Keep On Rockin' In the Seacoast

One of the first things I did when I moved to Dover, NH, in August 1988, was go to a bar in nearby Portsmouth to see Ed's Redeeming Qualities. I loved their sloppy folk music -- created with ukelele, violin, acoustic guitars, and percussion consisting of rice in a coffee can -- and their funny, albeit sometimes poignant, lyrics. I also fell quickly in love with Portsmouth.

I don't recall the name of the bar where I saw the band, but it was intimate and inviting and felt like the right place to see such a humble, friendly and humorous band. The capital of New Hampshire's Seacoast region has numerous places like this, which helped to foster a music scene that's documented in the upcoming film, "In Danger of Being Discovered."

I saw Ed's Redeeming Qualities (ERQ) several more times over the next two years that I lived in the area (one year in Dover, one in York, ME, which is just a few exits up I-95 from Portsmouth), but never again in Portsmouth. I saw them a handful of times in Dover, at the Work Day Cafe (R.I.P.), and in Newmarket at the Stone Church, a venue that continues to put on shows.

The song for which ERQ was best known, perhaps, was "Lawn Dart," a laugh-out-loud ditty about a kid who "was pegged in the head with a lawn dart / so they're now off the shelves at the K-Mart." Here's the original lineup of ERQ, featuring Dom Leone (who died in 1989) on vocals:

ERQ gained a small bit of wider fame when The Breeders covered their song, "Drivin' on 9," on Last Splash. Again, here's the original lineup (I saw ERQ many years ago in Boston open for the fabulous Charlie Chesterman; ERQ replaced the late Leone with Jonah Winter, but in my mind, the band just wasn't the same without Dom):

ERQ was very popular in New Hampshire's Seacoast region in the late '80s and early '90s, and was a hit as well in Boston during that time. They appeared in a movie called "Ed's Next Move," and had several songs on the soundtrack. But they never landed a major label deal; I'm not sure if they were ever courted. I doubt they would have been interested in signing with a major if the offer were made.

Some of their contemporaries on the scene, however, did receive such attention.

According to the web site for "In Danger of Being Discovered," in 1993 the relatively small Seacoast region produced "at least five original rock bands [that] had major label interest or were independently selling 60,000 copies of their own CD's." I don't know exactly which bands are included on that list, but based on a quick viewing of the movie's trailer, my best guess is Gandhi's Lunchbox, Fly Spinach Fly, Thanks to Gravity, Groovechild, and Heavens to Murgatroid.

By 1993, I'd moved to Boston and didn't know all of these bands. I saw Gandhi's Lunchbox a handful of times and thought they were pretty good. I knew the guitarist, Chris Fortier, from college, as well as the band's singer, Tommy Colletta, because his previous band, Nervous Disorder, played once on a bill with my college band, The Toastmen.

I saw Fly Spinach Fly once or twice at house parties in Dover. They had a Red Hot Chili Peppers thing going on, with heavy grooves and a punk/metal feel, and two dancers called the Jimmies. The band formed after the break-up of Buzzards of May (I think that's the case. I know they were related somehow; it's been a long time, folks....), a band that I saw many times at Dover parties, and who played some killer Sabbath covers.

So although I wasn't part of the scene during its early '90s heyday, I was there for part of it, and was duly impressed.

In addition to the bands I've mentioned above who I saw and enjoyed, I want to say a few words about two other bands from my brief time on the fringe of the Seacoast scene. Bobhouse, for instance. I think I only saw them once, and I don't remember anything specific about their music. I recall vaguely that they were a little bit funky, a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll. I saw them at a party. I think it was in a barn.

The other band, The Dorks (or was it Dorx?), was my favorite on the scene. OK, once again I'm showing off my less-than-stellar memory. I saw them twice, I believe, once at a party, once at the aforementioned Stone Church. They were more punk than most of the bands on the scene, and that's about all I can remember.

When I think back on my brief but busy days of living in the area and seeing bands at house parties, clubs and barbecues, more than specific music, I think of an overall feeling of euphoria. Dover and Portsmouth are very small cities with lots of places to hear music and have a great time. I grew up in a small, rural town, where the bars mostly hosted cover bands or classic rock has-beens. I went to college in a place where the best music was on campus, because there wasn't much going on in town. So when I lived in the Seacoast area, I loved having so many cool places to hang out within walking or short-drive distance.

Oh, man, did I forget to mention The Murderers?

The weirdest and most amusing part of the scene was this band, comprised of a bunch of New Hampshire dudes masquerading as 1970s' British punks. Led by the inimitable Bob Murderer, the band slouched around Dover in leather jackets, jack boots, mohawks and tons of tattoos. One lineup of the band once backed the infamous GG Allin.

My memory is hazy, but I know I saw them play at least once, in a basement at a house party. They played prototypical British punk, hard, fast and sloppy and while somewhat menacing on stage, they were (or at least the bass player, Lenny, aka Larvae) pretty nice and funny guys when you were just drinking beer in a kitchen.

So there ya go, a little wrap up of a scene that I hadn't thought about much in recent years. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that both ERQ and The Murderers appear under assumed names in my collection of short stories, (C)rock Stories: Million-Dollar Tales of Music, Mayhem and Immaturity, which you can buy here.