Night after night, many Boston undergraduates find themselves sitting in their dorm rooms listening to bad '90s music on 4-inch computer speakers, eating boneless spicy wings from last night's delivery. But why endure these boring nights when a 40-minute trip to Providence can provide a welcome change of scenery?
Often this scenery is found in unexpected places. In a given week, Providence hosts dozens of house shows, all of which charge affordable admission prices and impose few age restrictions on their audiences. These shows are part of a blossoming do-it-yourself movement that's finding new, intimate venues for music and art. What once was limited to clubs, bars, and galleries can now be experienced in lofts, basements, and parlors.
Websites like Lots of Noise, Lemmingtrail, and, my own blog, Under 21 in Boston, keep track of these events, which host everything from punk-rock and indie-pop concerts to out-of-control dance parties. Speaking of which, Boston's hip-hop/electro duo Big Digits is making a stop in Providence tonight to headline an all-night, all-ages dance party in one such privately-owned music and art space. Check the websites listed above for details, then grab a driver, or hop the commuter rail and get out of Boston.
As for dance parties in a more public setting, Providence is Burning, a 21-plus shindig that's been going on every month for years at the Firehouse 13 art space, has spawned a new 18-plus outdoors dance night at a huge metal workshop called the Steel Yard. The party, hopefully one of many, goes down tomorrow night and is appropriately titled "The Steel Yard Is Burning." 18+ Fri 10 p.m. $10. The Steel Yard, 27 Sims Ave., Providence. Thesteelyard.org
Thanks to Providence native Molly O. for the in-depth scoop on her local arts scene.
Max Pearl is a first-year student at Hampshire College who blogs about under-21 events in Boston. He can be reached at maep07@hampshire .edu
