Lizzy Borden |
It was a night of cool hair and cooler banter as the Rock ’n’ Roll Social celebrated its fifth anniversary a week ago Tuesday at the Model Café in Allston. On hand were the musical movers and shakers who get Boston moving and shaking each night, among them singers, guitar players, and a DJ or two.
To be a fly on the wall was, well, quite a buzz. In one corner, local rock eminence Liz Borden recalled debuting at both CBGB’s and the Rat when she was all of 13. In the next room, ax man extraordinaire Chris Cote shared drinks with Tracey Stark, an Emerson College philosophy professor who doubles each week as the host of WZBC’s local-music show Mass Ave and Beyond (Fridays, 5 to 6 pm). Elsewhere, promotional CDs were passed out like business cards as free burgers and beer were scarfed and prizes — a guitar, a rock-themed video game, and Brett Milano’s local rock history The Sound of Our Town — were raffled off. (So, I blush to mention, was my own book, a history of the Jewish origins of punk titled The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s.)
“It’s really great there’s something like this,” said Northeast Performer magazine editor Adam Arrigo, waxing earnest. “The New England rock scene needs to have a place where people can gather and network.”
“I’m just happy to be able to meet others who are doing what I’m doing and get to share my music with them,” said Miskatonic’s vocalist, Elizabeth Firger, who, having come straight from her day job, looked less like a rocker than a stockbroker. And more power to her — and to Lexi Khan, Michelle Auerbach, and Anngelle Wood, the folks who put on the Social the second Tuesday of each month. As they worked the room, handing out drink cards and collecting CDs, it was clear that they were Boston’s rock-and-roll iron handmaidens.
