Boston UnsceneFollowing the peak of punk, from the late Seventies to early Eighties, hardcore hit Boston. "My most exciting time in Boston was definitely hardcore," Curtis of Taang! recalls. "People were more excited about it. Boston was the most unified city for music." That excitement generated greater continuity across genres. The shows Bob Fay of Sebadoh saw featured eclectic bills: "You had hardcore, so you'd get a bill and it would be like the Neats, Mission of Burma, dys and Jerry's Kids ‹ they really sort of thought about it. It may have been just a conscious capitalist thing to get a cross section of people." Things have changed: "Now," says Curtis, "you'd never see a hardcore band play with an alternative band."
With the coinage of "alternative," local music and national money began holding hands behind the curtain, irrevocably altering the intent of some bands. "During the Volcano Suns time," Prescott claims, "the nature of this kind of music was changing because all of the sudden there was commercial potential. And when there is something you could aim for, people started aiming a little too consciously. When people are so conscious of who they can get signed to and how fast they can get popular, it effects the quality of the music." Bands don't stay afloat in isolation tanks, and the temptation of being paid to play music has become a factor in the high-decibel equation. Comparing the experience of her Washington, DC, band Autoclave and her current Boston-based Helium, Mary Timoney observes that in DC, "Their lifestyle is being in a band. Boston bands are more career-oriented."
The potential for a veritable label lottery jackpot looms large over Boston's unscene today, skewing perspectives out of proportion. "On a really small scale," reasons Bob Fay, "it's about presenting music that you love, that you wanna see out there. But for the most part, it's just appeasing a certain age group that will buy anything."