2013 was a dry year for house shows in Boston. The cops were cracking down using their “totally punk and #notacop” alter egos on Facebook to find out where “all the cool punk concerts” were a lot. 2014 feels like a new vibe in the greater Boston area, and house shows are beginning to flourish again. Of all the bands to help bring this great feeling back, Parasol should be the one at the forefront with their anarchic yet melodic anthems for the struggling youth within the city limits. Their new album, Not There, is out now on Nervous Nelly Records, and they celebrated its release despite the snowstorm in a big way with Philly’s No Other and Boston’s own, Springsteen. Chelsea of Fleabite, who Lily of Parasol pointed out “wasn’t even playing the show,” provided the PA and some excellent Pini’s pizza for the crowd, probably knowing everyone would need a bit of motivation to travel through the storm for the show.
Springsteen started it off with their “so FUCKING relaxing” fuzzed out dream pop. If the basement of Fort Warner wasn’t so cold, everyone would have fallen into a dazed out pizza-induced sleep. If you can break a song down to its simplest form and still make it beautiful and relatable, you’ve done something more difficult than a shitty arena rock band worshipped by the masses. Springsteen does just this with their honest lyrics like, “tired of all this changing, but changing is nothing new.” This was their third show ever, and their music inspired the audience and brought them to a new level. I can’t even put my true feelings into words. It was just magical and so FUCKING relaxing. Guitar/vox Ali Donohue stated, “sorry if someone thought Bruce was playing a basement show,” but if anyone came to this show feeling bummed, then they totally missed the point.
[Insert review of Fake (Western MA punk feat. members of Blessed State and Potty Mouth) who sadly couldn’t make the show in the snowstorm]
No Other trekked all the way from Philly in this snowstorm. Take that all the bands that outright canceled their gigs in Boston Saturday night! The often-described Sleater-Kinney worshippers pretty much are just that, but they’ve got something Sleater-Kinney never possessed: their bassist Laura. I spent most of the set watching her fingers pluck out some of the funkiest bass groves I’ve heard from a punk act since seeing Cayetana last month at Great Scott. Their guitar work was masterful, toeing the line between twangy and fuzzy but bringing the riffs hard nonetheless. With fun drums keeping everything in pace, they made the gig well worth the drive.
Parasol has increased from a three-piece to a four-piece since the last time I saw them live. This is not hyperbole or me making some kind of dumb statement: Parasol is Boston’s savior of pop punk. They’re having fun and making amazing music, but they’re not fucking around. Parasol is here to make a difference.
Throughout the set, they mentioned Smash it Dead Fest, an annual music festival in Cambridge to benefit the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. This is one of the many pillars that Parasol supports, and it’s great to see musicians give back to the community that loves them.
The band performed most of the songs off of Not There, and some of the audience members (maybe just me oops) knew all the words to the songs already. They even played a newer than new song, and it’s great to see that Parasol is nowhere near stopping the punk. Every song is performed with fury as evident by the drumming style of Jake Bison. I watched as the veins in his biceps popped to the top of his skin while he pounded away fast and hard exactly in time.
If you think Parasol is the new band for you (you should), they’ll be playing another show this Friday at The Democracy Center in Harvard Square. It’s a benefit show for Smash it Dead Fest with Peeple Watchin’, Paths, Ivy Neff, and Crime & Punishment.
