Shows

As small, independent venues seem to be dying out in Boston proper, breweries in the suburbs seem to be filling that gap. The most prominent one is Faces Brewing Co. in Malden, MA, which has a dedicated backroom with a stage that puts on shows regularly. I’ve been meaning to check it out for a while, and I finally had a chance to with a killer Boston garage rock punk triple bill filled with bands from two of my favorite record labels: Rum Bar Records and Red On Red Records! In a weekend filled with fantastic shows, I could not pass up seeing The Dogmatics, The Shang Hi Los, and The Chelsea Curve!

Opening the night were Boston legends The Dogmatics, who have been kicking around in various forms since 1981. They play a blend of punk and garage rock that has barely slowed down in their forty plus years. It’s the kind of gritty rock music that you wouldn’t expect to see in a high end venue/restaurant, but that’s what happens with a band starts hitting their fifties and sixties. Interestingly enough, they played “Sister Serena” as the second song in their set, which might be their most well known song. Even more interestingly, they closed out their set with “Drop That Needle” and “Automat Kalashnikov,” which were two songs from 2022’s excellent EP Drop That Needle. It was a move that broke pretty much every setlist rule for a band that’s been around over forty years, but The Dogmatics made it work perfectly. “Drop That Needle” seemed to get the biggest response of their set which proves just how great their new songs are…  Read the February 13, 2023 review