If you’ve been reading DS for a while, you’ll know that I count myself amongst those who got into the punk and ska scenes of the Boston area in the mid-1990s. Part of what drew a countless number of us to the scene was the anti-racist, anti-fascist messaging and the way kids from all walks of life could revel together in the chaos, picking each other up when we fell along the way. It’s a little bit of “old man yells at cloud” to lament that the scene has changed so much over the years, but thanks to the good folks at Riot Squad Media – the same crew who brings you the wonderful Camp Punksylvania every summer – there’s a new throwback game in town. It’s called Circuit Breaker, and it’s basically a series of jam-packed, barn-burner shows in and around the Northeast that feature a fine mix of ska and melodic punk bands that serve to give the DIY community a shot in the arm and light – or relight – the way for punks of all ages to keep coming together.
The – dare I say legendary? – downstairs at the Middle East in Cambridge, Massachusetts’s Central Square was the setting for the maiden voyage of Circuit Breaker. The Middle East – both downstairs and upstairs – is a venue that it felt like I practically lived at for a time, especially during college. I hadn’t been to the larger, downstairs venue since a few years pre-Covid, but before even hitting the bottom of the stairs, it was evident that very little had changed. The low-ceilinged, dimly-lit, no-frills venue was the site of many dozens of punk and ska shows that essentially molded my formative music-loving brain in the mid-late 90s, and seeing Big D and The Kids’ Table frontman David McWane on stage immediately brought me back to that place and time.
There were seven bands on the bill for Circuit Breaker which, for a show with set times that kicked off at around 7pm (6:55pm if we’re being totally accurate), seems bananas and seemed destined at least in my mind to go way over time. In the interest of full disclosure, life obligations and parking kept yours truly from getting to the venue until the 8 o’clock hour, which sadly meant missing sets from Niagara Falls’ Working Class Stiffs and Reading PA’s The What Nows and catching about half of McWane’s alter ego band, Cuidado.
We were there, however, for Dayton, Ohio’s The Raging Nathans. Much to the chagrin of a handful of DS staffers, yours truly had never seen the Nathans prior to this show. That was clearly a mistake on my part, I freely admit. The Nathans rule. With little time to waste in order to help the mammoth lineup keep a tight schedule, the band got right to work with a tight, high-powered set that featured a healthy dose of tracks from their latest full-length, May’s Room For One More (Rad Girlfriend Records).
Next up were The Doped Up Dollies. The Dollies are another brainchild of Big D’s David McWane, but this one finds McWane in the background, mostly on percussion and backing vocals duties. Instead, DupD are fronted by the ultra-talented trio of Brie McWane, Sirae Richardson (pictured right) and Erin MacKenzie, who combine to bring a fun, high-energy soul to their unique double-dutch reggae sound. Their nine-song set kicked off the PMA-infused anthem “Make Your Own Sunshine,” and had the crowd dancing in the pit from the first notes. The McWane/Richardson/MacKenzi trio might be backed by – at my count – an eight-piece band, but their interplay and doo-wop harmonies are very much the engine that keeps it moving, highlighted as always by their interplay on earworms like “Be Free” and “Black Cat.”
The penultimate spot on the bill belonged to a band that is perhaps my favorite new band of the last couple of years, The Kilograms. The band kicked things off with “No Reaction,” a song that appeared on co-frontman Joe Gittleman’s 2024 solo album, Hold Up. After a quick mid-set guitar change to swap out a finicky Telecaster, KG’s co-frontman Sammy Kay took over lead vocal duties on the danceable “Every Street.” This was followed by early single “I Swear” and then a set that leaned heavily on the band’s debut full-length, Beliefs & Thieves, with a slow-burn cover of the Gittleman-penned classic “Lean On Sheena” thrown in for good measure. Guitarist J Duckworth and keyboardist Craig Gorsline serve as spark plugs, constantly rocking and dancing on stage and encouraging the audience to do the same. Extra-special props to fill-in drummer Alex Brander, who was behind the kit for the third time in four sets after also appearing in Cuidado and the Dollies. The band closed their set with a super fun rendition of another Gittleman-penned solo track, “Glimmer.”
Which brings us to the evening’s headliners, none other than The Pietasters. In a fun and playful moment, the Baltimore ska vets started their set with their own rendition of Gittleman’s “Glimmer,” much as they did on the split 7-inch they released together last year. The very first time I saw the Pietasters – nearly 29 years prior to this show – they shared the stage with Gittleman’s old band, so it was a fun full-circle moment for me to catch them sharing a legendary Boston-area venue again. As an added bonus, Gittleman’s old bandmate, Chris Rhodes, was a trombone-wielding Pietaster for the night! After “Glimmer,” the band made their way through another fun and soulful set that was heavy on tracks from their sophomore album (and my favorite one), 1995’s Oolooloo.
All in all, it was really a brilliant evening filled with connection and positivity, the kind of things that prompted so many of us to gravitate to this scene decades ago. In an increasingly dark and negative world, it’s so important to have evenings like this filled with people shining light in the darkness, standing up for the trans kids and immigrants and the working class who are continually trampled on in newer and more horrifying ways. Have a look at a bunch more pictures from the fun and festive evening down below. And make sure to follow the Riot Squad Media crew on social media to keep an eye on where you can find Circuit Breaker popping up next (like Scranton Skaliday’s throwdown in PA next month)!