FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 21st
"Aftermarket Ways" Release show Friday September 21st @ The Lowell Elks- Check out our music section to hear some songs.
Lowell, Massachusetts' homegrown punk rock heroes Piracy did something amazing during their live set on WERS: They got Neil Young played on Radiobeat. I mean nothing against the man himself—the Canadian-born classic-rock folkster has written a good share of the protest songs progressive Americans count as classics—but he wouldn't exactly fit well on 88.9's Saturday night ode to punk and hardcore, in between songs by the Circle Jerks and the Hope Conspiracy.But you have to hand it to Piracy for accomplishing that very feat. The band regularly performs a rousing punk-rock-n-roll cover of Neil Young's "Ohio", and did so during their live set as well. The song itself just couldn't be a Neil Young song the way Piracy plays it, and the resulting tune epitomizes the band's sound: Pure, unadulterated rabble-rousing punk-rock, the way Joe Strummer envisioned it (minus the reggae). Four chords, three minutes, and choruses, choruses, choruses. Piracy's choruses, rough and anthemic punk rock shout-alongs that Rancid only wishes they could still pull off, could shatter glass if you had enough people singing along. Scratch that. How about completely decimate a six-foot pyramid of crystal wine glasses with a baseball bat? That gives you a bit of an idea.Maybe that's why the band has been so comfortable in their native Lowell. First of all, they play a style of punk that transcends the bloated concept of "style" altogether. Piracy plays punk. Just punk. It's a rock-n-roll harkening back to the genre's purest form. This speaks to the kids of the area, the true-blue adolescents punk rock has forever been intended for, without all that big city pretentiousness that seems to pervade punk and hardcore more and more everyday. And the band has done this for years. Literally. When asked how long they have been together, no one can give a straight answer. "I don't know," says guitarist/vocalist Kevin. "A long time. Years." Added to that, Piracy's live set on Radiobeat is the first time the band has played in the metro Boston area.But to say the band is simply "comfortable" is a bit off the point. In essence, they're thriving. They have never wanted anything more than to keep their scene alive, the type of small-town scene that keeps the entire spirit of punk alive and well. "It's essentially horrible," says Kevin of the state of the Lowell and northshore punk communities. "There are plenty of kids who want to go to shows, who like punk. But in our area, all the places to play and have shows have gotten shut down."The Sugar Shack for example," drummer Dan chimes in. "That place shut down after our first two shows." The band now goes about listing the nearly dozens of venues that have sprung up and folded just as quickly, and something becomes clear: Venues come and go. Money and cops are usually the culprits. But the spirit remains. It's a cyclical thing, and Piracy is making sure it stays that way. Right now, the 119 Gallery, an art gallery in Lowell that holds weekly all ages punk shows, is thriving. Also, in Gloucester, a community art center called the Artspace hosts shows pretty regularly.The level of success of the individual events varies, but that rarely matters. The point is that they are there, and they are working steadily. Besides, Piracy's answer to why they started playing music in the first place seems to put things in perspective: "We just wanted to have fun," Kevin says. "That's it, that's the answer.-Jon Meyer
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