Sneak Peak with Matt Kelly of Fit For Abuse, Dive, Get High, Hatchetface, Hammer and the Nails, and The Chopsticks..
I picture Club 490 shows in the 90's exactly like the Dive reunion a few years ago in the sense that people moshed with Bruins jerseys on. Am I completely wrong or spot on? If I am wrong like I'm sure that I am, what were they like? i know thats such a vague question.
*** It is true, they did. There was a gig on March 13, 1991 featuring Only Living Witness(Kevin Stevenson era thrashy stuff), Democracide, and Common Sense(me and Rheault's pre-Dive band). Because the singer of Democracide had a Bruins jersey on, our bass player No Dice said something to the effect of, "Oh, major yo! Democracide are the friggin' Bruins Masters!!" So from then on they were the Bruins masters until I had a Bruins snare drum made, which(much to their chagrin I'm sure) dethroned Democracide as said Bruins Masters. Either way, from my perspective it seemed the Hardcore/Bruins diaspora was pretty big back then with Slapshot in full swing and all that.
490 "pits" were as some 'zine writer wrote, "like stumbling into a swordfight"-- and I believe he meant literally as this was before the time that anything vaguely masculine was considered latently homoerotic. The shows were pretty fucking intense then. You'd have 440(capacity) kids in there going completely fucking apeshit to local bands like Bound, Dive, etc. Lotta "frantic fringe", metalheads playing air guitar, drums, etc., behind the pit area, and we took great joy in pummeling those dudes, as there was a pretty big divide between the "heavy metal" dudes and the HC kids/punks/skinheads. We got along with the death/black metal kids, but the "fresh fly muthas" as we called them would just get in there and start doing that thing that looks like a little kid playing with toy dumptrucks where he just bashes them together(we literally called this push-pit "playing trucks"). So you just grabbed the kid by the hair and started bashing him. Nine out of ten times, the dudes loved it. "Doood, I fuckin' love PITTIN'!" ***
Thoughts on Pearse?
*** He needs a backup bass and is probably really bummed that those Lovely Lads shirts have the word "firm" on them. However, on an unrelated note, he has good taste in jackets. ***
***Yeah, he threw a time in his Fitchburg apartment, and we played the basement... though I can't remember what other bands played-- maybe Entropy? That was probably late '95ish, possibly during the heyday of his 'radio show'. ***
Did you ever play The Channel in any of your various rock music acts?
*** No, though I went to a lot of shows there. It fucking kills me that it's not still there. It was definitely hated by a lot of people, but then as soon as it was gone everybody missed it. Boston needs more steady all ages clubs.
I remember one time at bandcamp, um, the Channel when Choke still had the hockey stick onstage, but didn't really wield it anymore. This death/black metal dude from Fitchburg jumps up onstage during Slappy, grabs the hockey stick, furiously swings it around like a major frantic fringeman, and jumps off the stage. I thought Choke was gonna cave his head in. Yeah, good story...pffffftttt... ***
They are always sitting at the door at The Pet Shop and seem to live a pretty decent life. My favorite is the Saint Bernard but I wish he had one of those jugs around his neck like in cartoons and real life. He also doesn't remind me Beethoven in case you were wondering. My favorite time seeing these dogs was with Jarrod Shanahan of Deathpanel Press. He opened the door and proclaimed "I hear animals in there Ventura." That probably makes no sense to anyone who hasn't seen Ace Ventura. So if you havn't seen the film I highly suggest getting Netflix(They have a good deal where the first month is free.)
Back in the 2000's when I used to live in Allston,
