TT The Bears Place, Cambridge - World At Play, Throwing Muses, O Positive
In some ways, this was a groundbreaking show for me. It was probably the biggest local show I'd been to so far. Throwing Muses turned out to be a huge influence on me over the years. I'm pretty sure that I have almost everything they've ever released. The first 4AD band I ever saw and a gateway band to The Pixies, who came about a year later. The first TM LP was on the radio and since it was import only, it had a certain cachet. (It didn't get a US release for 13 years, when Ryko issued In a doghouse, which combined the LP plus the early tapes and the Chains changed EP. I had never heard music as intense as that first LP in my life. Tanya Donelly's "Green" was the big song on the radio - I remember hearing it at a hardware store that was playing WBCN, which was odd. The Muses were the first Boston band to make a huge impact on me musically.
As you may know, Kristin Hersh continues to make fine music today through her solo work and with her new band 50FootWave. The 5FW web site is here. Tanya Donelly continues to make music as well. Here is her site.
At the same time, the moody guitar alt-rock of O Positive was just about to break out. Their first EP Only breathing was huge on the radio, led by the song "With you". CD is available on Amazon paired with their other EP, Cloud factory, for a mere $99. You might have better luck on GEMM. The band was led by Dave Herlihy - last I heard, he was an entertainment lawyer. The band was big in Boston for 2 or 3 years. When they signed to Epic, they only released one LP, Toy boat, toy boat, toy boat. They ended up meeting the same fate as Big Dipper (who will be discussed in a few months).
No idea about World At Play - probably a pop band from the era. They appeared in the WBCN Rock 'n' Roll Rumble in 1986. Tristram Lozaw was in the band. He was also in Someone and the Somebodies earlier in the '80s. SatS put out an EP called Bops on the head (on Modern Method, I believe - only saw a copy, never owned one). Buy it here. He was a music journalist as well, and was the publisher of Boston Rock. I still have a few old issues tucked away.
Here's a 2001 review of a CD by Toyboat, which from the sound of it, was O Positive 2.0.
It's funny - I thought I would remember more about these shows than I actually do. Do you ever wish that you had a TiVo in your head that you could just switch on whenever you wanted to remember something? 'Cause I sure do.
So far:
Number of shows seen, January 1986: 3
Number of bands seen, January 1986: 7
Number of shows seen, 1985: 13
Number of bands seen, 1985: 32
Total number of shows: 16
Total number of bands seen: 39
Comments