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Jim has covered Boston arts and events since 1978. In addition to this column, JimSullivanInk, he is a freelance columnist for the likes of the Boston Phoenix, the Christian Science Monitor, Search Boston and Hall of Fame Magazine.

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Critic's picks I do for WBUR's Radio Boston

Nov 30, 2011 at 12:00 AM

Here are this week's critic's tips for Radio Boston, Animal Hospital Ensemble, Greil Marcus reading (tonight, Harvard Book Store) and The Slutcracker

http://radioboston.wbur.org/2011/12/01/weekend-picks-3

Bob Seger's Final Lap? One More Spin at DCU Center

Nov 29, 2011 at 12:00 AM

Tues. Nov. 29

Nostalgia is Bob Seger’s calling card. It’s not exactly a new arrow in his quiver. He was pushing it 35 years ago with “Night Moves” and “Rock and Roll Never Forgets,” and dinged a bell in mainstream America in 1978 with “Old Time Rock & Roll.” It was here that Seger declared that “today’s music ain’t got the same soul.”
    Away from the road for four years, he’s back on tour with that same message, churning out his brand of upbeat and/or wistful old-time rock ‘n’ roll. Seger, 67, played a two-hour-plus concert in April with his 13-piece Silver Bullet Band at the soldout TD Banknorth Garden. The results were mixed. He returns to the Bay State, Tuesday Nov. 29 at the DCU Center at 7:30. (This is culled from a review I did for the Boston Herald.)
    The blue-collar, heartland rocker has hinted this may be his final lap, recently telling his hometown paper the Detroit News, that “it’s time to go away and let the younger people take over.” Seger released his last album of new material, “Face the Promise,” in 2006, after an 11-year gap. He’s got a new single, Tom Waits’ “Downtown Train” (which he recorded in 1989, but didn’t release) and he is working on an album.
    Not surprisingly, Seger – who sang and played acoustic guitar and piano - stacked the two sets with tunes from his mid-‘70s/early-‘80s heyday, which meant you felt nostalgic about nostalgia.

Buffalo Tom: Rockin' in the 21st Century. A Celebration at Brighton Music Hall

Nov 27, 2011 at 12:00 AM

Sun. Nov. 27

Last call! Generally, here at JSInk we're not into re-posting. But as we were starting to think about Buffalo Tom's three-night celebration of 25 years - not exactly consecutive years - in the rock world - at Brighton Music Hall Friday Nov. 25 - Sunday Nov. 27, we came across Buf Tom singer-guitarist Bill Janovitz's semi-memoir in this week's Phoenix, a mag I've contributed to now and again. So, we reached out to Bill and said, in effect, by all means, re-post ... so that we are doing. So here's Bill on the post-punk Boston band that was and is ...

I recall one night in the late '80s, standing in the crowd at T.T. the Bear's during one of the many Volcano Suns shows I had witnessed over my then-relatively-short club-going career — the commencement of nearly 30 years I'll never get back as a lounge lizard in rock clubs, bars, and pubs.
Buffalo Tom was on its way up. But back then, the farthest imaginable point "up" for a band like us was to be able to tour the States and Europe, maybe headlining places like the Channel or even, in our wildest dreams, the Orpheum. This was P.N. (pre-Nirvana), after all. We were beginning to see the more modest of these dreams come true, only maybe a year out from being able finally to headline T.T.'s — an honor which was only bestowed upon us after years of calling and begging T.T.'s owner Bonnie Bouley, and after headlining our own tour of similar-sized and larger clubs in Europe. Boston clubs back then were more plentiful, but there was also plenty of talent and the club scene was very competitive.

Ray Davies: Kinks Songs and More with The Dessoff Chamber Choir at the Wilbur

Nov 23, 2011 at 12:00 AM

Wed. Nov. 23

Ray Davies could take it easy, could rest on his laurels. His body of work with the Kinks ranks with any of his peers - the Who, the Stones, the Beatles. Davies and his bandmates are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and he’s revered by other musicians from Bruce Springsteen to Paul Weller to Noel Gallagher to Mumford & Sons.

At 67, Davies is not as limber as he was in his youth, when he did jumping jack Ray Davies s on stage during Kinks concerts. In 2004, a robber in New Orleans shot him in the leg. Last year, blood clots were found in his lungs and Davies had to scrap a US tour on doctor’s orders.

But in June, he curated a huge, multi-band London festival called Meltdown. He wrote a school musical, "Child’s Play," that was staged in September. He has been working on a Kinks bio-pic with director Julien Temple, and a separate Kinks musical. He has nearly completed a memoir.

Davies has been penning new tunes, which he called "the simplest songs I’ve ever written – not Neanderthal, but simple emotions that are very strong." He hopes to record at the end of the year.

And, right now, he is back on the road, playing the Wilbur Theatre Wednesday Nov. 23. He’s not just with his four-piece English rock band, the Other People, but also New York’s 48-member Dessoff Chamber Choir. It’s near the end of a 21-gig tour, one of eight with the Choir.

Why is Davies so ambitious now?

"You get the sense that you don’t have too much time to do all the things you want to do," said Davies on the phone from his North London home, before the tour started. "There’s definitely a feeling of ‘How many more times do I have to do this?’ and ‘Do I want to be there?’ But that is the nature of what I do. I’m a bit of a high achiever and I try things that are a little bit outrageous sometimes. I think it’s the fulfillment of a lot of ideas I have and ambitions I have for my music. I’ve been told I’ve got to cut back, but I’ve never been one to play it safe."