Venue Highlight: Light Club Lamp Shop (Burlington, VT) Featured Venue Lifestyle Music Features by Brian Carroll - November 1, 20170 It has been a long, long while since we have delved back into highlighting a venue here on RLR and given our experience with today's venue, we felt it due time to shine a little light on our favorite little spot to catch a show and grab a drink up in Burlington: Light Club Lamp Shop. The “Vibe”: Its hard to lend any sort of comparison to this room until you have been there. Mere explanation doesn't really do it justice. Picture hundreds of lamps hanging from the ceiling of a speakeasy meets your cool friend's basement growing up...you know the one who had the chilled out finished basement room with Nintendo and oversized armchairs with a thick, spongy carpet? Man,
Turn it up to…1,000: The Sinclair Celebrates 1,000 Shows Featured Venue by Brian Carroll - November 17, 2016November 17, 20160 I remember when the stirring first started infiltrating our newsfeeds and the air about Camber-ville that Bowery Presents Boston would be opening a mid size venue in the heart of Harvard Square. An area known for its more intimate venues in the way of Club Passim and The Lizard Lounge on its outskirts I was skeptical at first...mostly because I had no clue where such a venue would fit in the tight recesses of the square. Would they build a new space? Was there a spot we were all unaware of? I even walked by a few times and completely missed it, somehow tucked up and away in its little niche on Church Street. Last night the venue hit a
Venue Highlight: The Burren (Somerville, MA) Featured Venue Lifestyle by Brian Carroll - March 14, 2016January 13, 20170 Maybe my Irish roots make me biased, but The Burren has always been my favorite music venue in town. Located in the heart of Davis Square in Somerville, The Burren has been around since 1996. Opened by Irish musicians Tommy McCarthy and Louise Costello, the bar was created as a space for warmth, music, and good food and drink. Twenty years later, that vision is thriving as ever. The “Vibe”. When you walk into the Burren, you feel like you’re walking into a pub full of friends - even if you don’t recognize a single face. The scent of Guinness, the playful sound of a fiddle, and the lively volley of voices combine to give the Burren the authentic community
Venue Highlight: Lizard Lounge (Cambridge, MA) Featured Venue Lifestyle Uncategorized by Brian Carroll - February 5, 2016January 13, 20170 There is something almost timeless about Cambridge’s best bar in a basement music venue. I mean, there is a reason we hosted the first 2 RLR anniversary shows there. You may almost miss the entrance of the Lizard Lounge if you didn’t know it was there (not that this would be a complete loss thing, because that means you would stumble INTO Cambridge Common and the food/beer is awesome there). A sharp left through a door and a descent down into a crimson hue blanketed room sets the stage for some of the best shows I have seen in living here in town for the past decade. There is almost a speakeasy vibe to the place, like you aren’t supposed
Venue Highlight: Club Passim (Cambridge, MA) Featured Venue by Ken Templeton - January 28, 2016February 5, 20160 Passim is much, much more than a music venue. It’s more than a landmark, it’s more than a music school, it’s more than a grant-giver, it’s more than an incubator for talent. It is all these things, sure. But when you put them together, Club Passim is the heartbeat and maybe even the conscience of folk/roots music in Cambridge, Boston, and New England. If you haven’t been to Passim, you will soon, and you’ll be happy you did. (Barnstar! at Passim. Image courtesy of www.passim.org) Vibe. What to expect? This is a listening room. You go there to listen, really listen. It’s the only open mic I have ever been to that is pin-drop quiet. There are tables set up for the
Venue Highlight: The Red Room at Cafe 939 (Boston, MA) Featured Venue Lifestyle by Brian Carroll - January 26, 2016January 13, 20170 Located in the heart of Back Bay, The Red Room at Cafe 939 is Berklee’s state-of-the-art all-ages venue. Embracing nearly all styles of music, from rock, jazz, folk, and world music to bluegrass, hip-hop, avant-garde, and more, the Red Room at Cafe 939 is a 200-capacity club dedicated to showcasing, developing, and supporting music and performance. Bathed in a red glow and hidden in an otherwise residential looking building on Boylston, gives the venue an almost secretive, “I am in on something special no one else knows about” feeling to the shows there. Holly McGarry (guitar, banjo, and vocals for the band Honeysuckle) gives us the low down on the venue… https://www.berklee.edu/red-room-cafe-939 (photo courtesy of venue website) The “Vibe”. What to expect: The