Rumble faves to tide you over til fest returns
Like everything in April, the Rock ’n’ Roll Rumble evaporated as soon as it was announced. The 2020 version will go on — check out rockandrollrumble.com for details and specific dates on its return in late summer — but for now let’s celebrate the Rumble’s legacy.
For those not connected to the extended Boston scene, the Rock ’n’ Roll Rumble takes the battle-of-the-bands format and turns it into a festival. Yes, a winner is crowned (and the prizes are substantial) but, more than anything, the event buoys the music community by connecting fans with new bands and artists with new friends. It’s also a rite of passage — everyone from ’Til Tuesday and Mission of Burma to Morphine and the Dresden Dolls have played the annual party.
For me (and many other local writers), it’s a crash course in what’s new and awesome. So, looking back on nearly two decades of covering the Rumble, I’ve pulled together a few of my favorite discoveries.
Township, 2007 — Classic rock for the modern millennium. That means AC/DC guitar, Cheap Trick hooks and Thin Lizzy fury but with lyrics that will make you smile and think (instead of cringe).
Gozu, 2009 — My metal
tastes peak with early thrash, stoner metal plod and the dynamism (and hooks) of Soundgarden. Delightfully, Gozu confidently triangulates these styles.
OldJack, 2011 — When I witnessed OldJack first do “Parade,” I felt reborn. Still a tentpole of the scene (see the band’s Last Saturdays at Lizard Lounge), OldJack
took me to church and Bourbon Street and Nashville’s Music Row and a ’70s Stones concert and a ’60s Wilson Pickett concert in a single song.
Mellow Bravo, 2011 — My favorite live act in Boston for nearly half a decade after I discovered it at Rumble, Mellow Bravo knew how to party (those guitars!) and wallow in darkness (those
lyrics!). As I have said before, best heavy band since … well … I guess Led Zeppelin was solid.
Sidewalk Driver, 2011 —I fell hard for this band’s song “Dancing with Her Friends” and tried to sum it up thusly: Take a black 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass S 442 with an orange racing stripe down the side and fill it with a disco ball, a bottle of cheap champagne, high heels, a Gibson SG, cocaine, a James Brown bobble head, a used tube of David Bowie’s eyeliner, a Beta copy of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and a whole mess of KISS and ABBA 8-tracks. Now crush the car into a pop song, sprinkle with loads of glitter and you have “Dancing with Her Friends.”
Ruby Rose Fox, 2013 — Back then, Fox mixed modern rock with ’60s soul and the glam and grime of New York. It was enchanting. Since then, she’s gone everywhere building her aesthetic on audacity while never forgetting the masses love pop.
When Particles Collide, 2014
— This duo does everything a rock band should: Punk rock punch and heavy metal crescendos, delicate melodic turns, plodding rumblings, serpentine guitar lines and little snatches of humor.
PowerSlut, 2019 — Linnea Herzog’s quartet does a charismatic mix of punk, hardcore, indie rock and grunge. Oh, and disco. “Hot Top Wingman” has a funky, chic-chic guitar line, slipper bass pop and drum thump that echoes a choice slab of Donna Summer wax.