Tell me about Boston's good old days

July 9, 2011 9:15 AM

I'm writing a book and want to include a scene set in the mid-1990s in Boston. I'm looking for articles, blog posts, photos and books that capture that era. Things that talk about specific bars, clubs and restaurants would be perfect. The main character is a college kid who visits Boston and is taken around to all the "cool" spots by a local girl he meets randomly.
posted by haqspan to media & arts (13 answers total)

My favorite bar 1990-1995 was the right next to the Rathskeller (a.k.a. The Rat) in Kenmore Square, near what was then called the BU Bookstore. It was down a few steps from street level, kind of dark, and had an amazing beer menu. Probably a few hundred beers available.

The Rat was a live music venue, which I never went to... but the bar next door was awesome. I don't remember the name.
posted by kdern at 9:19 AM on July 9, 2011

I've seen this AskMe and this one, but neither really hits the spot.
posted by haqspan at 9:19 AM on July 9, 2011

Deli Haus! The Rat! IHOP! All were part of Kenmore Square's good ole days.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:27 AM on July 9, 2011

Seems like you'd get a lot out of archives or microfiche of the Boston Phoenix. I was a college student there from '90-'95, and my impression was that there were a lot of little "scenes" that had their own hangouts. So your specifics may depend on the character you're writing and what scene(s) she belonged to.

Some details I remember from that time (memail me with questions, if you like):

The Channel for hardcore, ska, reggae shows
Axis club for dancing, electro, industrial
The Model cafe in Allston (bar)
Paradise rock club for indie rock/shoegaze
WFNX, WZBC (esp the overnight show "no commercial potential")
The Other Side cafe on Newbury Street for vegetarian food and hippies
The gargoyle store on Newbury with dead leaves all over the floor and a broken angel wing (from a statue) in a glass case
Weird shop called Flyrabbit in Allston -- sold Day of the Dead stuff and small taxidermy and other odd things
Buying used clothes really early on weekend mornings at "dollar a pound" in Cambridge
posted by xo at 10:11 AM on July 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

Zadie Smith's On Beauty is set in a thinly-veiled Cambridge... I remember a lengthy passage in there about going to a show downstairs at The Middle East (she called it "The Bus Stop"), and there are some descriptions of other random parts of the city.

xo beat me to it, but you can get back issues of the Boston Phoenix on microfiche at the BPL. Not sure if you can get The Improper Bostonian too, but I know they were publishing all through the 90's. (That mag is a little more society-ish than cool-hangout-ish, but that might be the scene you're looking for.)

College newspapers from the era could get you some ideas, too -- or at least more names of shops and clubs to help you narrow down. The Crimson has good archives online.

I agree that the "cool spots" at that time were very dependent on what you were into.
posted by ann_disaster at 10:26 AM on July 9, 2011

I thought the original Newbury Comics was pretty cool, but I'm a nerd. Great for getting swag and music I had never heard of or didn't know existed. I'm a kid of the late-80's/early 90's. If it's any help, by hearsay, the story goes that when the store transitioned from comics to music, and branched out, the original owners require all the stores to carry the top 100 comics every month. But it's hearsay, I can't point to any backup.

And not for nothing, people lived and died in the streets of Boston, and a cool local girl might appreciate that. At the least, I think she'd appreciate the grasshopper on Faneuil Hall. (Scroll down)
posted by CarlRossi at 10:42 AM on July 9, 2011

Let's not forget: Greenday's free concert was shut down in 15 minutes. Manray was probably at its peak for hell night. Between Newbury Street and Harvard Square you would pass at least five used/rare CD stores....
posted by Nanukthedog at 10:52 AM on July 9, 2011

Here's a Yelp thread "Talk Boston: What do you miss?" that hits a lot of notes (though not all of them mid-90s). Cornwall's is probably the bar kdern remembers. If we're fixating on Kenmore Square, Mr. Butch (1., 2., 3.) was the king. Captain Nemo's for pizza. Bertha Cool sold vintage clothes upstairs, and few doors down Nuggets (still there!) was the spot for music. Major clubs in the area were The Rat, Avalon, Axis, Spit, Man-Ray, The Middle East, TT's, The Channel, Bunratty's The Paradise, others... (these may pre-date the 90s while dating me at the same time).

I agree that the Phoenix is/was the publication to read. Wikipedia has a listing for Boston hardcore, which also lists "scenes and venues." I also recommend trawling flickr for images. Advanced search allows you to bracket by dates (this will depend on people scanning and uploading old photos, but can yield some real finds). Here's Boston 1989-1999, and Cambridge 1989-1999. Feel free to memail me for more. I was there 1986-1995.
posted by Yoshimi Battles at 11:07 AM on July 9, 2011

The Napoleon Club--maybe she had a lot of gay friends.
posted by Ideefixe at 11:11 AM on July 9, 2011

Buddenbrooks on Boylston had a cat who liked to jump off the top of the bookcases.
posted by brujita at 11:40 AM on July 9, 2011

The Model was pronounced the mo-DELL, by the way, at least by the people I drank with there.

I worked at the dollar a pound clothing store, which was the Garment District (aka the Garbage District). I also worked at the Coolidge Corner, a very cool theater in Brookline.

Peformance Art Night at the Green Street Loft in JP.

Eating at the Eatery in Chinatown.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:41 PM on July 9, 2011

What kind of cool are you looking for, by the way? No one person would have enjoyed all the things we've listed.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:43 PM on July 9, 2011

Mod Night was on Wednesday nights at a bar I can't remember.
posted by Jagz-Mario at 10:27 PM on July 9, 2011