446 QUICK FIX, AMERICAN HI-FI, Weed Inc. Bills Bar, Boston MA USA, Thursday 25 May 2000

A trip to Q today! EdV takes the morning off his new job to show a couple of Brits around the new premises of his old job! Very much "work in progress", but it's seriously spacious compared to the old place. A bit of suitcase moving for Rachel and myself, then a trip to Harvard Square for a seriously good meal at The Border Cafe, rounded off by our first trip to Fenway Park to take in some baseball! The Red Sox lose 11-6 to Toronto, but at least we're in the right neighbourhood for the gig, which backs onto the ballpark!

Get into the venue just as Weed Inc. took the stage at 10. They played some turgid and nondescript stadium pop at times, but were enlivened by some occasionally racier stuff. They didn't totally win me over - I was too busy investigating the free jellybeans, courtesy of tonight's sponsors Swapit.com - but they did have one sparkling pop tune in "Million Dollar Babies". EdV then turns up with Sterlings vocalist Patrick Emswiler in tow, along with his girlfriend. EdV's own girlfriend Carrie and friend Kate also arrive, and look after our coats in our booth while we make our way through the half-full venue (Rumble Finals tonight, you see) to take our positions down the front, stage right, for a bit of a treat!

American Hi-Fi, the band featuring EdV's roommate Jamie Arentzen, former Tracy Bonham bassist Drew Parsons (who I'm glad to say remembered me from the 1996 UK shows!) and former Letters To Cleo drummer turned pretty boy vocalist/ guitarist Stacy Jones (who didn't), were up next - and they were no less than brilliant. Bursting onstage, they played easily the most soaring, exciting and goddamn ROCK set since The Pit. Bright and dynamic, with huge power chords and breathless speeding choruses, they recalled Foo Fighters (a bit of an obvious comparison), The Wannadies, and even the band Gigolo Aunts could/would have been if they'd hit the "rock" button, rather than "mellower pop", post-"Flippin' Out". Stacy thought they were a little "off colour" in conversation afterwards, but it really didn't show. We rocked out and had the sweat to show for an excellent set.

Chats with the boys after their set, plus a few words with the visiting Tom Polce, before we take the same stage front position for Quick Fix. Featuring former Tracy Bonham drummer, the voluminously-maned Shayne Phillips, da Fix had a superb stage presence from all 3 members; Shayne, leaping bass player Paul Natale, and vocalist Jake Zavracky, a very very tall man indeed. Musically, they tended towards the stadium Goth of The Cult a little too often for my tastes, and Jake's posturing and, "hands up if you like to fuck!" proclamations were a little out of kilter with the rest of this Boston rock scene. However, at their best (which was still very very often) they recalled the sexy sleazy and sinister glam punk of Placebo, particularly during "Flo Jo" and the albeit-overlong "Soul Sister". I'll grant them one thing; they're absolutely superb performers, you couldn't take your eyes off them!

More quick chats with the Hi-Fi guys, plus Toirm, EdV's old roommate from my last trip (who was a little surprised to see me, to say the least) and Charles from Ross Phasor, before heading off at 1 am, Rachel successfully hailing a cab first time while I faffed around trying to pick up a dime off the floor!

512 THE GRAVEL PIT, Quick Fix, Heavy Stud, D.James M'cle; 513 ROCKETSCIENCE; TT The Bear's Place/ Middle East, Cambridge, MA USA, Friday 22 June 2001

This is what we're here for! A Gravel Pit CD release show double header over the next 2 nights, but first night is a double-header of its' own for us, as we're sneaking off halfway through... After a day CD shopping along Newbury Street, and meeting friend Mark Kraus for lunch, Rachel and I have nevertheless saved our energy for this one. We hit the club as The David James Motorcycle kick-start the evening with some rootsy country rock, like the Gin Blossoms less auspicious moments. They're OK I guess, but Rach and I hit the pool tables instead.

Heavy Stud, next up and featuring EdV's girlfriend Melissa Gibbs (or just "Gibbs" to Ed!) are better, with their shouty Muffs-like punk rock stylings. Pretty fun and snappy, with short and sweet songs. They're done at 10.25, and at this point Rach and I bail out of TTs to head downstairs at the Middle East, to catch the just-started Rocketscience in gig 2 of the night! I was keen to catch them if we could, as I love their CD "A Girl's Name Here", which strikes me like a heavy Teenage Fanclub, melodic yet moody. "Live" however they're surprising; extremely powerful and very mobile, especially the menacing vocalist Andy Galdins, who has the similar wild-eyed manic stare and unsettling craziness of the Crockett's vocalist Davey McManus, and who prompts Rachel to comment, "I'm not entirely not scared of him!" They sadly omit "Killjoy" from their set (despite the fact it was on the set-list - d'oh!), but overall are pretty impressive, the added dynamism and power of their live performance adding to the songs, despite a couple of headscratchers (why swap instruments around if the drummer really can't play guitar very well? And also - please remove the rap number as soon as possible!). We grab a couple of words of praise with bass player Aaron before scooting back to gig 1 of the night at TTs!

We hit TTs again at 11.10 to find, to our dismay, that Quick Fix, who were due on at 11, are considerably more than halfway through their set. D'oh! However, what we do get to hear is pretty sparkling stuff; dark, dynamic and sleazy up-tempo glammy rock, with the hugely imposing frontman figure of Jake Zavracky throwing shapes with wild abandon, and the muppet-haired and semi-naked Shayne Phillips providing the clattering beat. It's great stuff and I'm annoyed that we'd missed even a minute of it, but this is compounded further when I pick up the set-list afterwards, to discover they'd opened with "Underground", not only my favourite QF number, but one which I've never seen them play. D'oh! Yet again!

We run into a fair few folks we know in the packed crowd at this point. Pit manager Michael Creamer, who asks Rachel, "you still hanging out with this guy?" (more so than ever now, Michael!), "The Peach" Pete Stone, who comments that Rach and I getting together was, "only a matter of time", Army Of Jasons frontman Geoff Van Duyne, who promises us some new AOJ stuff, and the manically maned Shayne, who wants to come visit us in the UK! I also run into EdV in the horrible TT's Gents, rather embarrassingly as I'm peeling a Quick Fix sticker off the wall! However Ed doesn't seem to notice, rather diplomatically - he's all suited up for the Pit performance, so I meet Rach and follow him through the crowd to a perfect stage-front spot.

The Gravel Pit hit the stage at 11.45, once again suited up like their heroes The Beatles, Costello and Joe Jackson, and immediately burst into "Baby Gap" from "Mass Avenue Freeze Out", the new CD, whose release these 2 shows are celebrating. It's a bouncy, modish, almost jolly number with a push'n'shove backbeat, and immediately gets Rach and I rocking. The Grunge howl of "Something's Growing Inside", a surprise oldie, is up next, and the incredible guitar work of Lucky Jackson really sends this oft-times leaden track soaring. It's evident that The Pit, fresh and enthusiastic for live work (especially the dynamically flailing Pete Caldes!) and benefiting from their recent hiatus and decision not to tour this sucker to breaking point, are up for this one, and they're no less than awesome. The punkish new wave amphetamine rush of "The Ballad Of The Gravel Pit", their own road movie document, is brilliant and has Rachel and I manically screaming, "do you think we oughtta... OUGHTTA stick around!!" at each other. But really, every one's a winner in this set. Jed Parish is the focal point throughout, thick-set and menacing, Frank Black's evil twin, brandishing maracas and cowbells menacingly, but mainly bashing seven bells out of a battered and road-weary Farfisa. Jackson's high-kicking and EdV's bobbing and weaving like a demented Chuck Berry also catch the eye, but it's also evident that drummer Pete Caldes' appetite for live work is immense, as he's really going for it!

Other highlights are hard to pick out - there's so many! - but Rachel and I waltzing down the front to "Bucket" is fantastic. And why not? This is OUR holiday, OUR band, OUR night! "Ezra Messenger" is brilliant, as is the totally unplanned encore "Officer Dwight Boyd". But really, tonight The Gravel Pit totally excel, and smash their own stratospherically high "live" standards into utter smithereens.

Afterwards, Ed cracks up when he recalls one of my dance moves, and we finally hit the road after catching our breath. We got what we came here for, no messin' - and frankly I'd have swum the bloody Atlantic to see The Gravel Pit on this form!