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In This Spiffed-Up Basement, Garage Doesn't Play If most Boston clubs are too sleek and spiffy for your taste, Jacques Underground is ready to serve you. It's a cleaned-up version of what used to be there, but is still not going to be confused with upscale retreats like La Boom or Caprice. It's a gritty, stripped-down rock club - Boston's answer to Somerville's ever-funky Abbey Lounge. "This could be a happening place," said patron Paul Myers, a local musician who attended the club's Saturday opening last month. It's directly under the famed gay cabaret Jacques, but is aimed at a different crowd - a rock crowd that has largely felt disenfranchised since Boston venues such as the Rathskellar and the Channel have closed. Located in Bay Village on the edge of the Theater District, Jacques Underground looks like a working-class bar, but with a bohemian feel. The sparse, wrap-around bar counter could be Anywhere, USA, but then you notice little flourishes like upside-down lampshades on the ceiling lights, and dark, loft-like couches in the back. The underground space is small (117 capacity) and the ceilings are pretty low, but the new sound system makes the place seem bigger. In front of the stage is an informal dance area. The decor is a solid improvement from past days when various punk and garage-rock bands played the room. "We want to get headliners who will bring in their own opening acts," says John Surette, booking person, who also performs in the band The DeNiros. "We want the musicians and their crowds to hang out with each other. When you go to a place like T.T. the Bear's, you might see three bands on a bill, but they often don't know each other, so they hang around with their separate cliques. We don't want that." The act playing when I stopped by was the Electrolytes, a singing trio backed by a band that included members of the Boston Rock Opera. The group did festive versions of vintage crowd-pleasers such as "River Deep - Mountain High" (a hit for the Supremes and the Four Tops in 1970) and "Venus," a No. 1 hit for Dutch pop group the Shocking Blue in 1969. The Electrolytes return to sing Saturday; the Collisions perform tomorrow. The crowd that I encountered ranged from T-shirted rock males of various ages, to some uptown women in evening dresses who clearly seemed to be slumming it for the night. It was an interesting hodgepodge, but very friendly. To enter Jacques Underground, you pay a cover charge ($7
on a recent Saturday) at the main-floor cabaret (which features some of
the most exotic creatures in town), then go downstairs to the rock club.
It's a fun walk on the wild side. |