RIP Church of Boston

Since Church of Boston is closing its doors, I'd like to take a moment to eulogize it with my favorite STRANGE CHANGES war story. Way back on 11/17/12 we had a clusterfuck 5 band bill featuring OTP, Froggy & The Friendship, Shoney Lamar, and the most important band in the story, Something About Horses (great lineup!). For those not familiar with SAH (also RIP, check out Jay Kohler's new work though) it was a super awesome mathcore warhead of a band. They were first up that night.

As it happens, Church had a very lucrative matinee booked. The Who were playing in town that weekend and Pete Townshend's brother Simon did an evening solo set of genuinely forgettable Irish-ish pub backwash. All 5 bands wound up stacking their gear on the cold pavement outside, as Simon's 3rd, 4th, and 5th encores went well past our scheduled load in and sound check. Meanwhile the crowd of baby boomer Who groupies racked up big tabs on high limit credit cards. Finally, we rushed our gear in well behind schedule and SAH did a quick line check.

I will never forget the look of horror on the manager's face when Jay, Tim Doherty and company unleashed their auditory assault on that stuffy ass room. Thousands of dollars in bar sales fled for the nearest exit while SAH shook the foundations and rattled the windows. It was a perfect disaster; I could only barely suppress my sadistic glee while feigning ignorance of SAH's style to the manager.

It definitely wasn't the best gig we had at Church, those always came later with Benny Tucker. But man, sometimes there is something to be said for bombing with style. If ever a room deserved to get hit with a bomb, it was that one.

Raise a drink to a great local club; no watering hole is perfect but Church felt that way once in a while.

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