New England Music Scrapbook
The Underground

One of the things we're going to have to fight for is more Undergrounds, that little Allston club that can be credited with spawning around 40 Boston bands within the last year if only because it gave them a place to play. 20 of those bands are good to great, and the local scene has been turned around because of it. As 'BCN's Oedipus says, "We're finally seeing bands that aren't derivative of past successes." For a city about 1/15th the size of LA, New York or London, where you're guaranteed a fair number of rock mutants on the basis of numerical probability alone, Boston has produced an amazing list of new bands over the last year or so.

The Underground gave Boston its first taste of the better Brits (Cure, Joy Division...) as well as providing a place for New Yorkers to visit (Bush Tetras, The Dance, Raybeats, Lydia Lunch...). But the big names weren't the real attraction. It was the club's attitude toward nurturing musicians with ideas, and the fact that on just about any night you could walk in and have your feet and brain moved by some locals. And these locals aren't just "promising" any more, they're good now. Unlike most "progressive" clubs, the Underground wasn't closed down for lack of success. Instead the land barons of Boston University simply had to have the basement club for a dorm launderette and their high-powered lawyers made sure that it turned out that way. So start looking for a laundry to turn into a club.

Source: Tristram Lozaw, "Backyard Hijinx," Take It!, Grand Slam Issue [No. 4], 1981.

Take It! was all over the place, quality-wise; but the writings of Tristram Lozaw were among the main reasons for buying that Boston music publication. This excerpt from the "Backyard Hijinx" column is easily the best short piece we have ever read about the Underground, and we are very pleased that Tristram Lozaw granted us permission to post it here.

Copyright © 1981 by Tristram Lozaw. All rights reserved.

THE UNDERGROUND

Do you have fond memories, favorite stories, mental images, or other reminiscences of the Underground that we might be able to post here? Our miscellaneous correspondence includes a few, but we could use a lot more.

For examples of the reminiscences we've received on a closely-related subject, please visit our pages on the Rat in Boston's Kenmore Square.

Alan Lewis

New England Music Scrapbook:
Popular music, past and present,
with a New England twist.