Johnny D's in Somerville MA closing-a Wilco memory

[worldrecordplayer]

Johnny D's has been a landmark music honkytonk club and restaurant in Somerville for 47 years.  It is shutting its doors for good on Sunday, going out in style with a free show and then a Second Line parade.  The Boston Globe has some great coverage of the closing, including a sidebar piece of various people sharing their memories.  Included is this memory from Brian Rosenworcel of Guster, recalling seeing Wilco there while he was still mourning the Tupelo breakup:

 

BRIAN ROSENWORCEL, Guster

We would stop at Johnny D’s regularly, first as the opener and eventually as a headliner — I mean, it was a half a mile away, we ate brunch there anyway. Emblazoned into my brain is a night in 1994, a few months after Uncle Tupelo broke up. As an obsessed Tufts student and WMFO DJ, I cried actual tears lamenting the loss of that band. Until one day a new band named Wilco showed up at Johnny D’s. They didn’t even have a record out, and they played a set of new songs followed by a set of Uncle Tupelo songs, and my life was whole again. Probably the most restorative concert I’ve ever been to, and it was in the right place. After the show, Jeff Tweedy was just sitting at the bar having a beer, and I said hello. Will never forget that night.

 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2016/03/09/local-performers-reflect-favorite-somerville-destination/MPcqaquxVAL4VnlD4i5NCI/story.html?p1=Article_Related_Box_Article

 

And here's the main Globe story on the closing;

 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2016/03/09/after-years-closing-time-for-somerville-landmark-johnny/ymIvqSvUCaw7Ksg5bRUquI/story.html?event=event12

[remphish1]

Brian is a great dude..Hung out with him many times before..great to hear he is a fan!

[knotgreen]

A cool story from Brian. I've heard him mention A.M. before but didn't realize he was such an UT fan. Davis Square won't be the same without Johnny D's! (Though, however infrequent, the Somerville Theatre gets some good shows)

[Sir Stewart]

I didn't know Wilco ever played Johnny D's, wow. I haven't lived near there in a decade, but I have many great memories of that place, like seeing Brad Delp's Beatles cover band and meeting him afterward, and another time getting kicked out for drunkenly slagging off the shitty band onstage who'd just congratulated themselves for having shot a Mountain Dew ad. Great brunch place, too. Fantastic oatmeal.

[roadhse ma]

Nice Share WRP
A great many National Acts played there.

Most recent was about a year and a half  ago when Neil Young did as a surprise performer on his then Wife Peg's stage.

So many good memories that I will keep with me from that place.

Thank Goodness there is still Atwoods, Toad, Lizard Lounge, Sally Obrien's  and the new kid on the Block Thunder Road.

[worldrecordplayer]

I didn't get there as frequently as I would have liked, but I did make sure I caught a show before it closed, the Modeski Trio about a month or so ago.  My buddy got the head's up on the Neil appearance and called me, I couldn't get out of the office but he made it over in the afternoon and got in.  We stumbled in one night several years ago with friends and unbeknownst to us it was the "final" Barrence Whitfield and the Savages show.

[Oil Can Boyd]

We stumbled in one night several years ago with friends and unbeknownst to us it was the "final" Barrence Whitfield and the Savages show.

Ha! Final in what way? I don't think he's ever stopped touring.  I saw them open for the Sonics last summer and they were great.  Looks like he's doing another tour opening for the Sonics this summer.  

[worldrecordplayer]

Barrence has not stopped playing, and I understood he's back performing with the Savages, but there were a number of years when he was solo, and that night in Johnny D's was the "final" BW and Savages show. Or perhaps I'm confusing this with something else (but I don't think so).  I will get confirmation. My favorite Barrence moments are at just about every Lobos show in Boston when he jumps on stage for DIrty Water, like this show I was at in Salsbury,

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIcNyUiRilE,

 

or Georgia Slop, 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvffXTjUEZU