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Sham’rock and roll – Metro US

Sham’rock and roll

I?grew up 65 kilometres from here, so this is my capital city. My family all lives in the area — we’re all New Englanders.

Where I live has a neighbourhood feel; you’re in the city but you know your neighbours and the kids all play hockey in the street. I’ve been to a lot more U.S. cities that are a lot more sterile, and this town has more of an old-world feel.

There’s a lot of history here. I like the people. It’s a walking city, so you can walk from place to place; it’s not sprawled out. I’ve been everywhere in the world and I love coming back. It’s a unique place in the U.S. and in the world.

First time?

There are tours you can take, from walking tours like the Freedom Trail as well as the Duck Tours that take you around the city then into the Charles River (bostonducktours.com). We have the USS Constitution, a ship that was used in the Civil War (ussconstitutionmuseum.org) near the monument where the battle of Bunker Hill was fought. There’s the Institute of Contemporary Art down by the waterfront (icaboston.org) and a wealth of great restaurants and bars and theatres in the south end and downtown.

The Faneuil Hall area is nice, especially if you’re coming in the fall or winter. They really dress it up for Christmas.

Stay

When our guys come to town they stay at Hotel Commonwealth.

It’s on top of a spot where the Rathskeller Club used to be, which was where the Ramones played their first show in Boston.

So I have a little vendetta against them, only for that, though, because I wish that we had the Rathskeller Club still.

Apparently the hotel treats the guys right. Check out the website at hotelcommonwealth.com.

Sports!

Take a tour of Fenway Park, our baseball stadium, which I believe is the oldest in the country (boston.redsox.mlb.com).

Ken, our bass player, is involved with a place called McGreevy’s. McGreevy was a fellow who owned the original sports bar down in the Fens around the turn of the last century. They resurrected that bar and it has a lot of decorations from the original bar — it’s almost like a Red Sox and baseball museum with photos, trophies and banners. You can also get a good pint of Guinness and fantastic chicken wings (mcgreevysboston.com).

Live music

There’s great independent clubs here, like the Middle East café (mideastclub.com), O’Brien’s (obrienspubboston.com), and The House of Blues, with live music every day of the week (houseofblues.com). Great Scott is one of my favourites. There’s a lack of mid-sized clubs, and it holds about 250, so it’s great for bands that are just breaking out of the bar scene. Every night of the week you can find live music (greatscottboston.com).