Wed. March 17

KISS is the greatest marketing machine the rock world has ever known. I glimpsed this back in the mid-'70s when I first saw KISS live, bought the "Love Gun" album, with its cardboard gun and its groan of a metaphor. At the time, I was a young semi-rebellious teen in the pre-punk era and KISS served up horror movie spectacle and god of thunder rock - plus an anthem about getting buzzed on gin, which I could relate to. I first met the guys in the band in 1976, doing a feature on them for a long-defunct music magazine called Sweet Potato. It was my first run-in and I mean that in a good way. I didn't ask patronizing questions and they didn't give pat answers. KISS - especially bassist Gene Simmons - was pretty upfront about the desire to make money. Hey, he was living in a material world and he was a material boy. Simmons was a big captialist and a big hedonist. Oh, there were lots of things we didn't know, things that later came out in his bio, like he was born in Haifa, Israel and named Chaim Witz a lot about his attitude toward women, which couldn't help make you wince. And the anti-drink and drug attitude he and co-frontman singer-guitairst Paul Stanley have always had. I'm not so sure if it was a demand for mental clarity or the knowledge that being messed up might lead you to make business mistakes and let the opportunity to license a KISS doll pass you by - or worse, agree to have it made and not get enough of a cut.

Saturdays

First, there is the smell.Familiar. Intoxicating. Some say ED-preventing.Then, just when you can barely take anymore, a smiling head pops through the door - “Anybody want some chocolate?”
 
Welcome to two-and-a-half hours of educational heaven, aka the Taste of Chocolate Workshop.
 
Run by the folks who have been bringing the legendary Mystery Café to Boston and beyond for years and hosted in the Elephant and Castle Pub in Downtown Boston (the same site as one of the most popular Mystery Café dinners), the Workshop tells you perhaps more than you ever wanted to know about chocolate (pretty much right down to the molecular level) and then lets you get into it up to your wrists (at least) through a hands-on truffle-making party.

Fri. March 12

It's been 55 years since jazz great Charlie "Bird" Parker left this mortal coil. To the day. Has his groundbreaking reputation diminished? We'd say not. What wouldn't we give for a chance to see him live? Jeff Robinson - playwrite, actor and saxophonist - no doubt thought about these things when he wrote "Live Bird," a one-man play about Parker. It's at The Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, one night only, Friday March 12 at 8.

The play is set in a bar in Harlem where Bird reminisces about his life and music and plays some of his own tunes.  Robinson researched the play in Parker's old neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri. In Jazzis magazine Ed Hazell wrote: "Everyone's agreed on what Charlie Parker did for jazz.  The arguments start when anyone talks about who he was.  But there's a remarkable consensus - even among people who knew the alto saxophonist - that Live Bird, Boston-based Jeff Robinson's one man play about Parker gets him right."

Fri. March 12 -Wed. March 17

It's a St. Paddy's Day tradition: The Dropkick Murphys play to packed houses on Lansdowne Street.  Maybe a dozen or so years ago, there was some skepticism about Dropkick Murphys. Ok, hometown Celtic/punk modeled on the Pogues, but concerning issues not of England or Ireland, but the local environs. Could work. But, derivative, you know. Well, any thoughts like that have been blown away partially because the Murphys have become huge locally and internationally and they so credit the Pogues. For their part, the Pogues return the favor by saying the Murphys constant name-dropping helped revive their band and helped them develop a new audience. Also: the Murphys are more of a punk band with a Celtic flavor and the Pogues tip the scales the other way. Plus the Pogues Shane MacGowan has sung with the Murphys on a record.

The Murphys are back on Lansdowne Street Fri. March 12 - Wed. March 17 - seven shows in six days at the House of Blues. I did an interview with Ken Casey ffor the Boston Phoenix on last year's skein and amended and added to it here. I also reviewed one of the shows and have an edited version of that, too.

 Review:  If Dennis Lehane has a rock ‘n’ roll equivalent, it’s Dropkick Murphys. And just as Lehane, author of “Mystic River” and “The Given Day.” deserves his props, so do the Murphys, the 14-year-old Celtic punk band. Has there ever been a more parochial rock entity? And we don’t just mean the Red Sox-and Bruins-identified anthems, “Tessie” and “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” – although those were obvious highlights of their hour-and-45 minute set.

Fri. March 12 & Fri. March 26

It's my theory that no female solo singer has a last name anymore. Or if it's a last name it's, like, Gaga. So bothersome. It is that universe that French-born, Berklee-schooled singer-songwriter Violette appears. She's mixes jazz, funk and soul; her heroes include Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald. She also sings, mostly,in English. Violtte - who plays the Stork Club Fridays March 12 and 26, has just released her second album, "Joie de Vivre." We'll turn further informing over Michael Diamond, a San Francisco based musician and writer: "The title of this, Violette’s second CD, is most appropriate and harkens back to her first 'official' commendation – the 'Joie de Vivre' award she won in kindergarten while still living in her native country of France. Translated as “Joy of Living”, a quality that is reflected in her music to this day. The title song opens with the sound of children’s laughter as it moves into a jazzy vibe and Violette’s buoyant voice scarcely able to contain the “joie” within. Multi-tracked vocals on the chorus lift the song up to another level altogether...