Today marks one year since the passing of David Mirabella, frontman of The Rationales and all-around staple of the Boston music scene, whether he was performing or catching a show. It was at those gigs where he soaked in the catalogs of the artists he loved and admired, watching them sing their songs. Now, it’s time to celebrate the songs that made Dave sing.
Saturday night (April 29) at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, friends, family, fans and former bandmates of Mirabella will gather to play the music he left us and carry on his memory. The Rationales, OldJack and Other Brother Darryl — the band Dave was in when he passed — will all do a set. Advance tickets are sold out, but there will be a limited number available at the door.
“A few of us had been talking about setting something up for a while,” Mike Mirabella, Dave’s younger brother and Rationales’ drummer tells Vanyaland. “We had the ‘Celebration of Life’ for Dave back in August, but we felt it was important to plan an event to really celebrate his music.”
Mike had gone to Lizard Lounge a few months back to see OldJack and chatted up their singer, Dan Nicklin, about putting something together to properly acknowledge all the great music Dave made over the years, from the decade and a half of the Rationales and beyond.
“[We thought] it would be nice get together in a room with all who loved him and play the songs we were lucky enough to play and or write with him,” Mike says. “It will be an emotional night but hopefully healing in a lot of ways.”
Making things even more emotional than they are already bound to be Saturday, Mike will be stepping into the lead singer role for The Rationales. It wasn’t planned that way, but after waking one day with a pinched nerve that had his arm all screwy during rehearsals, it was decided to bring in Airport’s Paul Gallo to sit behind the kit while Mike moved up front.
“Getting to play drums on these songs would have probably been enough, but taking on Dave’s vocals has been much more fulfilling overall,” Mike says. “It has become my way to pay a little more of a direct tribute to him and it’s proving to be very cathartic. Also, that guy could really sing, so he didn’t make it easy for me.”
Even his most casual of friends can likely point to numerous occasions of seeing Dave around town at shows, always with an inviting smile and warm embrace. And if you didn’t know him, it wouldn’t take long before you felt his impact – it was just the effect he had.
“We used to joke around that David Mirabella was the nicest guy in Boston,” Mike says. “Thing is, it’s kind of true. He had a lot of love in his heart for those who loved him. Every person who knew Dave has their own story or little memory about how he touched their life in some way. That is a legacy we all could all hope to reach.”
Speaking of legacy, Mike says that while the focus right now is squarely on Lizard Lounge tomorrow, he can see more of them in the future.
“David wrote so many great songs, he had so many favorite artists, and he had so many close friends who would love to be involved in events like these. There is a lot of room to do more. But for now, It’s all about Saturday.”
THE SONGS THAT MADE DAVE SING: A CELEBRATION: FEATURING THE RATIONALES & FRIENDS + OLDJACK + OTHER BROTHER DARRYL :: Saturday, April 29 at Lizard Lounge, 1667 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, MA :: 8 p.m., 21-plus, $20 :: Event info :: Advance Tickets
