Boston, Dennis DeYoung
This event is in the past
Sat., July 2, 7:30 p.m. 2016
Moda Center
Lloyd District (Portland)
$35 - $70
In the late '70s, the debut album of a mysterious group called Boston began to grow like a pervasive fungus, materializing in people's record collections and on radio playlists with no precedent or explanation. The story behind the recording of 1976's Boston is actually pretty remarkable—guitarist/mastermind Tom Scholz was paid to replicate his demos at an expensive LA studio, but he actually just re-recorded them in his Massachusetts basement and the record company was none the wiser. It's ironic, then, that the homespun origins of songs like "More Than a Feeling" and "Foreplay/Long Time" went on to inspire a very slick, studio-made variety of major-label rock music, rich in overdubs, guitarmonies, and hilariously doofy shrieking male vocals. Boston's cultural footprint, at one point, was huge, spawning hair metal in the '80s and the nouveau buttrock of Weezer and Smashing Pumpkins in the '90s. Nowadays, in addition to the occasional rock block, Boston's music can be heard on the soundtrack of Adam Sandler movies. Tonight, Scholz and some other people stop through Portland to celebrate the 40th anniversary of that basement-recorded blockbuster. Parking is $15. NED LANNAMANN