Boston Venue Guide

*Below you can find a nice and neat flow chart, indicating the chain of command of the main Boston/Cambridge music venues. We’ve done some research on how touring bands have advanced from place to place and this is generally how it goes. There have been (and will be) exceptions. First, for bands that are just beginning to tour Boston for the first time as headliners, there can be great variation in terms of where they play. The majority of bands start out at Level One or Two. Of course, though, there will always be “buzz bands” or bands that have toured nationally, but just not in Boston. These are the bands who might start out at Level Three or above. Second, bands frequently get their start in Boston opening for a larger act. This helps out immensely in getting them exposed around here. Finally, another thing that complicates the flowchart below is who the headlining band is playing with. If a Level Four is playing with a Level Three or Four, you can bet that the two will be playing at Level Five venue. We find, too, that it only helps a headlining band if there is a local band with a significant following on the bill as well.*

Beginning Venues
- Lizard Lounge, All Asia, Cantab Lounge, and The Plough & Stars

D.I.Y Spaces
- Whitehaus (Jamaica Plain)
- Starlab (Somerville)
- The Dirty Douglas (Lowell)
- Ant Cellar (Lowell)
- 119 Gallery (Lowell)
- Magic Room Gallery (Brighton)
- Twin Towers (Allston)
- Gay Gardens (Allston)

Independent/College Owned Venues
- Armory (Somerville) – Capacity: 395
- Paramount Theatre (Boston) – Capacity: 550

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Ticketing/Promotion:
- Brown Paper Tickets – Lizard Lounge
- TicketWeb – O’Brien’s Pub, Middle East Upstairs/Downstairs, TT The Bears, Great Scott,
- Ticketmaster – Brighton Music Hall + Paradise Rock Club + House of Blues + Orpheum Theater + Bank of America Pavilion (Live Nation), Royale (Bowery Boston), Berklee Performance Center, Wilbur Theater.

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*Random Musing* —> Some bands, undeniably, have a greater potential to rise to the top than others. For instance, Kings of Leon have worked their way up rather significantly in the past few years. Just three years ago they played the Paradise. In April 2009, they played the 10X larger Agganis Arena. Take Radiohead. They played the ‘Dise back in 1995 and just a few years later performed at the 20,000+ Suffolk Downs race track. Even King Khan & BBQ Show were an upwardly mobile success story. They went from Great Scott in 2005 t0 the Paradise in 2008. For other bands like Black Lips, it’s been a somewhat slower ride. A touring band since 2000, they opened for Be Your Own Pet at Middle East Downstairs in 2006, hit TT’s in 2007, , and then returned to the Middle East Downstairs as headliners in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. They moved on up (to quote an Ian St. Pe tune) in 2011 to the much larger Paradise Rock Club.

With the downfall and demolition of classic Boston punk venues in the ’90s and the recent emergence of larger capacity, mainstream friendly rooms, one would be hard-pressed to as quickly locate an “established” scene now as they would in the late ’70s and ’80s, time periods which begot an onslaught of post-punk/new wave and hardcore punk bands. Various localities have seemed to since pick up the slack with area colleges in Boston and other urban areas north and south of the capital playing host to both local and touring bands at DIY spaces (punk houses, basements, abandoned areas… typical DIY fare).

In many ways, being in a functioning and active band is easier today than ever. Given exposure at the right time or in the right place, a band may or may not be faced with the pressure (and/or opportunity) of hopping off the underground rails. For many bands, being able to play comfortably to hundreds of people in different cities across the country and globe every other night is a very entertaining prospect. For many other bands, playing a show every now and then at the local bar or a friend’s house is just what they’re looking for. It essentially boils down to full-time versus part-time. Full-time and part-time aren’t black and white. Nothing is. Unless a band gets ‘exposed’ or ‘connected’, it is silly (in this day and age) to discuss a future as a career musician. Getting ‘exposed’ or ‘connected’ means different things to different people. For one musician, exposure is playing tunes to a bunch of friends of friends hanging around in a basement; for another musician exposure may be playing to five hundred thirty year olds who just heard about him or her two weeks ago by way of a favorable review of his or her record on an impressionable blog. A band has to start somewhere and as you can see from the plethora of venues above, there IS a somewhere locally. Getting to the next ‘indie’ level is as easy as gaining a connection to a label, a booking agency, a pal’s pal, management company or, simply getting mentioned somewhere on the internet. The maxim “any publicity is good publicity” applies here. The underground music universe is as diverse and expansive as anything out there and it’s quite easy to fall into the trap of overlooking this massive chunk of music. It’s easy for a band to get swept into the sea of obscurity, but if the stars are aligned it is just as easy for a band to become an important fixture in the alternative mainstream. Some bands don’t want to deal with what inevitably becomes a mess of pains: more individuals to be held accountable to and more people interfering in the financial, logistical, and technical aspects of the band. For some bands this isn’t “interference,” but rather much needed help in getting along life’s journey, personally and musically. We look at the mainstream and see formulated production, spectacles of “hits” that come at us, stars, names and faces that divert attention from values and what really matters. Some might say that the independent music industry is starting to resemble the major music industry. With globalization and the tendency of people institutionalizing everything (among other things), this isn’t too surprising, but it would be much to harsh to conclude that there aren’t significant differences.