometime after The Konks, I think, there was a loud yell from behind the bar; "We're out of beer, we are OUT OF BEER!!!" and that was that…but everyone was so into the night it didn't seem to matter anymore anyway!!...then there was Triple Thick, I just love Triple Thick, they are fun lovin' and never take themselves too seriously and they are cute and have memorable songs…tonight they even got their original bass player to come up and do a few tunes with 'em….The Coffin Lids were great too, but they didn't get much time on their own on the stage because as soon as Skinny
Mike got up there people were going really crazy! And everyone was jumping up to join them.
Before you know it people were hanging off pipes, stage diving, and there was such a crowd on the stage, literally they couldn't fit one more person on there…..
It was an absolutely fun night, its unfortunate it was for the sad and sorry event of the close of a great and favorite Boston rock club like The Abbey….damn….
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Photo:Michele Meadows. |
Photo:Michele Meadows. |
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Photo:Michele Meadows. |
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Billy Ruane makes the scene. |
Eric Law, Kurt Konk and Joanie Lindstrom |
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Photo:Michele Meadows. |
Photo:Beatgirl. |
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Photo:Beatgirl. |
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