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Out
Fuzz frisk Paradise
BY WILL SPITZ
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The three policemen who "raided" the Paradise Lounge a week ago last Tuesday must’ve been disappointed. Bursting in like gangbusters on the opening night of Mike Viola’s newly anointed Mix Tape Tuesday "speakeasy," the blues came armed with flashlights (wholly unnecessary given the light level in the place) and the intention of ferreting out some underage drinking, but they entered a room occupied by a clearly post-college-age crowd and had to settle for carding veteran indie-folkstress Meg Toohey, who was about to join the on-stage festivities. With the help of some high-powered luminaries, however, the police were able to determine that the So and So’s leader is indeed legal. (She’s almost 28.) Speaking of luminaries: quite a few of the power-pop variety were on hand to take in — and more often take part in — the informal cabaret-style show that Viola (of Candy Butchers infamy) has been organizing in association with Boston Pop Underground’s Andrea Kremer (see www.bostonpopunderground.com) since May. Mike Gent (of the Figgs and the Gentlemen) and head Rudd John Powhida were in near-constant transit between the bar and the stage, playing alongside a rotating cast of scheduled performers: the tirelessly giddy, freestyle-rapping, rump-shaking Viola; drummer/vocalist Todd Foulsham; the young-looking, honey-voiced Toohey; and Dragstrip Courage’s Scott Janovitz, of the Boston Janovitzes. (If the police had taken notice, they could’ve roped a known Confidence Man in Jake Brennan, who along with the Click’s Ben Romans also made a cameo.) Powhida, who sang a rousing version of A-Ha’s "Take on Me," claimed afterward to "hate that fucking song." Given his inspired falsetto and Molly Ringwald dancing, he could’ve fooled us. The following night, the Paradise Lounge was populated by a younger, more fashion-conscious crowd for Blackout Bar, Lonesome Recordings honcho Mark Viera’s weekly rockers’ dance night, which for two years has been spinning the best (and sometimes worst) in punk, post-punk, garage, indie, classic rock, new wave, and ‘80s glam schlock. The cops failed to show, but there were still Sirens — the Ramonesy local punk quartet by that name were playing their penultimate show before bassist Nate Everett moves to Prague to teach English. (And we thought punks hated Prague rock.) Sirens fans can take solace in knowing that the remaining three members plan to form a new band with the Vigilantes’ Fern Strohmeyer. Meanwhile, Sirens’ Ross Noyes (a felicitous last name: we always assumed Ross Noise was his nom de punk) and his friend Sue Jeiven are opening a record store/tattoo parlor on Harvard Avenue, in the storefront previously occupied by the goth-curio shop Flyrabbit. Specializing in new and used vinyl, Regeneration Records will also carry some CDs and, if things go as planned, will hold in-store shows. Local punks Sleeper Cell are scheduled to play the shop’s October 10 opening. Across the river at T.T. the Bear’s Place last Friday, soon-to-be home-town heroes the Lot Six played the final date of their tour with former Butthole Surfer Gibby Haynes, who recently released his first solo disc. Following the Lot Six’s set, which included songs from their stellar upcoming EP, Get Baked on Youth Kulture (on New York’s Plastic Records), singer Dave Vicini wondered at Haynes’s ability to get baked on something a little stronger: "He was touring when I was like two, and he still smokes a ton of weed."
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