Boston (the city, not the band): Cash Cow or Evil Whore?

I live in Boston. I could show you a good time. Ifyou like to drin k in public go to Lilli's in somerville or The Milky Way in Jamaica PLain. But remember , at 12:30 am the T turns in to a pumpkin

I've only been to Boston once. My band was on tour and we played at the Middle East restaurant/club, which is really, really cool place. We were actually on tour with this band Burning Airlines who are kind of popular so we were opening for them in the downstairs (larger) room. The people there treated us great and fed us and I couldn't help but think that it would be a great place to just go and hang out if I was ever in town again. There is an upstairs (smaller) room that has really good shows by smaller (usually cooler) bands.

Then the bad part. After the show, it took us an hour+ of driving around to park our van near our friend's house where we were staying, which was in a pretty nice part of town (can't remember the name tho). When we came out the next morning, our van had been broken into and all of our merchandise (tshirts, CDs and vinyl) were gone and had been replaced by a bag of trash from the park. A criminal with a sense of humor! Luckily he didn't get anything else, but needless to say, we were more than a little down on Beantown.

Later on that day, I bought a pair of camouflage CHuck Taylor low tops for $8 at the Army Surplus store, so I felt a little better.

The band? Rocks.

Joei and I should be available for some sort of get-together, although we'll probably both be in "miserly penny-pincher" mode. Since you're gonna be at the Ritz, you should know that there is ascreaming meat market near you known as "The Alley" which holds five or six nightclubs/bars. I've only been to a couple of them (Pravda 116, which is somewhat swank but also kind of unsufferable, and Envy, which is completely unsufferable and has the worst pool tables known to man). I tend to go to Jillian's on Landsdowne St. because I'm a big videogame nerd. Actually, there are a ton of places on Landsdowne but it's been so long since I've been to any of them that I have no idea what the cover or anything is at any of them (besides Jillian's/The Atlas Bar, which is free).

There are some lounge/karaoke places around, too. I need to tap my sources...

Tim is absolutely right about The Middle East. It's an extraordinarily cool spot in an extraordinarily cool part of Cambridge; Central Square. In fact, just down the street from The Middle East is a club called Man Ray which will probably be having GayGothyLeather night pretty much any night you go there. There's also T.T. the Bear's, but I've never really been inside of that one.

If someone broke into _my_ car and stole my shit, I'd have a conniption. I can't blame you for hating Boston, Tim. (Actually, my wife would applaud you. :)

"More Than A Feeling" is the jam, y'all.

Ah, Cambridge. MY town. I spend more time @ the Middle East than I do @ my own apartment. And that's with a 4-hour round trip to & from Cambridge, to boot. I'd live there if I could afford the stupid rent.

Nice place. Newbury Street is quite lovely - lots of boutiques & chi- chi restaurants & such stuff. Central Square has the Middle East & TT's (&, yes, Man Ray). Harvard Square (a T-stop down from Central Square) is also quite pleasant - I do all my CD shopping @ the Newbury Comics that's a stone's throw away from the T entrance. They even have an Other Music that kicks the ever-living snot out of the NYC store. (And other, more economically priced music emporiums are there for the taking, too.)

Public transport does crap out @ 12:30 AM, though, which I don't understand. But, hell, it's a nice place. No break-ins to report here - I usually park @ the cheapy parking garage on Green Street (just a block from the MidEast).

If you're looking for clothing bargains, I'm guessing the Garment District might be a good place to go. Beyond that, I'm only good for info on CD stores & eateries. (The Middle East, along with being a swank place to catch a show, makes the BEST hamburgers. Avoid the ethnic cuisine there, though - it's spotty.)

(And why do you need to insert paragraph tags? I just tap ENTER twice, and I'm good like Lucky now. She's a star, you know.)

Harvard Square: nothing but a frigging mall. Central Square: better, but going down fast. Inman Square: lots of international variety. Kendall Square: forget it. Davis Square: the current trendiest, but probably going the way of Harvard Square. And this is just a small part of what's on the Cambridge side of the river! Please avoid Newbury Street unless you want to spend a ton of money. Jamaica Plain is my favorite place for low-key relaxation and second-hand shopping. The Garment District is a good recommendation. Have fun, Ally!

I forgot to mention that the best places to eat are the Cambodian or Vietnamese Pho (not faux) restaurants; the best used to be next to the wondrous Middle East, but it's gone, alas.

Can I just warn you all that not only am I hella lazy, but Ramon and Otis will probably be there, and Ramon can't even walk to a window to smoke, he's so lazy. So the closer the bar locale is to 75 Arlington St, the better. ;)

Seriously, though, if people wanna meet up, come on down. We can at least hang in the hotel room. The bathroom is the most awesome, awe- inspiring room I've ever seen, or at least it was in DC. You have to see it at least once in your life.

Hey is "The Pit" still a punk hangout, anybody?

jaw drops you're secretly from ottawa, aren't you, tracer? you were just pulling that "where's the nearest big city?" schtick to fool me, weren't you? i mean, you even remember the pit, premier punk hangout in the early-mid-90s. actually, 2 steps above was far superior for its brief duration.

anyway, boston was a fine debut, featuring driving beats, soaring vocals, and sleek twisting guitars. it contained not only the surging anthem "more than a feeling" but the summer-sparkle drive of "peace of mind" and the acoustic intricacy of "hitch a ride."

No I am not referring to this Canada Land you claim exists, Sundar. The "pit" is the spot just behind the Harvard Square T facade, a kind of mini-arena ringed with telephones you could make calls on for a dime. Mouse, Squirt, Mona, Sarah, low-lifes, no-hopers. More safety pins than a fabric store. We'd take our slices from Cafe A out there and flaunt our snotty attitudes. Isn't that what Boston's all about?

not in boston for the summer, but..... Newbury Comics and Other Music are good for records, but if you aren't into big commercial type stores, there are two great local stores: In Your Ear Records in Harvard Sq. and then another In Your Ear on Commonwealth Ave. near BU. Middle East is cool as well as T.T.s

A screaming meat-market known as The Ally? She may be bitchcakes to some, but watch it...this lawyer's got balls in places she didn't even know she had them.

The Pit is still there. In fact, The Pit is one of the reasons I gave up on the entire punk scene once I came to college.

(cue naive story music):

I came to Boston from a special slice of suburban/rural hell where I was not only one of 5 black students in a school of 1600, but I was also one of the few who knew anything about punk and industrial music. (I've since come to realize that what I did know was miniscule, but compared to most of the kids from my high school I was a Weird Music Encyclopedia.) When I saw the mohowks and plaid floating around in The Pit, I was psyched. An outpost of discontent and anger right outside my dorm room! How awesome is that? Then, I began listening to the converstaions. They all ran along the lines of:

"..so then Jenny told Bobby that Sasha and Spitz were going out, but not to tell me because Sasha TOTALLY knew that Spitz and I were still fucking. I swear to God, I'm so not speaking to Sasha the next time I see her... Do these fishnets make me look fat?"

Or, even beter:

"Hey man, what's up?"
"Nothing."
"..."
"..."
"Did you get your dad's BMW today?"
"No. He let my sister drive it today. Said I couldn't have it 'cuz I didn't put gas in it."
"That sucks. How are we gonna get back to Andover?"

Cue me running screaming in the opposite direction.

I'm never using HTML again. Fer fuck's sake!

Three in a row, I rock.

Anyway, I just realized that thre's an allegedly awesome martini bar up the street from the Ritz that might be overpriced yuppie hell but could also be lounge-a-riffic. (I've never been, but I've heard good reports from a friend whose tastes I mostly trust.)

Dan, you put that html down. You're not allowed to play with it anymore until you learn how to take care of it properly. You need to give it food and water everyday, clean the cage out, take it for walks, etc...

I'm pretty lazy too. I don't really "party" so much as observe and comment. THere is a cool Japanese food court/grocery store/overpriced kimono etc. store in Porter Square in the GAP building. Its fancy.

Dude, Dan, I think you're doing it on purpose at this point.

I might be lazy, but I party like it's 1999. I just don't like to go very far to party like it's 1999, see. Preferably if it involves staying in the bathroom and staring at the tub, actually.

No, I'm kidding, I'm not that obsessed with a BIG GIANT BATHROOM. WITH A MIRROR. AND A PROPER SINK. Sorry, anyone on this board who has seen my bathroom will understand my obsession with bathrooms, in that mine is about the size of the well shaft that little girl fell down in Texas in the '80s, swear to god.

These suggestions all sound good, I'm always up for going to yuppie crap bars, like that awful one at the Hudson Hotel in NYC. Just cos it's always extremely amusing.

Any place I can dress up in some format would be awesome, I have to find an excuse to wear this blue corset top I spent $100 on.

Actually there is some party here this weekend at a dominatrix friend's house that will be webcast. You could show the WORLD your blue top.

Okay, that's so right up my alley. We're there, whoever "we" is going to be.

Ally, in Boston, prepare to party like it's 1899. Dan, I loved your reminiscences of the infamous Pit. I first saw it in 1982 and have seen it evolve into a parody of itself, when it was pretty much a parody of itself when it began. Ally will be sure to find a good time if she gets as far away from Arlington Street as possible.

Frightening, Dan. You've just brought a host of memories flooding back. Wonder if there are still a couple of safety-pin obsessives with scabby knees still hanging about, wax figures to justify the "punk-themed" Welcome To Cambridge postcards at the candy store.

I heard that the Wursthaus was shut to make room for a bank -- a shame, partially because the Wursthaus had the only tri-lingual menu item I believe I've ever seen --

"Chili Con Carne mit Beans"

Ah, The Wurthaus. That was the first restaurant my family ate at in Harvard Square. Imagine the look of queasy horror on my father's face when they brought him a plate of grey and pink wienerschnitzel topped with fired eggs so runny they could have taken Marion Jones...

The spot where The Wursthaus was is now an Abercrombie & Fitch. BLEAH. Harvard Square is much lamer than it used to be. Central is starting down that same path, but as long as The Middle East, T.T. the Bear's and Man-Ray are still around it will still have vestiges of coolness.

I lost interest in Boston after Barry Goudreau and Sib Hashian left.

Who the shit are they?

Okay, I'm thinking I was way too coy with this question, so let's rephrase:

I don't want recommendations for places people liked previously or go to now, unless people recommending it want to meet me there and hang out. This trip is turning into a total fucking bust and I want people to hang out with. I'm not there for sight seeing or clothes shopping because I'll be back there at Christmas time with my company and I'll do that crap then (yeah right, like we'll even leave the minibar). SO if you live in the Boston area and want to hang out, please like email me ASAP or someone post here a place that's really cool (Dan, that place by the Ritz that your friends said was alright?) and the location of it, and we'll set a time to meet, preferably ASAP since after about 3pm tomorrow, I won't have access to the internet to figure this out!

This isn't meant to sound rude, btw, it's just that I've realized I have absolutely nothing to do in Boston, especially since I found out that the backup friend who was there just moved back to upstate NY, and I'm now getting annoyed that I basically bought a hotel room to keep my roommate company just in case she gets annoyed by Ramon, as if that isn't going to happen, she told me she hates him, wtf? At the very least, it's a fly ass hotel room. So in short someone post a location, day, and time, and whoever wants to come, come. I'll be arriving in Boston sometime after 9pm tomorrow night, be there thru Sunday...well, afternoon, I guess.

It might be easier to meet at the hotel because, while I know the location of this place by sight, I don't have an address and I can't remember the name. It's within 3 blocks of the Ritz, though.

I've put out feelers for more info. Will let you know ASAP if I turn something up.

what are punks supposed to talk about?

Info source comes through!

The place I was talking about is called Flash's Bar. It's at 310 Stuart Street (right near the theater district). More info can be found here .

Just down the street from the hotel is a pretty good bar/restaurant called Pravda 116 (116 Boylston st) which is attached to a meat- market dance club called Envy, if you're looking for something to do tonight.

I'm going to albany but you guys should go to the fetish internet broadcast party. I'll get more info

Right, say 8pm on Saturday if there are no objections - meet up at Flash's? I'll probably be late, trying to find the place...