We got the Neats

Local legends finally reunite

Cellars by Starlight by Brett Milano

It's early evening in the clubs, and big plans are underway. Eric Martin, singer/guitarist of the Neats, has just run into the Lyres' Jeff Conolly at an adjoining barstool and is hooking him in to guest at a forthcoming Neats show. "I was looking at that song `Six,' there's some tricky chord changes in that," Conolly says as Martin grins and nods his head. "But I can come do it if you can pull in some dinky-shit keyboard for me to play." Beers are bought and rehearsal plans are made.

This scene could have happened 15 years ago -- and hell, it probably did. But it definitely took place just last week at the Middle East, where the Neats are talking up their long-awaited reunion gig this Saturday at T.T. the Bear's Place. It's safe to say that everyone who was around the local scene before 1991 (when the Neats packed it in) wanted this reunion to happen -- of all the bands who embodied the local scene in that era, the Neats are one of the few who've never reunited. But it's also safe to say that nobody wanted it to happen for the reason it will: as a memorial to their drummer Terry Hanley.

Hanley was the nicest guy in a band full of nice guys, and he was friendly with practically everybody on the local scene. (Although I knew only him casually, I'd walk out of Jake & Earl's with some free BBQ whenever he was working there.) He remains the only drummer I've ever seen who could smoke cigarettes through a set and still play like monster. The tight and precise approach was his specialty. He died earlier this autumn in a fall from his balcony in Denver, and that's all anyone knows. He'd been through hard times in recent years, but friends say he was on a solid upswing. In fact, he'd been in touch with the other Neats around that time to throw the reunion idea around.

This weekend's show was put together by one of Hanley's best friends, former Scruffy the Cat drummer Randall Gibson, who now plays with Martin in the Illyrians and will man the kit for the Neats set. Gibson also pulled together the dream list of '80s-era Boston bands who'll be performing: the Turbines, whose infrequent reunions are a big deal in themselves, are set to play, along with the Titanics, the Bristols, the Illyrians, and Buddhist Priest (with ex-Dogmatics leader Jerry Lehane). A partial reunion of Scruffy the Cat will take place when long-AWOL keyboardist Stona Fitch joins Gibson and the Fredette brothers on stage. And a full-length Neats set will reunite Martin with guitarist Phil Caruso, who now runs a woodworking business in Pittsburgh, and bassist Dave Lee, who's doing financial work in Boston. (Original bassist Jerry Channell was also invited but couldn't get away from his computer job in Portland, Oregon.) Proceeds will go toward a trust fund for Hanley's son.

"I think it's gonna be just about the best show of the last 10 years," notes Gibson, a man not prone to understatement. "I want to say this without it sounding too corny, but it will be the last shining moment of this generation of rock and roll. We're all getting older, and none of us made it big. But people can still play, and the music is still there. I know a lot of old faces are going to be coming out. It's a wake, but we also want it to be a positive thing."

Gibson admits that he's always wanted to be in the Neats. "Not that Scruffy was a bad thing, but I was always jealous of Terry's position in the Neats. We always dreamed about playing drums together in the band. When we hung out together, he used to call me his drummer-in-law."

The show coincides, almost to the day, with the 20th anniversary of the Neats' first gig. So if there was ever a good time for the band members to get sentimental, this would be it. "Man, things happened so quickly back then," Martin notes. "Our first show was a week before Christmas at the Dorchester Yacht Club, then we played at [the legendary Allston club] the Underground when it opened in February. And of course the Underground only lasted a year and a half. Most of the dreams I remember are about being on the road with the Neats. That's the truth, it was my life between 19 and 31, and those are big years. We always lived together, and we were a close band. Not that we always got along, but we were always together. It was a huge part of my life, and I never go too long without thinking about it."

The Neats went through two extremely different phases. The band's original style was lighter, keyed to pop hooks and country/folk flavorings, with two guitars played in tandem to imitate the sound of a 12-string. Martin's lyrics were heavy on imagery and not always fully audible. The word "jangle" was thrown around a lot to describe their first recordings. And here's the rub: their first EP, The Monkey's Head in the Corner of the Room, on Ace of Hearts, predated R.E.M.'s Chronic Town by a few months. Even Rick Harte's production on the Neats record was akin to the spacious sound that Mitch Easter was building for R.E.M.

The similarity was noticed on both sides when the Neats and R.E.M. shared a few bills in the early days. "That's the funniest thing, because our first show in Hoboken was also their first show there," says Martin. "We heard how we both sounded, and they heard it, too. And they always credited it somewhat." R.E.M. covered the Neats' "Angel" a few times in concert, and Michael Stipe shouted their name during R.E.M.'s fan-club single of Mission of Burma's "Academy Fight Song." The Neats also opened a handful of hockey-arena shows that R.E.M. played in 1985.

The band took a short breather around this time, regrouping with Lee on bass (bassist Jay Parham was also in for a while). When they reappeared, they were suddenly a bad-ass pack of blues-rockers. The jangle was out and the big blast was in, and Martin started developing the soulful voice he now uses in the Illyrians. The hair got a lot longer, on stage and in the audience, but most of the old fans tagged along. The band's 1989 swan song, Blues End Blue (on Hoboken's Coyote label), was both their peak album and one of the best Boston discs of its era, though a few dozen shades darker than the sound they'd started with.

"We made that album in Hoboken in the same studio where Lenny Kravitz was making his first record," Martin recalls. "He had the studio booked all day, so we came in and worked all night. That's why it has such an eerie feel; I hear the songs now and remember how it felt to be singing at five in the morning." Where did the darker tone come from? "Probably from the influences I had all along. I was playing blues harmonica before the Neats. People thought of us as a pop band, but I hear some of the songs and I don't know what the hell I was thinking. They get pretty dark, but I don't think they were really negative." Not even, say, "Tear My Soul"? "I guess that one gets pretty down-there. I was never good at writing goofy songs."

This reunion will be the only Neats show to include songs from both eras of the band. Early numbers like "Red & Grey" and the instrumental "Pop Cliché" are being worked up along with the later, bluesier tunes. Each version of the band had a big, cathartic number for the close of the set -- the early Neats had "Another Broken Dream" (the last song ever played at the Underground, where the band literally brought down at least part of the house) and the later line-up had "Tear My Soul." On Saturday they'll play both.

Whereas the other surviving Neats have settled into their straight jobs, Martin and Gibson are the musical lifers: they've spent the past nine years together in the Illyrians, who put a more soulful spin on the Neats sound and remain one of the most criminally underrated bands in town. (Granted, they've also never released anything, but Martin and Gibson promise that will change next year.) Gibson doesn't pretend he's having as good a time now as he had back in the day. "I feel that the camaraderie and family feeling of the club scene is gone. And it used to be that you could make money. I can remember leaving the Rat with $750 from a gig. All the bands were good friends; if someone got his drum kit stolen, someone else would be there."

Martin takes the changing times more in stride. "I think I've played a gig every month for the last 21 years. It's just what I do. People always ask me, `Are you still playing?' And I'm like, `Yeah, why wouldn't I be?' "

The Neats reunion takes place this Saturday, December 18, at T.T. the Bear's Place in Central Square. Call 492-BEAR.