Last call at the Abbey Lounge

Globe Scene & Heard columnist Jonathan Perry reports back from the final Abbey Lounge show Wednesday night:

Perhaps the bathroom walls said it best: “Goodnight Abbey – Thank You! Was Real” someone had written, excitement trumping grammar, over a scarily neglected urinal. It was one of many scrawled men's-room tributes to the Somerville club, which hosted its last show on Wednesday night. A moment of silence – flush nothwithstanding – please.

The financially troubled venue, which officially shut its doors after months of speculation about its fate, had billed its final 10-band blowout as a “Last Blast.” Indeed, it was that and much more: a celebration and a commiseration, fueled by shared memories of nights spent in the beloved dive bar that soon became synonymous with Boston’s punk and underground rock scene when the revered and (ultimately) reviled Rat closed its doors in 1997.

“It felt like home for the band,” said Muck & the Mires frontman Evan Shore, surveying the stage he would take for the last time later that night. “We’ve played 35 shows here and we never had a bad time. When they started booking music, it was a clique – you were considered an ‘Abbey band’ and sometimes, you’d get heat for being an ‘Abbey band.’ But that’s what made it so great, because everybody knew each other.”

The joint was already filling up at 7 p.m., with a good chunk of folks raising Pabst Blue Ribbon tallboys and looking a little stunned but ready to give the good times one last go. The beginning of the end came with opener Jay Allen’s frisky set of off-the-cuff acoustic punk-pop. Ahh yes, for those of us lucky enough to catch it, “Twist My Nuts” was certainly a catchy highlight.

By the time local music scene-maker Billy Ruane materialized with a stack of pizzas and plopped them on the bar cartoonishly crowded with empty beer cans, you began wondering just how many more mourners could fit into the viewing room. It was only 9:30, but already there was barely enough room for all the beer, guitars, gear, and bands talking about their best, and worst, nights on the Abbey’s well-worn stage.

The Sprained Ankles took over after Allen, and the night became a beautifully loud buzz and blur: from the Auto Interiors and Acrobats to Curses and Spitzz. Muck & the Mires gave way to the Coffin Lids and the Konks, who ceded, finally, to Triple Thick.

“I brought along some extra tape because I heard it was gonna be a crazy night,” said Lars-Erik J. Sirén, a well-groomed young man filming the festivities. He wasn’t the only one documenting the last hurrah. “This is the last original, real punk bar you can go to,” lamented Christina Ritchie, 29, of Somerville, as she snapped a friend’s picture. Later in the evening, there were reports -- and evidence -- of bar stools being carted from the premises as keepsakes and jagged chunks of bathroom wall being ripped away and pocketed as souvenirs.

In a far corner behind the bar, a portrait of Elvis Presley hung on the wall, looking regal in his iconic white Vegas-era jumpsuit as he watched over the spectacle. The King was silent but still singing in that picture, as if alive forever and frozen in time, a big aloha necklace draped around his neck. Gone from the terra firma perhaps, but after all these years, far from forgotten in the places that matter.

[Chris Brat & Daniel Brat of the Acrobrats]

[The Sprained Ankles: Ryan Logsdon (guitar), Michael Patterson (drums), Emily Vides (backup vocals)]

[Kurt Konk of the Konks, front left; Coffin Mike of the Coffin Lids, front right)

Photos courtesy of Justin Boucher (to see more of his photos from the Abbey's last night click here).