There’s been a whole lotta nostalgia in rock and roll lately, and we’re not entirely sure it’s a good thing. Bands like Guns N’ Roses and Dokken have reformed their so-called “classic lineups”, legendary acts are playing a lineup game of musical chairs (Axl Rose with AC/DC, Tom Hamilton with Thin Lizzy), and there’s a great big party in the desert this September that’s sending office death pools into overdrive.
Boston-born, Vegas-based Crash Midnight have been pushing forward for the past few years, proving the hard rock game isn’t a senior citizen cash-grab. Today, they take a brief look back at one of Boson’s most notorious neighborhoods in “Roxy”, their own whiskey-fueled ode to the long-lost Combat Zone.
“I was living down there a few years back and started really getting into learning more about the history of the area,” says Crash Midnight frontman Shaun Soho. “It’s crazy how much they’ve cleaned the place up. Aside from a couple holdover strip clubs and your random ‘rub n’ tug,’ you’d never know what used go down out there back in the day — especially looking at all the Starbucks and luxury high-rise apartments on every corner these days.”
Memories of the Combat Zone, which connected the Theatre District, Chinatown, and parts of the Leather District, can now only be found in grainy posts from Dirty Old Boston and the incredible photos from the great Jerry Berndt and John Goodman. But the Crash Midnight track, another rollicking romp of bullshit-free rock and roll, serves as a nice reminder for all the students feeling safe at night.
“I wanted to do a song that let people in on a little history of the place — and especially all the pretentious young grad students living there now,” says Soho. “You know, give them something to think about as they throw daddy’s money around trying to convince one another how cool they are. Like that Johnny Thunders reference, ‘you should get to know your town just like I know mine.'”
Produced by Steve Thompson (Metallica, Prince, David Bowie, Guns ‘N’ Roses), “Roxy” is the first track off Crash Midnight’s re-issued Lost In The City LP, which finally gets a proper release later this year. Check out the video below, and click here to get the new Crash Midnight app via the App Store and Google Play, which will keep the boys locked into all your dirty deeds.
UPDATE: May 31, 3:43pm EST: The initial video has disappeared from YouTube, probably due to its nudity. The NSFW original can be accessed by heading over to the Crash Midnight site, while a cleaned-up clip has been made available: