This Sunday’s Boston Music Awards will be fun.
Artists like Josh Ritter, Peter Wolf and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones are contending for honors. Musicians, music lovers and industry hotshots will gather at the Liberty Hotel to hear the winners announced, dance, and raise money for music charities across New England.
They’ll hear performances by DOM, Jennie Dee & the Deelinquents, Mystery Roar, Kingsley Flood, Kon and many others I have (thankfully) never heard of.
But when the Remains take the stage, the place will party like it’s 1965.
The Remains then...
The band — featuring Westport natives Barry Tashian and Billy Briggs — will be inducted that night into the Boston Music Awards Hall of Fame. They join previous inductees like Carly Simon — musicians with Boston ties who have influenced the industry.
If you’ve never heard of the Remains — especially if you’ve never heard them — I feel sorry for you.
Formed at Boston University, they were — quite simply — America’s best rock band. Ever.
Jon Landau said they were “how you told a stranger about rock ‘n’ roll.”
Rock journalist Mark Kemp said if they had stayed together, “we might today be calling them — and not the Stones — the World’s Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band.”
That was the key. They broke up.
It was an unfortunate breakup — it happened right after they toured America with the Beatles, a bit after they performed on “Ed Sullivan” and “Hullabaloo” — and it took them decades to get back together.
But reunite they did, a few years ago. They were the subject of an off-Broadway show (“All Good Things”) and a documentary (“America’s Lost Band”).
...and now.
They’ve played concerts across North America and Europe, thrilling old fans and introducing new ones to the joys of kick-ass, hard-driving, rock-solid rock ‘n’ roll.
I’m sure some people will go the ceremony because of Josh Ritter and Peter Wolf. Others will want to see Jennie Dee & the Deelinquents, Mystery Roar or Kingsley Flood (whoever they are).
But when the night is over — I guarantee — all anyone will talk about is the Remains.