Dave’s Photo Blog

Saturday night’s show at The Somerville Theatre was a great line-up for a great cause. Jimmy Tingle, Faces on Film, The Neighborhoods and Mission of Burma all performed to benefit the Somerville Arts at the Armory. I was there to enjoy the music, take pictures and support the arts in Somerville. Although I live in Arlington now, I lived on Spring Hill for almost ten years – quite close to the Armory. Back in the day, I was a huge fan of Mission of Burma – so this was a special show for me personally as well.

The Somerville Theatre is a wonderful place to see live music. It’s not a large hall, but it is a hall, not a club. You get the best of both worlds – the intimacy of a club and the benefits of an auditorium. But before I go to far into the show, I should tell you about the purpose behind it. The show was a benefit for the Arts at the Armory. This facility showcases local artists in visual arts, theater and music. It has gallery space, a café, performances spaces and offices to support the arts in Somerville by both directly supporting the artists and providing educational outreach. The proceeds of the concert at The Somerville Theatre benefited this wonderful organization and so it was a win-win for all. We got to hear some great performances and the Arts at the Armory gets much needed funding for these programs. In the week before the show, I contacted Debra McLaughlin who co-produced the show and sits on the board of the Arts at the Armory to ask if it was permissible to photograph Mission of Burma. She told me they had no restrictions on photography so I got an added thrill – being able to photograph the event in addition to being a fan and supporting the arts.

The story here is mostly about the pictures, but I will add a little commentary. The only photos I have not included were those of Jimmy Tingle. I have some, but frankly, I didn’t think they were all that great. Since he is a well known figure locally, I decided to stick to the musicians. I had only planned on shooting Mission of Burma, but by the time Faces on Film got halfway through their set and I had seen so many other people snapping away, I changed my mind. Here’s Mike Fiore performing towards the end of the set. He played solo at the beginning, then gradually brought the other band-members in, then gradually they stepped out until he was singing solo at the end. 

I missed Jimmy Tingle opening the show, but he performed short comedy routines between each band and served as the emcee. After Faces on Film, The Neighborhoods performed and left me wondering why I had never followed them when I was younger. They were fantastic. Total high-energy rock and roll. Back in the day, they would have been labeled more of a punk band, but these days, it just sounded like straight up, fast rock-n-roll to me. And the energy they put into the set was completely infectious. They did not sit still. That’s David Minehan on guitar and Lee Harrington mid-air on bass.

David Minehan is everything you could want in a rock and roll front-man. He’s got the voice, the chops, the energy and the hair to just rock out completely. He was mesmerizing and all over the stage. They must have been totally psyched to play this theatre – the excitement was palpable. If you look closely in the photo below, you’ll notice he’s already broken a string on his guitar.

They are very funny too, both in the lyrics and their patter between songs. David couldn’t get the attention of the roadies, so he finished the song and then got a new guitar and had to tune it. So he turned it over to Lee to keep the audience entertained while he tuned.

And Lee is very funny too. But when he was done, David came back and said, you know, I can’t believe I broke a string on that song because we came up with this great segue, but fuck it, we’ll just play the last few chords and keep going. And he did. It was hysterical. He started playing and Lee and John Lynch (drums) jumped in and a few bars later they were pounding away at the next song like nothing had happened and they played the segue to boot.

If you are going to be rock and roll front-man, having great hair is almost a requirement. David doesn’t disappoint. His hair was all over the place.

After an hour set or so, it was time for Mission of Burma. The only time I managed to see Mission of Burma in their heyday was at one of their last shows – the Bradford Hotel. My recollection was that there was an all-age show and an over-21 show. I saw the all-age show, but the performances from that night were made into a video and CD. Anyway, out come (l-r) Roger Miller (guitar), Peter Prescott (drums) and Clint Conley (bass).

The Neighborhoods and Mission of Burma are two very different bands. For all of The Neighborhoods rock excitement and fun, Mission of Burma brings a heavier more angst-driven music. Mission of Burma was an early experimenter with tape-loop effects. Back in the day, there was a fourth band member, Martin Swope, who would record bits of the live performance and then loop them back slowing them down and speeding them up. These are sometimes hard to hear in the chaos of a live performance but quite noticeable on their recorded albums. Bob Weston replaced Martin Swope in the current line-up, but he was back at the sound board and I wasn’t able to get a photograph of him.

Mission of Burma was a very different band when they hit the scene in Boston all those years ago. They used a lot of techniques that should make music less accessible – cacaphonous noise from the guitar, different rythyms than their contemporaries, the tape-loop and so forth and they borrowed from punk, hardcore and other genres to set a new direction in music. They have been cited as a highly influential band and are certainly one of the more noteworthy groups to come out of Boston. And they can rock out too, as you can see below, but that’s not quite the point with MOB. It’s more about expression than rocking.

The one problem with The Somerville Theatre is that it seems to be hard for bands to get people up and dancing. The Neighborhoods should have had the crowd on their feet, but people sat. Towards the end of the Mission of Burma set, some folks did start to get up and by the time of the encore,  most of the audience was standing. MOB has this woman to thank for that – she is that classic person who just gets up and grooves and doesn’t care what anybody thinks. She danced in front of Roger Miller for a couple of songs, then moved over and danced in front of Clint.

When The Neighborhoods were playing, David Minehan made a point of saying that there were not many bands they’d be willing to open for, but they were honored to do it for Mission of Burma. MOB returned the favor having both Lee and David up on stage, although Lee’s entry was pretty funny.

I recall that Lee came up on stage from the audience. If you were a part of that era in the early 80’s, you will remember what a slam-dancer looked like. They’d come up onstage and move their arms in a slow exagerated way like they were running and then eventually toss themself into the audience to (hopefully) waiting arms. That’s what Lee did when he came up – he imitated a slam-dancer and it was hysterical. Then he sang a couple of lines and scurried offstage left. David came out with a proper introduction from Roger and they sang a song together. It was a nice moment and capped off a really fun evening.

For those of you die-hard Burma fans, I can’t give you the entire set list. But I can tell you they played a few of my favorite songs: Photograph, Peking Spring, Academy Fight Song and Learn How. No, no Revolver and no Heart of Darkness. They also played some of their new stuff, but I hadn’t heard it yet and so I don’t know the names of the songs. Before they played Learn How, there was a bit of a break and Roger Miller almost looked as if he was trying to decide what to play. And the suggestions started pouring out of the audience. People shouted, 1970, TremTwo and so on.

And there’s one final note. I’ve already heard the skeptics telling me this was some kind of flashback – these guys are too old - they aren’t cool anymore and so on. But that’s actually not true. This was an all ages show. There were teenagers sitting in front of me and they were as into the music as I had been at that age. They knew the songs – they came for MOB. MOB connected with people by taking chances and singing about life – Academy Fight Song is a perfect example of this. That kind of music will always resonate and getting to see the (mostly) original lineup still dishing it out was a pleasure for all.

[Update 1/26 - The Boston Groupie News has a story up on this show as well; thanks for the link, Blowfish.]

[Update 1/27 - I just watched the clip of Red from the Bradford Hotel show in 1983. It looks to me like Clint Conley is using the same bass guitar in that clip as he was on Saturday. Is that possible? And is Roger Miller using the same guitar? Anyone have any ideas on that? It's really pretty amazing for me to watch that given that I was in the audience that night.]

[Update 1/28 - Hat tip to The Wave for posting the link to this story in a thread on the Noise Board.]

[Update 1/29 - A big thanks to the Arts at the Armory for the link. Thanks folks!]