The Rathskeller

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The Rathskeller , or The Rat for short , was a music club in the Fenway – Kenmore district of Boston from 1976 to 1997 . It is one of the most important places in the Boston punk scene .

history

From the mid-1970s to November 15, 1997, The Rat was an important meeting place for the punk and independent scene and one of the origins of American punk. Bands like The Police , REM , Metallica or Sonic Youth played here together with punk bands like Black Flag , Hüsker Dü , Minutemen , Youth of Today , GG Allin , Slapshot , Descendents and many local bands in front of a small audience. The Pixies got their first record deal after a talent manager saw their show in the Rathskeller . A kind of house band was DMZ , which was made up of Boston residents.

On the ground floor of the building in which the Rathskeller was located, there was a restaurant and a bar. Former visitors describe the cellar club as an extremely dirty hole with a “bunker atmosphere” and sticky floor. and sparse lighting. The club was the site of numerous arguments. Fans threw beer bottles at bands just as bands threw beer bottles at the audience. There were also numerous arguments with the visitors to the Disco Narcissus , which, like the Rathskeller, was located in Kenmore Square . The bouncers in particular were notorious across New England and the club had to close for a period of time several times due to incidents with the bouncers. An incident caused a sensation in the scene in which the bouncers beat up teenage fans who wanted to dance pogo at a Mission of Burma concert . Kenmore Park at the time was a derelict place known for high crime rates and weird characters. It wasn't until the decades between 1970 and the late 1990s that it began to gentrify and develop positively.

The Rathskeller was in Kenmore Square, in the area of Fenway Park and Boston University . It existed as a music club since the mid-1960s and was briefly called TJs in the early 1970s . In 1974 he called himself back in Rathskeller under owner Jim Harold . The club was one of the first places punk bands could perform. Presumably this was done less out of being connected to the scene, but more to save money with local bands that played their own songs. Rat Records released in the 1970s with the double album Live at the Rat one of the first punk compilations, which tried to follow on from the success of the CBGB live album. Live at the Rat , however, was still heavily influenced by older American bar rock. Rat Records released two of the earliest punk singles in Boston with two singles from the Nervous Eaters . The Police played four shows at the club in 1978 shortly after their single Roxanne was released.

In 1976 Time magazine published its first story about punk in the USA and went to research in the CBGB's in New York, the Roxy in London and the Rathskeller . The article in the magazine focused primarily on the unusual and bizarre like vibrators , swastikas and torn T-shirts. The Boston Globe described the place as a "sewer" where 13-year-olds take drugs and beat each other with chains. The punk band The Queers, on the other hand, published I met her at the Rat, a love song for the club. The toilets exploded during a show in the 1990s. After the staff had rinsed the floor once, they spread cat litter on the floor, let the audience back into the club and the band continued playing.

The Rathskeller closed, as did other nightlife spots, when Kenmore Square began to become a chic place to shop. In addition to the Rat , the record store Planet and various bars also closed. The house in which the Rat lay was demolished and replaced by a luxury hotel. The headliners of the last show were Aus-Rotten and later that evening Gang Green .

Publications

  • Live at the Rat , Rat Records

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Where Does the Time Go , Suburban Voice Blog November 18, 2007
  2. ^ A b Chuck Leddy: Rocking history lesson shows city was in a class by itself , Boston Globe January 10, 2008
  3. ↑ a b Brett Milano: Boston Roc. How Four Decades of BU Students Turn Up the Volume . In: Bostonia, Summer 2007, pp. 32–35 as pdf  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.bu.edu  
  4. ^ A b Culture Brats: [The Bars of Our Youth: The Rathskeller (Boston, MA)] , November 30, 2010
  5. ↑ http://www.bostongroupienews.com/TimeMagazine.html Anthems of the Blank Generation , Time July 11, 1977
  6. ↑ Emily Sweeney: Not everyone misses The Rat , Go To It / Boston.com December 7, 2006
  7. ^ Carly Carioli: Remembering the Rathskeller: 10 years after , The Phoenix November 15, 2007

Web links

literature

  • Brett Milano: Boston Roc. How Four Decades of BU Students Turn Up the Volume . In: Bostonia, Summer 2007, pp. 32–35 as pdf
  • Brett Milano: The Sound of Our Town: A History of Boston Rock & Roll , Commonwealth

Coordinates: 42 ° 20 '54.8 "  N , 71 ° 5' 46.2"  W.