bradley's almanac - a boston music blog

boston area shows of note:

friday, july 25th

comedian joel mchale

(from the soup)

@ the wilbur theatre

saturday, july 26th

bon iver

bowerbirds

@ the museum of fine arts

sunday, july 27th

the new collisions (debut)

red quiet

melt

@ tt the bears

sunday, july 27th

sunfold

antiques

@ the middle east upstairs

wednesday, july 30th

we are scientists

@ the middle east downstairs

wednesday, july 30th

earlimart

@ the middle east upstairs

wednesday, july 30th

spiritualized

the dirtbombs

@ the wilbur theatre

thursday, july 31st

the police

elvis costello & the impersonators

@ the tweeter center

friday & saturday

august 1st & 2nd

eddie vedder

liam finn

solo @ the opera house

saturday, august 2nd

wolf parade

@ the paradise

monday, august 4th

coldplay

@ the garden

tuesday, august 5th

(and every tuesday this month)

neil cleary's 'doozy'

a guest-packed 4-show residency

@ the lizard lounge

wednesday, august 6th

neil halstead (slowdive/mojave 3)

rogue wave

jack johnson

@ the tweeter center

saturday, august 9th

margot & the nuclear so and so's

@ the middle east

saturday, august 9th

melvins

@ the paradise

sunday, august 10th

ho-ag

six finger satellite

the in-out

certainly, sir

@ great scott

tuesday, august 12th

thao nguyen with

the get down stay down

david schultz & the skyline

pepi ginsberg

@ tt the bears

tuesday, august 12th

(and every tuesday this month)

neil cleary's 'doozy'

a guest-packed 4-show residency

@ the lizard lounge

wednesday, august 13th

radiohead

grizzly bear

@ the tweeter center

thursday, august 14th

grizzly bear

violens

outside in the courtyard

@ the museum of fine arts

friday, august 15th

the ex

getachew mekuria

debo band

@ the middle east downstairs

saturday, august 16th

+/- (plus minus)

broken river prophet (cd release!)

animal hospital

ba-na-nas

free kickass cupcakes from 9-10pm!

@ the middle east upstairs

tuesday, august 19th

(and every tuesday this month)

neil cleary's 'doozy'

a guest-packed 4-show residency

@ the lizard lounge

wednesday, august 20th

human league, belinda carlisle, abc,

flock of seagulls, naked eyes

@ the bank of america pavilion

thursday, august 21st

yndi halda

caspian

irepress

@ tt the bears

friday, august 22nd

obits (ex-hot snakes/rftc)

@ the middle east

saturday, august 23rd

amo joy!

franklin bruno

(from nothing painted blue)

one happy island (ep release!)

@ the lily pad

saturday, august 23rd

newbury comics / unnatural axe

30th anniversary bash

the meatmen, queers, nasties,

unnatural axe, sleazies

@ the middle east down

tuesday, august 26th

the final installment of...

neil cleary's 'doozy'

a guest-packed august residency

@ the lizard lounge

wednesday, august 27th

liz phair performing

'exile in guyville'

@ the paradise

wednesday, august 27th

xiu xiu

prurient

@ the paradise

monday, september 1st

the juan maclean

@ the middle east downstairs

friday, september 5th

silver jews

@ the middle east downstairs

saturday, september 6th

my morning jacket

@ the bank of america pavilion

sunday, september 7th

ryan adams & the cardinals

@ the bank of america pavilion

tuesday, september 9th

paul weller

@ the berklee performance center

saturday, september 13th

wfnx disorientation 2008

the kooks, flogging molly,

alkaline trio, rogue wave,

and more to be announced

@ bank of america pavilion

monday, september 15th

james

@ the paradise

tuesday, september 16th

a place to bury strangers

@ the paradise

thursday, september 18th

the walkmen

@ the middle east downstairs

friday, september 19th

sigur ros

@ the bank of america pavilion

friday, september 19th to

sunday, september 21st

all tomorrow's parties

with my bloody valentine, low

built to spill, mogwai, shellac,

polvo, yo la tengo, lilys, autolux

dinosaur jr, mercury rev, & more

@ the catskills in nyc

monday, september 22nd

mogwai

fuck buttons

@ the wilbur theatre

tuesday, september 23rd

writer dennis lehane

(release day for 'the given day')

@ the coolidge corner theatre

wednesday, september 24th

low

@ the museum of fine arts boston

saturday, september 27th

built to spill

performing 'perfect from now on'

dinosaur jr.

meat puppets

@ the orpheum

sunday, september 28th

the bird and the bee

willoughby

@ great scott

thursday, september 30th

boston spaceships

(gbv's robert pollard)

big dipper

@ the paradise

sunday, october 5th

pinback

@ the paradise

monday, october 6th

the wedding present

@ the middle east downstairs

monday, october 6th

stereolab

monade

@ the paradise

wednesday, october 8th

wire

@ the middle east downstairs

sunday, october 12th

the residents

@ showcase live, foxboro

sunday, october 12th

the notwist

@ the roxy

tuesday, october 14th

cold war kids

@ the paradise

friday, october 17th

jonathan richman

with drummer tommy larkin

@ the somerville theatre

saturday, october 18th

ra ra riot

walter meego

the morning benders

@ the middle east

tuesday & wednesday

october 21st & 22nd

billy bragg

@ the somerville theatre

wednesday, october 22nd

lyle lovett & john hiatt

(acoustic, on stage together)

@ the orpheum

thursday, october 30th

of montreal

@ the orpheum

saturday, november 1st

henry rollins (spoken word)

@ the orpheum

monday, november 3rd

coldplay

@ the td banknorth garden

visit tourfilter for more shows

Thursday, July 24, 2003

Hookey on a Hot Day : North Shore Getaway

Summer struck Boston with a vengeance a month or so ago, a long-awaited late-June assault of sunshine and perfect temps that made going to work nearly impossible. After a brutal winter and a gray, rainy spring, the sky seemingly opened up to us, and a difficult Wednesday morning decision had to be made. Head to the cube, or head to the shore? Ok, so the decision wasn't that difficult. A sanity day was in order, so I called in, we packed a couple beach bags, and headed northeast as fast as the mid-week traffic would allow.

First stop, Devereaux Beach in Marblehead. Cheap parking, lotsa space, not too crowded. Just perfect. Well, it would have been nice if the water wasn't arctic-cold, but the feeling in my feet came back eventually, so no big deal. Oceanside strolls, snack-bar treats, people watching, beach reading... all good things. We had an especially good time playing "Spot the Patriotic-patterned swimsuits" (as you'll see in the photo pages I just posted.)

Sufficiently sunned, we headed over to Salem and hit the gloriously tacky tourist trap known as the Salem Willows Amusement Park, a one-sided strip of videogame goodness, clam shacks, and indoor kiddie rides. The hum of the Salem Willows Arcade was too much to resist, so we went straight in and found a little oasis of 80s-style gaming goodness. A row of classic coin-ops and a dozen old-school pinballers was hidden away in the back corner.

My first thought : "If they have Cyclone, I am going to totally. freak. out." As I got closer, I heard it calling to me ... "Ride the Ferris Wheel!", it said. And so I did, while Amie did time with Galaxian. Let's just say that many quarters were spent, and many bonus plays were won. Time travel never came so cheaply, and a pair of photobooth smiles never came so easily ...

As if the day couldn't get any better, we headed to the Salem waterfront for dinner. After a quick visit to the witchcraft museum (and a fairly lame witchtrial presentation), we asked around and discovered there was a free water taxi out to a floating restaurant in the middle of the harbor. Well, how could we say no to that? We got on board, motored between the many moorings, and before we knew it we were ordering at a bar on a mini-barge.

"One Corona," I said. "Eight dollars," was the reply. Ahhhhhh... now I knew why the water taxi was free... you're trapped out here in the hot sun with mucho-expensivo summertime beers. But wait, what's this? The Corona is twenty four ounces? Ok, that makes more sense. Big honkin' beers. I'm not sure why everything there was super-sized, but I'm certainly not complaining.

Back to the shore, back to the car, and back to Boston. It was hard to head home, but the return trip was made all the better when we passed by this place ...