Billy Ruane - Boston's Legendary Promoter - Dead at 52

What can one say about Boston music promotion legend Billy Ruane? 

More than 20 years ago Ruane was the visionary to approach Cambridge's Middle East Restaurant and assure them he could fill their back room - currently stuffed with bellydancers - with admission paying, hard drinking rockers instead.  It is hard to imagine now, a Boston music scene sans the rise of this surprising independent venue outside of the grasp of Don Law. Initially Ruane's booking strategy often saw him putting up his own money to nab high profile shows away from other venues, and on occasion when things turned ugly, paying off troublemaking concertgoers to leave the venue!  With a heady mix of fandom and a dash of actual insanity, Ruane was the ultimate promoter, dancing, drinking and throwing himself on and off the stage during the myriad shows he booked and attended.  In the 1990's he seemed the very spirit of 'the scene'.

While his importance in the history of the Boston music scene is without question, he remained to the end as he ever was.  I saw him out on two occasions in the past month, once at a Muck and the Mires show at Precinct, and the other at the Green Street Grill, enjoying a glass of wine and raving about the sweetbreads special.  Each time I was greeted with the usual sloppy kiss, an impassioned stare, and the question "What are you doing now?"  A question for us all to answer as his passing reminds us how unexpectedly short life can be.

Lyres and Mires - If This Boat's A'-Rocking...

It's not often enough that I'm given an opportunity to spend a weeknight on the high seas with legendary garage rockers, but that's just how two Wednesdays ago ended up, as I found myself on a free harbor cruise sponsored by the good folks at Pabst Blue Ribbon. The beer was free, the bands were free, the three hour tour was free, what's not to like?

Arriving at the dock (?!) at around 7 to ensure our spot for the 7:30 departure, the slip (again - when do I ever use these words on this blog?) was filled with other aging rockers as well as some twentysomethings, signed up for the free event by Yelp.com. The aging ones (some of who had planned to spend this night with a re-formed Vanilla Fudge at the Kowloon, only to have the show canceled at the last minute) were having second thoughts about being stuck on a boat for 3 hours. And shortly after boarding, I found myself asking where certain people disappeared to. Apparently afraid of us encountering the same fate as the Gilligan's Island castaways, they decided at the last minute not to board. To be fair though, their concerns were only half-right because the boat itself was quite modern and pleasant. It had 3 decks, two enclosed and one open to the fall night. So you could either sit in the indoor bar (deck 1), the indoor venue (middle deck), or go out on the roof to have a smoke or chat by moonlight. This meant that you were not stuck in a loud venue if you didn't want to be, and if you are my beau Ethan, you can smoke all the cigars you want on the roofdeck.

Shortly after departing the landlubbing world, Muck and the Mires were slamming it out to sailing set, and even played my request (see video below) for my favorite song: "All I Really Wanna Do Is Cry". You'd think there would be a bunch of problems playing on a boat - seasickness, giant squid attacks, etc. - but the evening went off without much of a hitch, save the boat crew's idea to set up the bands behind the stairways from Deck 1, so it was hard to actually stand close to the bands without standing on their toes.



Also, this was the first time I got to see garage rock legends The Lyres. The set led with "How Do You Know" and continued on with a parade of songs I forgot I knew like "Help You Ann" (see video below) and "Don't Give It Up Now". Apparently 25 years of practice can make perfect - energy was high and nary a note was missed.



Oh wait, when I said "What's not to like?"... did I mention the part about it being 3 hours?

It's about 10:00 when I'm on Deck 1, chatting to Mr. Muck, and I point out the time. He releases a horrified gasp "Oh no, it can't be! It has to be later than that!" But sadly I was right, we all still had an hour left on the boat, an hour which had little music left to fill it, and a whole lotta of being ready to go home. I ascended the stairs to the roofdeck to find my beau pointing out the boat was coming into harbor now, only to have his comments thwarted as the boat turned to chug Northward to Charlestown "TURN AROUND! STOP!" many of my amis full of free PBR bellowed, but the boat crew were intent on giving us our money's worth and the tour continued right up till 11PM. Yawn.