Boston Hardcore - Venues

Venues

The following Boston venues have hosted hardcore concerts:

• 1st and 2nd Church - Marlboro Street
• The (Fishtown) Are -
• Avalon - Located on Lansdowne Street next to Axis, and was prime location for many bands. It generally served as a night club on weeknights, but on weekends hosted more rock-oriented artists. Became The House or Blues Boston.
• Anchors Up! - An independent, all ages venue in Haverhill catering mainly to punk and hardcore shows. Located at 58 River St in Haverhill, MA.
• Axis - A night club that would host the occasional hardcore band.
• Baby Safe Haven - Basement space in Somerville.
• Bill's Bar - A bar on Lansdowne Street with cheap beer where bands will sometimes play. It is in contrast to the huge dance clubs that surround it.
• Bloodstains across Somerville -
• Brighton Elks - Late 90s venue in Brighton Center
• Brown Town - Punk house in Allston with basement shows
• Bunnratty’s/Local 186 - Now The Wonder Bar on Harvard Ave in Allston
• The Butcher Shoppe - Basement space in Allston
• Cantone's
• Cambridge Elks Lodge - A hall which has been known to host some of the greatest hardcore and punk shows in the area. Booking has slowed down substantially (updated Aug. 2011)
• Castle Grayskull -
• The Channel - One of Boston's earliest locations that would allow hardcore bands to play. The Club would headline local bands such as Gang Green, Slapshot and The F.U.s as well as out of state bands like Butthole Surfers, Gorilla Biscuits, Pantera, Waltham, Fugazi, Hüsker Dü and The Dead Boys. It was well known for its mosh pit.
• The Club - Central Square, Cambridge.
• Club Lido - One of the larger spots to do all ages shows, Lido has hosted both Edge Day 2009 as well as the recent DYS/Gallery East Reunion in 2010.
• The Cuntree Club - All-female punk house in Brookline, MA, bar in basement and shows happened most weekends.
• The Democracy Center - Located right outside of Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA. DIY spot that holds shows regularly.
• Evacuate - Warehouse space in Roxbury.
• Feed Your Head - The basement of this independent bookstore in Salem, Massachusetts is the center of the North Shore punk scene. It opened right before the Artspace closed, and the basement is generally booked about twice a week. Closed late 2007.
• Fort Fuck Awesome -
• Gallery East - Art Gallery by day, venue for all-ages shows in the early '80s, it was demolished during the gentrification of the leather district by South Station.
• Great Scott - Small nightclub that has a few metal and hardcore shows. Usually are 18+.
• Green Street Station - Venue in Jamaica Plain was dirty and rickety with cheap beer and great local bands now closed.
• The Handsome Mansion - A basement space in Brighton, MA, near Charlie's Pizza and Bottled Liquors, it was a local spot for local bands as well as bigger bands to play.
• Harpers Ferry
• The House of Suffering Succotash (HOSS) - Raging house venue in Boston's Brighton neighborhood that provided a home for hardcore and way beyond.
• The ICC (International Community Church) - As of spring 2012 it is closed. Hoping to have shows in the future though.
• Johnny D's
• Karma Club -
• The Kells Basement - on Brighton Ave in Allston
• The Library -
• MassArt"
• Media Workshop -
• The Middle East - Located in Central Square Cambridge they have two venues Middle East upstairs a smaller venue and Middle East Downstairs a larger venue.
• The Movie Loft/Big Cat Lounge - Current basement space in Allston.
• O'Briens Pub
• The Palladium - Worcester, MA
• The Paradise - not to be confused with the gay bar in Central Square (Cambridge), this venue is on Comm. Ave. in Boston, and—like Axis—is also a dance club.
• The Rat - Located in Kenmore Square. In the basement was a rathskeller bar where the music was loud and the sweating concrete floors were always sticky and smelled of stale beer. The bathrooms were quite often frankly terrifying to those that needed to actually use them for purposes more in-depth than re-applying eyeliner (for perspective, The Rat has most often been compared to CBGBs). Many bands got their start at the Rat and it had one of the best jukeboxes in Boston. If a band did not play there they would wind up there for beers later. The club flooded in 1997 during torrential rains and was closed soon after.
• Reflections
• Romans (Tigers Den) - A bar in Brockton with a second floor with a stage. "so small it's like dancing in a closet"
• The Roxy
• "'Rugg Road Studios""
• Scraphouse: April 2007 - July 2007 (aka Cuntree Club) No longer !
• St. Jean's Church -- hosted by Seth Putnam, and the venue itself later made infamous by defrocked priest Paul Shanley.
• Thunderdome//Vomitorium somerville basement venue short lived but incredibly chaotic TWO MEN ENTER ONE MAN LEAVES TWO MEN ENTER ONE MAN LEAVES
• T.T. The Bear's Place
• YWCA - The basement. 1982 Freeze, COC, 6 ft Under. Skinheads showed up and the security detail left.
• TUMC - Basement. 2335 Main Street, Tewksbury
• X-Haus - Basement on Mission Hill, active 2001-2002. No drugs or drinking was strictly enforced, though residents were not always straight edge.
• QVCC - Greenwood Street, Worcester, MA - Was thought to have been closed, but there recently was a Slapshot show held there in March 2012.