Located along the banks of the Mystic River, maybe a half-dozen miles north of the ever-increasingly gentrified heart of Boston, Massachusetts, lies the traditionally working-class city of Medford. Once the home of Amelia Earhart and Elizabeth “The Black Dahlia” Short and the guy who wrote “Jingle Bells,” it’s now the home to one of yours truly’s favorite new venues…Deep Cuts! Once the site of one of the region’s 729,038 Italian restaurants, it’s now an ever-evolving sandwich shop/brewery/record shop/pinball arcade/240-cap music venue, the likes of which the area so desperately needed after the shuttering of so many similarly sized venues in the big city. It was the perfect sort of venue for a high-octane three-band-bill as The Drowns brought their rock-and-roll roadshow through the area last Wednesday night, with regional support from Worcester’s Michael Kane and the Morning Afters and newly-reformed River City Rebels, who I suppose hail from parts all-over at this point given the number of moving parts who have spent time in RCR over the last couple of decades.
I’ve been a fan of the hard-working, blue-collar Drowns since one of those first flexis showed up in a care package from the inimitable Pirates Press probably 4/5 years ago. I think it was “The Sound” maybe, and it was printed on an old shot of Kingdome-era Seattle and it was just another example of one of the endlessly creative things that label spits out. ANYWAY, this somehow marked the first time I’d seen them in this neck of the woods, and let me tell you…I liked them before, but I love them now. The Drowns are solid on record, but Rev and the gang (stalwarts Andy Wylie on bass and Jake Margolis – who I had last seen with the Shell Corporation easily a decade ago – now joined by Josh Dale on 2nd guitar) are at their best on a live stage. They are consummate road dogs, and they are dyed-in-the-Fred-Perry unapologetic anti-fascist, anti-racist punk rock lifers. On this night, they blazed through a set that peppered a healthy dose of tracks from their latest record, Blacked Out, with a bunch of the classics. Personal favorites included “Ketamine & Cola,” “Just The Way She Goes,” and the new album’s title track. Also thrown in for good measure were a rousing cover of The Sweet’s “The Ballroom Blitz” – which is a song I’m old enough to remember, and a pit-inducing cover of Cock Sparrer’s “Riot Squad” that brought festivities to a rousing conclusion.
Michael Kane & The Morning Afters opened about a week’s worth of The Drowns’ northeast dates, including this one (naturally). They might not play 200 dates a year like The Drowns do, but in many ways, the two bands are very much kindred rock-and-roll spirits. Appearing as a keyboardless four-piece on this run, Kane and his longtime wingmen Franklin Siplas (guitar), Timmy Weagle (bass) and Jeff Hoey (drums) have carved out a pretty solid Petty-meets-Replacements niche for themselves, meaning they are right at home on a wide variety of bills. The setlist on this particular night was pretty raw and rocking, including “Carol Kaye” and “Cooking The Books” and personal favorite “Dark Nights,” all from their last full length, Broke But Not Broken. Oh, and of course there was a cover of Petty’s “American Girl” that was pretty true to the original, killer guitar solo included. I just wish Franklin had busted out the Yamaha Revstar!
The opening slot on this night was occupied by none other than the River City Rebels. Originally from Vermont (I think), the band have taken on a few different iterations with more than a handful of different members in between hiatuses over the years; Dying Scene’s own Dan McCool even did a stint back around the turn of the century. There was a sort of ska-punk era and there was a more rockabilly era in there. The current era of River City Rebels consists of Dan O’ Day at the helm with Marc Coutu and Izze De Simone on guitar, Kody Samborn on bass and Adam Allard on drums, and they’ve locked in on a more late-70s, Lower East Side, New York Dolls sort of vibe, only if New York Dolls also grew up on 80s Boston street punk.
All in all, it was the kind of raw and fun and working class rock and roll party that I’ve often lamented doesn’t really exist in this capacity and in this area anymore. And maybe it still doesn’t down the road in the “big city.” But it certainly does in places like Deep Cuts in Medford. Bonus points for me not even having to take the highway. Trying something a little different with the slideshows below, so keep scrolling and check out some more shots of the evening’s festivities!