Welp. We kinda backed ourselves into a corner doing a Week 1 Rock & Roll Rumble live recap (Read it here) and thinking it was possible to skip doing the same for Week 2, right? Look, we’re not going to sugarcoat it for you. You missed some gems if you decided to stay home when the Preliminary Rounds of the 2024 Rock & Roll Rumble from Boston Emissions wrapped up, okay? And that’s alright since you have us looking out for you in a grand way with this live rundown of what happened across Nights 4, 5, & 6 of the annual Rawk Fest. So with that, sit back, relax, and let us regale you some more of what went down over at Middle East Upstairs in the hopes that you’ll be purchasing your tickets to the Semis at Sonia as soon as you finish reading! Do we have a deal? And again, links to our preview posts in the corresponding headers so you can grab all the pertinent music and more from these killer local artists.
Night 4 (April 11th, 2024): If you follow any of our socials or any of the Rock & Roll Rumble and related ones then you probably know we were picked to be a judge on this particular night so this Preliminary Round was a little different for us. Sort of. Last year when we knew we were going to review all the live shows we took LOTS of notes so we kind of deferred to that tactic here especially with a scorecard in front of us (Or tucked away safely somewhere else) And no, we’re not going to spoil all the BTS judge stuff as that would be hella uncool. Actually, we considered doing a post along the lines of “I was a Rock & Roll Rumble Judge” but figured we have enough on our plate and also didn’t get around to asking Anngelle who also has a TON going on for obvious reasons…
ANYWAY! Bands! They played! And if you thought the competition was fierce last week then you ain’t heard nothing yet! Shiverlane began the evening with what we can only describe as “Boston Rawk” or, in their own words, “Intoxicating Power Pop” which we had called out in our preview post and couldn’t agree more with after witnessing the band live. Add in some great banter (A particularly fun Eclipse joke was told) and the fact that they were the only band selling hot sauce and you can’t really go wrong. Ruby Grove brought an inclusive soulful Groove, Funk, and Hip-Hop mix to their hybrid genre-defying collection of live sonic stories which began with single “Maybe It’s Time” and then continued with a preview of tunes from their upcoming debut EP across a set that also included crowd interactivity as bubbles were distributed to the audience to create a fun atmosphere as well as some killer trumpet soloing from Melissa Nilles later on. Like RG, we’d covered Looking Glass War previously but live, what a force! Goddamn Glenn is such a powerhouse frontperson and backed by Pete Zeigler, Mike Ackley, and Tony Porter the band is unstoppable especially with tunes like “ARRIVE!” and “A Tsar Is Torn” making their fiery Rumble debut. bikethrasher followed that, ending the evening LOUDLY with broken strings, self-deprecating humor and one of the heavier covers of Fugazi’s “Waiting Room” that we’ve ever heard.
The winnah: Looking Glass War
Night 5 (April 12th, 2024): Our comedown night after judging started with The Roland High Life kicking things off with selections from Songs About Comic Books And Mid-30’s Malaise and recent singles like “Oh Dolours” and “Old Atlantic” throughout their Alt-Boston set of Goo Goo Dolls meets Modern Lovers anthems (With one patron holding up their crutch in solidarity at one point) as branded coasters complete with cleverly marketed QR codes promoted the band far beyond Night 5. Cold Expectations took the stage next and, ahem, expectations were high on our end at least and the trio more than delivered with a rollicking set capped off by their cover of Lou Miami & The Kozmetix’s Post-everything rawker “(I Live With) Ghosts”. Lowell’s The Ghouls, with only one song in the ether currently, were pretty impressive as they ripped into a crushing collection of (mostly) new songs for the hungry audience capped off with vocalist/guitarist George Danahy performing amongst the crowd at one point and a killer Sade cover. Never Gonna Make It packed a punch on this penultimate Prelim night (Say that five times fast???) with highlights including tracks from their newest release Leusic going over especially well like the epically titled epic anthem “She’s A Succubus And I Love Every Drop She Drains”.
The winnah: The Ghouls
Night 6 (April 13th, 2024): Touching back on something we mentioned about Week 1, we can now safely say that this night was the most diverse lineup of the entire Rumble. Starting with the Rawk rumblings of NH’s Robotic Hawks which live-wise reminded us a lot of Sugar/Bob Mould, the trio of snazzily dressed humans (Check out the cover of their most recent release for reference sans the beaks) brought just a smattering of what their vast catalog has to offer with songs from the barely two week old All Business appearing alongside many a fave from Rock ‘N Roll Relapse and more! Then what is sure to have been a first for the Rock & Roll Rumble, fans got a battle of the bubbles as Lowell’s RoseR upped the bubble blowing ante with bubble machines spouting out those soap balls of various shapes and sizes during their stellar set that entailed tracks off March’s Steps release and their self-titled full-length from 2022. Gauntlet thrown, Ruby Grove! Moving on, you thought Shiverlane was the only band that had the crass jokes??? Then you definitely haven’t been to a CE Skidmore & The Damn Fine Band show which is definitely rated “M for Mature”. It also helps that their musical chops are on point/up to task as they ripped and roared through a fun set filled with some tracks off That’s Baseball, Baby (Which has a song on it called “Bubble” yet no bubbles in sight on stage) like “Nothing to See Here” which was both haunting and heavenly. As we said in our preview, any band that not only chooses to cover a John Bush-fronted Anthrax song but also does it really well is already A-Ok in our book and upon seeing them live we can confirm that Mammothor was even better than A-Ok! And possibly the heaviest band across all bills as they brought a ferocious Metal fury to the collected crowd celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Tyannicide within their set which closed with the aforementioned Anthrax cover, “Inside Out”.
The winnah: RoseR
Wild Card: CE Skidmore & The Damn Fine Band
And that concludes our Week 2 live recap of the Preliminary Round! Ticket links for the rest of the shows, including the finale on May 4th with Halfcocked, are located 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.