[Sidebar] December 24 - 31, 1998
[Music Reviews]
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Roadtrips

A moment of silence for Sir Morgan's Cove (508-753-2188), the Worcester spot where many fine bands had some of their worst gigs ever. Wormtown's under an hour away by car, but at least a decade behind on the cultural odometer, and nothing brought that fact home harder than showing up at the Cove, where people still pined for the days when the Stones stopped by, and were often willing to settle for memories, or cheap facimiles thereof. Plenty of original acts played, lots of them lousy, and the ones that drew best seemed to have the worst taste. It was a keystone club in a club scene that's served mainly as a nostalgia machine, hosting tribute bands who eulogized not only typical `70s icons -- your Pink Floyds, Led Zeppelins, and Grateful Deads -- but also bands that were still evolving back in the real world: Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Metallica, Tool, Korn. The present, like the past, seemed within its walls to be a place for dead things, and the future -- which, like a thing regarded as mere rumor, never seemed all too tangible at the Cove -- finally ran out. The Cove will be missed -- or at least remembered as another in a long line of absent glories that faded long before they disappeared -- because it seemed to embody the lingering static stupor of a once-thriving, now sleepy town trying to shake off a head-splitting hangover of industrial boom and bust. A running concern since the dawn of the `70s, the club was held under the same owner since the late `80s, and, appropriately enough, will cash in its chips in the wee hours of the '90s' last New Year, forever blind to a new century. The final bill, on December 31, is as follows: Chillum, White Knuckle Society, Jujitsu, Junk Sculpture, Top Hat Charlie, and Woodgrain Theory. The club will re-open briefly under new ownership and a new name, the Lucky Dog Music Hall, on January 2 with a gig by Boston's Tree and Gangsta Bitch Barbie, after which it'll close for renovations. It's been reported that the new owners will be seeking to broaden the scope of live music at the club to include such breaking trends as ska and swing; if that's the case, then the decision to change the name seems appropriate -- keeping up with changing times was never something that went over well at the place called Sir Morgan's Cove.

Back in the land of the living, funk legend and former James Brown sideman Maceo Parker makes the rounds on his "Holiday Funkoverload" mini-tour at the Webster Theatre (860-246-8001) in Hartford Connecticut on December 27 with Deep Banana Blackout; and December 28 (with Babaloo) and 29 (with Super Honey) at the Somerville Theatre (331-2211) in Somerville. The hardcore holidays heat up with the Victory Records Tour -- featuring Hatebreed, Skarhead, Blood for Blood, All Out War, and Shutdown -- at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence on December 26 and at the Palladium (508-797-9696) in Worcester on the 29th. Rochester, New Hampshire's Safe and Sound (603-330-0068) will be anything but on December 26 when it plays host to the kings of a burgeoning neo-art-noise-metal renaissance with Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge, and Cave-In. The same bill is at the Palladium the following night.

-- CC

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