The live review below, which is not much of a “live review,” runs a bit long. So I’m going to shelve the previously planned tell-all account detailing my dangerous youthful liaisons as a door-to-door Christmas caroler until next week. Closer to the holiday, so much the better. Check back for my scandalous confessions and tawdry Yuletide reminisces …
Hit this
Friday: Looking For Rocks, Lonely Leesa & The Lost Cowboys, The Zip-Ups, Past Life Crisis (The Jungle, Somerville)
At a Burren gig last January, alt-country musician Lonely Leesa called the room’s attention to a ruling in the Supreme Court case United States vs. Rahimi. That case took up the question of whether perpetrators of domestic violence should or should not have the right to own a gun. Lonely Leesa’s single “Stayed 2017” explores the dangers of armed domestic abusers. The political situation has not since improved. We live in a country where Googling “what percentage of cabinet nominees are rapists” delivers too many reputable and well-researched hits to count. File that away before reality as such gets memory-holed by the incoming administration. Looking For Rocks, The Zip-Ups and Past Life Crisis sandwich the four-stack bill with some real doozy band names.
Saturday: Winkler, Bus Crush, Salty Greyhound (The Rockwell, Somerville)
Record release show. Indie rockers Winkler dropped “Bazooka Baby” as a stand-alone single. Looks like it’s the title for an album as well. The single is a medium-tempo, arch-pop sparkler with some anthemic sing-along possibilities. Right around where the keyboard solo kicks in, you could squeeze in an extra 20 measures or so of floating atop a cloud. You know, like those old Beatles tunes, like “Hey Jude,” that just keep marching on, going nowhere in particular, and you’re pretty okay with it. “Bazooka Baby” hints at that dreamy forever. Olivia Sisay’s latest jawn Bus Crush and a band whose name sounds like a beachy mixed drink open.
Dec. 12: Let’s Rock Cancer! (Crystal Ballroom, Somerville)
I’ve been the hall monitor for long show titles lately, so why stop now? The full name of this show is “Indie617 Presents the 2nd Annual Let’s Rock Cancer! A Rockin’ Night to benefit Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Cancer Care Equity Program.” Just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? I covered the show last year for Hump Day News and felt like a total schmuck when it sank in that I got myself press-listed for a charity event. Of course, you can’t donate to every charity in this most charitable of seasons. But cancer is an illness that’s affected us all, directly or indirectly, so maybe you donate to this one? Vapors of Morphine, The Chelsea Curve, Muck & the Mires, The Ray Liriano Experience, and …GO! fill out a rocking, bluesy bill.
Live: Cape Crush at Silhouette Lounge
Yes, yes, I know. The Silhouette Lounge, a beloved dive in Allston Rat City, is outside my Cambridge Day beat. But sometimes there are shows, such as the Cape Crush show last Wednesday, that ask for (nay, demand!) coverage by anyone with eyes, ears and the nerve to write about music.
Why the fuss? Well, the show was the last Boston-area show (depending on how elastic your notion of “Boston-area” is) for the original lineup of the power pop band from the North Shore; longtime drummer Cody Rico is hanging up his drumsticks to meet new challenges.
That’s news enough, if you track the local music scene. Cape Crush has been a gig staple for years, played a thousand bills, and made some waves last year with their superlative EP “San Souci,” nominated for Album of the Year at the Boston Music Awards in 2023.
There’s always more to it, though, than the music. A regularly gigging band sends out countless roots into the cultural soil, and Cody Rico was a particularly gregarious trunk with connections all over the place after more than 20 years of devoting his life to music.
When Cody wasn’t drumming, he was piloting his booking outfit IBookThings. I reported last November on his efforts to bring back live music to Tasty Burger in Harvard Square. Ultimately, the burger joint didn’t pan out as a regular venue, but there was no quit in him. He was a kind of Johnny Appleseed, planting DIY seeds here and there, too full of gratitude for the seeds that sprouted to waste time cursing the ones that didn’t.
When Cody took a step back from IBookThings due to health issues, I reported on that too in July. With his typical mixture of grace and humility, combined with an unswerving commitment to the local music scene, Rico laid the foundation deftly for a nearly seamless transition within his booking outfit. IBookThings rebranded to WeBookThings, and the team that helped Cody bring shows to local stages took over the reins, the little DIY train that could kept chugging along.
Now I find myself, regrettably, reporting on Cody’s final shows with Cape Crush. The health condition he’s been battling has advanced to a stage that makes the stress of drumming impossible. To choose life now means to turn away from an art that made his life meaningful. That feels unfair. It is unfair. And there are no words that are going to paper over the hurt that the sense of unfairness breeds.
But there is the gratitude of a local musical community that Cody helped nurture, reflecting that love right back at him. Better than words, there are songs, and maybe you’ll hear one or two you like at the final gigs. Ever the promoter, Cody leveraged a recent Instagram post about his health to shout out the upcoming show. Why waste the opportunity? I’ll excerpt one plug-cum-mantra from a longer status update:
“My last show playing drums is with Cape Crush 12/28/24 at Bit Bar in Salem, and I hope to see a lot of friendly faces there. Above all else, love each other, organize, fight back, make art no matter what, uplift and push each other to do and be better. Fuck all cops, and Free Palestine.”
A stronger
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