We were initially planning to go all loosey goosey (An actual official term, by the way) with live coverage of this year’s Rock & Roll Rumble which basically amounts to a maybe we will/maybe we won’t mentality following our annual preview pieces of the Boston institution. Then we took some time to process what we witnessed and thought “Oh, fuck it!” and decided to dive in with one big mega post of all of Week 1’s treasures (Hyperlinked headers to our preview posts so you can find all the pertinent band links and music). So enjoy? And SPOILER ALERT: We will be mentioning the winners here (Dubbed in the appropriate regional dialect as “Winnahs”) in case you haven’t had a chance to catch up on your DVR yet.
Night 1 (April 4, 2024): It can be a daunting task to open up the entirety of the Rock & Roll Rumble in any given year but luckily for the masses gathered at Middle East Upstairs, the veterans of Shotgun Waltz came prepared for the assignment with a slew of seasoned Boston-bred Rawk and/or Roll including bangers like latest single “Pity Party” among others. Now that the pressure was off, relative newcomers (Yet comprised of many a Rumble vet including members of Graveyard of the Atlantic and The Daily Pravda), The Magic City regaled the unsuspecting crowd with so much more than what has already been revealed on heady Pop Rawk powerhouses “Roadrunner Vs. Your Mother” and “A Series Of Chemicals”. Sunshine Riot was up next with a fiery set consisting of many a track off their most recent Grunge/Alternative Steve Albini-produced effort Loud, Bright and Violent but despite loving the hell out of the originals it was the inclusion of the Morphine classic “A Cure For Pain” that gave us all the heart eyes. Closing out the Thursday night show was Boston’s TWIG whose incendiary set ultimately won them the night with their brand of Bluesy Rawk opuses with a Punk edge on full display across tracks like “Wondering” and latest single “Nude Beaches”.
The winnah: TWIG
Night 2 (April 5th, 2024): The competition only got more fierce as we headed into Night 2 at Middle East Upstairs with a decidedly more LOUD lineup save for opener JATK who tended to be loud in their own right just with feelings as they took the stage with selections from Shut Up and Be the Light electrifying an eager audience. Things got more colorful and interactive as Worcester’s GUT HEALTH took the stage with a set of mostly unknown original Alterna-Punk songs save for “RUNAWAY HIGH” and the recently released “CONVERSATION LOST” as singer Gregg Kusumah-Atmadja (Also of 2023 Rumble entrants Not Bad Not Well) bombarded the crowd with streamers and toilet paper, armed them with pre-written signs (Some of which sported slogans like “Be Yourself Out There”, “GUT HEALTH 4 City Council”, & “Have The Best Day Ever!”), and never stopped moving just like the rest of the band. Trailer Swift followed that performance with some sauciness of their own with cuts from 2023’s Variant release and a killer collection of tracks that celebrated their Post-Alternative sound. When we initially previewed the final band of this night, Type 66, we compared their lone demo for “RUN!” to old school Boston Rawkers Cobalt 60 among others… without realizing that they share the same singer in Keith Smith! Oops! Anyway, with that unmistakably commanding voice, Smith and company (Including Wrought Iron Hex’s Jose Morales on drums) owned the stage with a bevy of loud new Heavy Rawk anthems to close out Night 2!
The winnah: GUT HEALTH
Night 3 (April 6th, 2024): Probably the most diverse lineup so far of the Preliminary Rounds (With the most packed house!) began as Condition Baker triumphantly took the stage despite being down their front man with vocal duties split in his stead as they ripped through tracks like newest single “How It Goes”, selections off sophomore LP Long Way Home, and even a cover of the Sublime classic “Santeria”. The Middle East Upstairs stage got infinitely smaller as the many-membered collective Alt-Country outfit Other Brother Darryl gathered for something akin to a religious experience as their Soggy Bottom Boys meets The Allman Brothers Band mix united the crowd as they delivered gems like newest single “Gypsy Girl”, “Drive”, and more. If OBD lulled the audience into a serene state with their smooth sounds then they might not have been ready for a very plugged in Wire Lines who electrified the crowd into a frenzy as vocalist Kevin Grant stalked the stage and repeatedly tried to concoct a new mic stand using the lower hanging beams of Middle East Upstairs (He did succeed eventually!) during a flurry of fuzzed out Husker Du (Or Bob Mould circa Silver Age and Beauty & Ruin) meets Jawbox fury mostly culled from recent full-length The Tragic History of the Sea. The practically legendary already Lovina Falls closed out the evening for what we think is, like, just their second or third performance??? Regardless, LF sounded like seasoned stage vets thanks in part to being spearheaded by Mistle Thrush’s Valerie Forgione (With MT’s Scott Patalano on guitar plus Emily Drohan on additional vox and drummer Chuck Ferreira both of Rumble-winning Eddie Japan in the live lineup) as they enraptured concert goers with what Forgione described as “Artpop Cabaroque” from debut full-length Calculating the Angle of Our Descent.
The winnah: Wire Lines
Alternative winnah (Wild Card): Other Brother Darryl
As an aside (And as avid merch purchasers), we got ourselves into an online back and forth last year with 2023 Rumble entrants Graveyard of the Atlantic about merch following some mild criticisms on our part about both the lack of merchandise in some cases and just the general lack of options when buying merch (We are obviously aware that production costs are gross and that lots of bands are in the Rumble to rectify part of that issue). That all said, we’re happy to report that 2024 has been a complete turnaround in that department… now just make sure you have someone there to sell us stuff (Especially at the end of the night)! Our nitpickiness aside, if you like what you’re hearing during the Rumble (Or at any show you go to for that matter) and can afford it: Go buy some merch!
And that concludes our Week 1 live recap of the Preliminary Round! Ticket links for the rest of the shows are located here with “Full Boat” passes for the whole shebang available here. For the latest on all things Rock & Roll Rumble-related, be sure to check out ye olde socials by clicking here, here, and here, or just skip the middle man and visit the main website here.
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