maybe sump’ms


Meet the Bands: Township

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Township. They’ve been working out some great new tunes at the Midway Cafe, during their Woodshed Series, including a game show theme song.

Word on the street is that their excellent recent release Light Years is going to be out on vinyl soon, which, in our opinion, is the perfect way to experience these recordings.

The best way?  See them play it all live!!!

 

 

We may have just hypnotized you.  In that case, think of sweet, sweet guitarmony and don’t forget to grab you tickets! They’ll be sharing the Middle East Stage  with Watts, Unnatural Axe and Fireking.  Should be an amazing night!!!

 

Township SW

These are the droids you’re looking for. (Hidden: Jedi James Rohr. See if you can find him!)


New Prizes for 2015!

Meet some of our first time Crash Safely donors!

The A.R.T. has donated two tickets to The Donkey Show at Oberon!

Boston Harbor Cruises has donated a certificate for four to take the USS Constitution Cruise!

The Boston Red Sox have donated an autographed baseball, signed by Dustin Pedroia!

The Charles Hotel has donated  a one night stay for two at the hotel, including breakfast at Henrietta’s Table!

A set of adult passes to the  Top of the Rock observation deck at Rockefeller Center, NYC!

In addition to our new prizes, we also have heard received these great donations from some of our returning sponsors:

The New England Patriots have donated an autographed football, signed by Jerod Mayo!

A specially selected bangle set from  Alex and Ani!

Two tickets to ANY ArtsEmerson performance in the 2015-2016 season!

A gift card for Grafton Street/Russell House Tavern/Temple Bar/Park!

Two chances to win 6 lbs of whole bean coffee from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, including a specially selected set by Mike Oliver!

An after work pool party for 20, snacks included at Jillian’s Boston!

Tickets for two on the NY Skyride in the Empire State Building!

$20.00 in Red Box one-day DVD rentals!


On Roddy, Wrestling, Rock and MS

If you’re friends with musicians, look around your social media feed(s) right now.  Chances are good that you’re being swamped with photos and memorials for Rowdy Roddy Piper, the original pro wrestling Bad Guy. He was instrumental in the Rock and Wrestling thing that exposed many of us to the over-the-top wrestling characters. Piper was a big influence in my life as well, and quite possibly the reason I was able to survive a near daily barrage of threats and violence that today get lumped neatly into the word “bullying.”  I had a jacket airbrushed with his logo and it became armor in a way for me.  People left me alone, rather than try to figure out why I suddenly was sporting jacket that said HOT ROD! in lightning script on my back. Later on, some of my very best friends were made based upon my ownership of a Piper T shirt. Roddy Piper had a lot to do with how things panned out for me…

More influential (especially on my pick of sun protection) was They Live, which featured this classic scene:

News of Piper’s death hit me hard, and last night, The Night Ridah and I started looking up some of the classic Piper clips online. Eventually, we came across the infamous “whack Captain Lou over the head with an award” clip.

What was the award for?

Fundraising for Multiple Sclerosis.

Captain Lou’s brother died of MS and Lou became very involved in fundraising, getting Cyndi Lauper involved as well.  At the time of the whack, it was announced that they had raised over 2 million dollars for MS.  In the 1980’s.

captain lou

So, yeah.  That was a time when there were no MS medications. None.  The best a patient could hope for would be some IV steroids every so often for flairs and a sympathetic physical therapist. (Go ahead and make that steroid and wrestling joke.)

All of this comes on the heel (ha) of the first official lineup announcement for Crash Safely- 10/17 at the Midway Cafe.

The Midway, last night, hosted B.L.O.W.W.- the Boston League of Women Wrestlers.

The Midway, where I used to write music reviews  with fellow Roddy Piper fan Joe Coughlin.

Here are the details for 10/17:

$10, 21+.  Tickets: http://midwaycafe.com/our/details?id=101710  Le Facebook event

Starring:

The Sprained Ankles

Muck and the Mires

The Dents

The Phil Aiken Army

Gymnasium

Maybe someone will be cheeky enough to cover this tune:

 

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some answers to alter.  Someone changed the questions again.


When will we hear who’s playing?

So, what’s new with Crash Safely? It seems like I haven’t been teasing you as much this year with updates and news, and there are a few reasons for that. So  I’ll  bring everyone up to speed.  Sound good?

no spoilers!

Hint: This guy’s not playing any of the nights.

Q: OK, so who’s playing the shows this year?

A: How does this sound so far? The Luxury, Watts, Gene Dante and the Future Starlets, Muck and the Mires, Fireking, The Phil Aiken Army, The Sprained Ankles, Township, Gymnasium, Tom Baker and the Snakes and White Dynomite.  I’m still working out some other folks and who’s going to be playing where, when.

Q: That was my next question. When is this? 

A: Don’t worry, it won’t happen during Boston Calling, but there will be a date in mid-September (either 9/18 or 9/19), 10/17, 10/23.

Q: What’s the holdup? You’re usually letting me know all of the details by now.

A: Well, it’s a few things.  Some of it has to do with scheduling, but most of it has to do with my work.

Q: So, you weren’t working before?

A: No, I just wasn’t working for myself  before. Time is tight when you’ve got multiple clients and multiple deadlines.  I had a few desk jobs before, and that allowed me to sneak some CS work in between  bouts of unyielding depression  tasks.    I’ve also picked up managing the social media for the Midway Cafe, and just scheduling those posts can take quite some time.  Yes, I’m the person tweeting coffee memes at you every Monday.   #sorrynotsorry

I’ve also had some more medical issues I’ve needed to take care of, and that means scheduling, haggling, and generally taking on a third (fourth?) job as a professional patient, essentially. That’s another reason I’ve been working for myself.

Q: Oh.

A: That’s not a question.

Q: What venues will these shows be at?

A: I’ll confirm our definite dates:  September will depend on a few  particulars.  10/17 is at the Midway Cafe. 10/23 is at the Middle East Upstairs.

Q: Can I dress up for the 10/23 show? That’s like, almost Halloween.

A: Go for it! Actually, if you do, swing by the raffle table and we’ll give you two free raffle tickets.  Maybe more if you manage to rock a perfect replica of Immortan Joe and/or Toecutter or an actual, classic Jem character.

Yikes.

Maybe even more if you manage the combo.

We shall not speak of that horrific live action trailer.

We shall not speak of that horrific live action trailer.

So there’s been a lot of things going on way behind the scenes. I’m hoping to have the lineups announced soon (it’s seriously very close).  After that, it’ll be back to the usual bombardment of show/band/prize/MS information.

I also promise to grab some pop culture references that are younger than 20 years old for the next blog post…