Buffalo Tom presents its second annual mini music fest, Please Come to Boston, this weekend in Somerville – three days of music and intimate interaction with a trio that’s been cranking out grungy alt rock for nearly 40 years and 10 studio albums. Lead singer and guitarist Bill Janovitz and bassist-vocalist Chris Colbourn grew up together in Medfield and met drummer Tom Maginnis while at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
“It’s been 38 years together,” said Colbourn, who lives in Cambridge and runs a music booking business. “I almost can’t remember a time I wasn’t in the band.” Janovitz, a longtime Lexington resident, works in real estate and is the author of two books on the Rolling Stones and, more recently, “The Cars: Let the Stories be Told,” an insider’s delve into Boston’s famed new wave pop band.
“I never thought we’d still be together at this point, but we’re good friends who have the same musical tastes,” said Maginnis, who lives on the North Shore.
Over the years the trio has gone from fresh-faced, globe-trotting troubadours to family men – they all have kids in, or just out of, college. During the oughts, which were the “rearing years,” the band went on an unofficial hiatus. In 2011 it released “Skins,” followed by “Quiet and Peace” in 2018 and “Jump Rope” last year.
“Buffalo Tom seems to have its own weird energy,” Maginnis said. “It may go to sleep for periods, but it always seems spring back to life. There doesn’t seem to be any stopping it.”
Being more rooted was part of the impetus for Come to Boston. “We had lots of people through social media and Spotify wanting us to tour their towns, but booking and logistics get complicated,” Colbourn said. “And so we thought, ‘come to Boston.’”
Buffalo Tom performances are the center of the fest, with no songs repeated over its three days; if you love “Taillights Fade” or “Summer,” you’ve got to pick your night or be there every night. Ten percent to 20 percent of the songs have never been played live before, Colburn said, so preparation for the festival requires more rehearsal time than one gig at Royale or The Paradise. Thursday night includes an acoustic segment.
There will also be a Q&A with the band hosted by comedian Mike O’Malley and a session for fans to get merch signed (free, and you can bring in your favorite BT shirt or cap from 1989 or whatever you want) and interact with the band. Last year’s event drew people from as far away as the West Coast, Italy, Germany and other European countries, Colbourn said.
Performances are in the main music hall and adjoining cafe space, with guests including Boston ’80s punk band Moving Targets, Elsa Kennedy, John Wesley Harding and Hilken Mancini, whose punk rock aerobics were featured by Green Day in its “Here Comes the Shock” video.
Janovitz has scheduled a “Cars” reading too and said by text and email Monday that he discovered that The Cars used to rehearse at the Cambridge Music Complex on Alewife Brook Parkway and that when frontman Ric Ocasek first moved to the area, the first live music he saw was Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers on the Cambridge Common.
Buffalo Tom’s long-term success tracks back to its Amherst roots and friendship with Dinosaur Jr. guitarist and singer J Mascis, who produced Buffalo Tom’s first two albums. “It was unbelievable,” Colbourn said of the doors opened by Mascis – who savvily encouraged the band to focus on European tours early on. The strategy got Buffalo Tom playing before audiences of nearly 100,000 at the Reading and Pinkpop festivals.
Along the way, the band was featured in an episode of “My So-Called Life,” was the final band to play the “Jon Stewart Show” on MTV, made late-night appearances with David Letterman and Conan O’Brien and did the theme song to NBC’s short-lived “The Mike O’Malley Show.” Buffalo Tom has opened for bands including Live, Nick Cave and the Goo Goo Dolls, with Pearl Jam and Hole playing sets before them at the old FNX Lansdowne Street takeovers in the 1990s. The last time Pearl Jam played Fenway, Janovitz joined the band on stage to play “Taillights Fade” – an experience he called “surreal and wonderful.”
While the band members may have aged and settled some, they haven’t become sedentary. There are plans for a 2026 European tour and Brazil in 2027 – and of course, more Come to Bostons. “It’s all about appreciating our superfans and making it fun and accessible,” Colbourn said.
Buffalo Tom presents “Please Come to Boston” mini festival from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. $40 to $45.
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