Boston calling

Last Stand and the Dogmatic reunite

Cellars by Starlight by Brett Milano

If you were on the Boston scene during the '80s, odds are that you have fond memories -- or at least very blurry memories -- of Thayer Street. Along with other hotspots like Kelton Street in Brighton and Ashford Street in Allston, the South End neighborhood was one of the preferred areas for local bands to live, rehearse, hang out, and pass out. Thayer Street was also the traditional place to head after the clubs shut down, and its prime venue was #8 -- the loft shared by two of the city's more fun-loving bands, Last Stand and the Dogmatics.

You probably wouldn't recognize Thayer Street if you went there now: it's been paved over, and the musicians' lofts have turned into upscale stores. But the spirit of '80s Thayer Street will rise again this Saturday at T.T. the Bear's Place, when Last Stand and the Dogmatics come back for one more bash. The occasion is the release of Boston Callin', a compilation that includes all the tracks from the two albums Last Stand released well over a decade ago: Approved Cuts and Faith in Fate. Special guests will be the Dogmatics, who already played their absolutely positively final gig at the same club two years ago. But they're doing it again for a very Dogmatics-like reason: to help out their pals and throw another party.

"It's gonna be the old-school revival," Dogmatics singer/guitarist Jerry Lehane promised last week. "I know we said we'd never do it again, but the guys from Last Stand called us up and we've been friends all our lives. So let's get together and play -- not like it's a hard thing to do, right?" Completing Saturday's bill will be a reunion of the Piranha Brothers, who seemed to play the Rat every weekend during the '80s, and the debut of What (whose drummer Danny O'Halloran had two brothers in the Dogmatics). And if you can't get enough old-school Boston rock, the venerable Lyres -- who never lived on Thayer Street but probably did their share of partying there -- are headlining next door at the Middle East.

The last bands moved out of Thayer Street around 1990, but it was never the same after Dogmatics bassist Paul O'Halloran died in a motorcycle accident a few years earlier. (His brother Jimmy now takes his place at the reunion shows; Tom Long remains on drums and Paul's twin brother Peter remains the band's co-guitarist.) But the area had a few years' worth of heyday; other resident bands included the Prime Movers and Chain Link Fence -- whose lead singer, Billy Barrett, had a younger brother who was just starting to put together a punk/ska band. At least one Bosstones rehearsal took place there, when Joe Gittleman temporarily resided in the Dogmatics' loft. And the Bosstones paid tribute in late '97, releasing a cover of the Dogmatics' seasonal tune "It Sure Don't Feel like Christmas."

"I would describe Thayer Street as . . . well, imagine sleeping in a huge room with 12 motorcycles and about 16 other people," notes Last Stand singer/guitarist Pete Mulford. "When I moved in, our apartment had rugs for walls," Lehane notes. "Last Stand would rehearse on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the Dogmatics would do Mondays and Wednesdays, and the place wasn't that soundproof. People started coming over at closing time, and it went from there -- one weekend we'd invite people over and the next they'd just show up. By 6 or 7 a.m. there'd be a hundred people there. We were tolerant of a lot of things, and having those parties was how we made friends. We didn't have any money -- it was cheap and it was a fast lifestyle. A lot of good friendships and bad problems came out of it. And I wouldn't trade anything for it."

An eternally good-natured band, the Dogmatics caught the spirit of those late-night parties as well as anyone -- their song "Drinkin' by the Pool" has one of this writer's all-time favorite couplets ("We're drinkin' Miller, Bud, and Bud Light too/We saved the Old Milwaukee for you!"). Lehane now fronts Buddhist Priest. He's gotten a bit more serious, but only a bit. "I'm pretty much doing the same thing, except that I got better musically. I got cynical there for a little while, but I'm over that now -- I just play for fun, just like always."

Last Stand's reunion was one of the big surprises at T.T. the Bear's anniversary celebrations last summer. Their long-time manager, Randi Millman, who now books the club, got them back together after nearly 10 years, and they did hopped-up punk rock with no signs of creakiness. Most of Boston Callin' (whose title and cover make no secret of the band's love for the Clash) also holds up fine. On the earlier tracks the playing was still rough, and the political angles in singer/guitarist Tom Keenan's songs (mostly anti-Reagan and anti-military) were righteous but overstated (notable exception, "Approved Cuts," which chides the management of a local radio station that aired the song a few times before noticing the lyrics). But the band found their groove and beefed up their songwriting on the second album, whose mix of punk venom and roots-rock finesse would fit well in the current climate -- think of Last Stand as the Shods of their day.

"When I listened to the disc, I started thinking, `God damn, these are good songs,' " Keenan notes. "We knew the second album was good as soon as it was done. I knew it pretty much said what I had to say and I didn't care if it made a nickel. But it didn't go anywhere, just like a lot of stuff back then. And I hear the music that's going on right now and it doesn't seem that far off." They gave the CD re-release an extremely modest initial pressing of 100, but they're up to a second batch, and now the current line-up -- which includes Keenan, Mulford, drummer Kathy DeMarco (lately of the DeNiros), and bassist Tom Carnali -- is pondering a more permanent reunion. "I wouldn't be opposed to it," says Mulford, who spent most of the intervening years in the recently disbanded Mung. "Now that we've brushed off a lot of the rust, it wouldn't be that tough."

Today Keenan and Mulford both have kids, and Lehane, who once chided his coupled friends by writing "Pussywhipped," got married two years ago. "But I'm 37, so I held out long enough," he notes. "My wife's heard the song and she thinks it's pretty funny. Believe me, being married is a lot easier than all the chasing around I used to do." Adds Mulford, "I've had a daughter for a year and a half, so your priorities definitely change. Your responsibilities change, and you want to do different things with your time. That might sound kind of sad, but it's really not -- you're just off in a new direction with a family, and there's other things besides music that are just as rewarding."

MAMA KIN

It's ironic that Aerosmith chose to play "Mama Kin" at the FleetCenter two weeks ago for their first song of 1999, because their club of the same name ceased to exist only four days later. After months of speculation, word arrived last week that the band had sold their interest in the club to co-owners That's Entertainment (one of the Lyons Group companies), citing "differences in operating philosophies" between the two parties. The club remains open as the Lansdowne Street Music Hall, but the original name and Aerosmith associations are gone with the band. The news comes almost exactly four years after the club's opening.

Although Mama Kin was a fun place and a lot of good bands played there, it never became the Aerosmith hangout that fans were hoping for. When the band opened the club, they hinted they'd be helping to expose some of their favorite rock and blues acts, and dropping in for surprise visits. But they wound up playing Mama Kin just twice, at the opening and in December 1995 -- and the latter gig was preceded by a Middle East appearance one night earlier. The club's booking agents picked up the slack with a wide range of mostly alternative acts. Old-timers ranging from the Cramps to John Entwistle also packed the place. But Aerosmith didn't include the club in any of their promotional shows for the Nine Lives album, claiming that their schedule was too full.

All of the band memorabilia has already been removed (including the nifty light fixtures with the wings carved into them), and the bar bearing the names of dozens of Aerosmith songs has been covered over. The front sign has also been changed, with the Tyler-associated microphone logo as the only remaining sign of the band's involvement. But the January bookings are going on as planned, and there are no immediate plans to change the format.

"The safest thing to say is that nothing will happen: it's doing great the way it is," says Mindy D'Arbeloff of the Lyons Group. "We may decide to do something [different] in the future, but right now we haven't even decided to decide."

COMING UP

Señor Happy are at the Lizard Lounge tonight (Thursday), New Orleans Latin-rockers the Iguanas are at Johnny D's, and Scarlet Haven are at T.T. the Bear's Place . . . Wide Iris and Johnny Black are at the Linwood tomorrow (Friday), Bratface and Penis Flytrap are at Jacques, Make Lisa Rich has a CD-release party at T.T.'s, Baby Ray are at the Lizard Lounge, Barrence Whitfield brings his new gang of Savages to Johnny D's, and Superhoney and Popgun are at the club formerly known as Mama Kin . . . The Lyres are at the Middle East Saturday with Quick Fix (ex-Boy Wonder) and Helicopter Helicopter; the Noise presents the annual Maxie Awards at Club Bohemia . . . Psychobilly hellraisers REO Speedealer play T.T.'s on Tuesday, and Jules Verdone continues a weekly residency at Toad . . . And take your choice of really weird flashbacks on Wednesday: Quiet Riot play with "all original members" (including the dead Randy Rhodes?) at the Middle East while old kid on the block Joey McIntyre makes his solo bow at the Paradise.