Boston UnsceneIf local music is the last vestige of integrity and cool according to the lore of the underground, then a local scene seems a coveted entity, peculiar and pure. Styles and trends evade easy catalog; ambiguity and unpredictability protect local waves from quick co-optation. Consider this an account of the unscene, or the invisible scene, fully and deliciously audible but camouflaged from the media floodlights that strip it of its underground status. What follows is a preview into the underground and atmosphere of the densely popululated Boston, a look at how the indie rock topographical map unfolds, with the evolution of punk rock through the riff laden grunge licks and minimal lo-fi tricks, recording techniques and venue critiques.
Certifiably a city by most standards, the Boston-Cambridge urban landscape actually sports a small town sensibility. Frequent visits to the indie zones in town reveal a cast of familiar faces, a kind of indie rock overlay district, the freed tweed, superimposed above the button-down tweed and baseball fans of greater Boston.
The layout of the land is determined by a decidedly anti-geometrical system of circles, lines and squares. Boston squares‹not a spoof on a Seventies game show‹but bustling shopping and eating hubs, brick-bottom islands nestled in a frenetic flow of one way streets and unyielding traffic circles. The shortest distance between two squares is arguably the T line, Boston's subway. Above ground, Mass Ave. is the central artery, linking the separate zones of indie rock intensity. The squares are characterized by their neighboring compliment of schools, clubs and record shops. In Cambridge, the largest crowds congregate around Harvard Square, a record mecca with at least seven stores in a few blocks of each other, and Central Square, nightly playground for bands at TT the Bear's and the Middle East. Supporting full bills on stages upstairs and down, as well as a restaurant cafe, a bar and a third small stage in the "bakery," the Middle East is the hearth of local rock and host to out-of-towner bands.