Interviews (235)

• September 2, 2024
• Colleen Johnson
• 296
• 0

As Boston heralds on the last day of summer, with the close of Labor Day weekend, don’t let the scaries stay with you. I have the perfect music escape for you as we hit the fall of 2024, particularly this weekend. At one of the newest venues (or adjacent cities in Medford), Deep Cuts in Medford, MA, one of the most exciting things to hit the area this month comes in the form of the untouchable GayC/DC! It all goes down this upcoming Saturday with locals Star Like Ours in tow! If you aren’t hip to the band, for over ten years, they’ve been touring the country, bringing lots of props, riffs, and a blast of a time, and it’s simply something one can’t miss!

Before the show this upcoming weekend, I got the chance to chat with the band’s drummer (and co-founder of the band), Brian Welch! Not only did we cover the band’s plans for these tour dates, their latest video for “Highway to Hell”, but I also got taken on a deep dive into some serious Boston history when it comes to the venues that used to grace our great city. Welch was born and raised in Boston, and while this interview is a long one for any music lover, I think it’s a great read to ease you into the fall of rock and roll that is about to decimate Boston. While Welch has been a part of GayC/DC since its fruition, he cut his teeth working with everyone from Extreme to Bang while being in all the legendary venues that defined the Boston music scene. Be it Mama Kin’s, Aerosmith’s club they opened (that is now the HOB restaurant), Spit, The Channel, Bunratty’s, Welch was there for it all! Find our chat below, and keep this gig on your radar!

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New England Sounds: Tomorrow, you’re in Chicago; I know you’re already there. 

Brian Welch: So yeah, I’m in Chicago right now. We got here yesterday, and we start the tour tomorrow. And we’re excited. 

NES: And I saw you keep track of all of your shows. It’s show #146. 

Brian: Our singer, Chris, is the band’s dad or manager, and he keeps track. We celebrated our hundredth show at the beginning of last year. So yeah, we’ve got to be up around there. 

NES: How have these shows been going? I know you went through a very tough time last year, losing one of your bandmates. But have the crowds been really good and supportive? How do you feel the crowds have been? 

Brian: They’ve been great. We have the best fans who absolutely come out and support us. I was reminded of it because the last time we were in Chicago was last April (2023), a year ago, Clint was with us. And I have friends who live here; we were out last night, and I said, “Apparently, we only play Chicago in the A-months. April and August.” And it just made me think about Clint. He’s always with us, he was a big personality, and he was a big personality on stage. But he was a big personality in our lives. We knew him well before he was in the band. And he was a friend. And we would always run into each other. And we feel him on stage still with us. We can imagine what he would do at certain shows and hear his laugh; he was incredible. 

So, the first couple of shows we had to do were quick because we were contracted to do these shows. So we had a friend that filled in for him, but we had to decide within the first two weeks after we learned of his passing, “What are we gonna do?” At that moment, none of us wanted to do anything. Playing a show was the furthest thing from our minds. But as we got on, we realized that he really would have wanted us to keep going. Because he loved the band, he was a fan before he was ever in the band. So we said we should keep going, and then we thought about it. Then we kind of knew who we wanted, and that worked out. So when we started this tour in May, Patrick, it was his first show. We knew he would fit in and just knocked it out of the park. He was previously in Pansy Division as Pansy’s guitarist, along with Chris. So they knew each other, and Chris knew how he was in a band. I’ve known Patrick for years and years and years, so we all just knew he was the guy. 

NES: I wanted to ask because I was watching an interview where you mentioned how Clint was like the bartender at a gig you were playing. 

Brian: Yeah, the very first show we ever played was at the Eagle, where he was a bartender. And I had known him before, and he knew we had put this band together. But that day of the show, I was pretty nervous. And I walked over to the bar, and I’ll never drink before a show ever, and he was like, “What can I get you?” He was like, “You need something strong.” And I was like, “No, I think just a ginger ale is going to do.” He gave me a big hug and said, “You guys are going to be amazing.” And then, after the show, he was fawning all over us. Saying that was amazing, this is genius. At one point, he even told Chris, “I want to be in this band someday.” So, we always knew he would be a good fit. And when Karl,  our original guitarist, around 2020, was when he was like, yeah, I don’t think I can do this anymore. With his work and everything, we were like, well, we think Clint would be great. So, Clint joined towards the end of 2020. 

NES: So he was involved for about three years. Then I know you’re one of the band’s cofounders with Chris Freeman. So, you’ve been doing this for quite a long time. In the re-release of “Highway to Hell,” your original guitarist Karl was in the video. The guitarist you were bringing in was also in the video; you had friends involved in the video. This is something you care about and something that’s still here for a reason. How long was that video in the making for the re-release of “Highway to Hell”? 

Brian: Well, it was put on pause when Clint passed away because he was involved in it. We had started writing it, had already recorded a version, and he was involved with the video, the storyline, etc. We were rolling out ideas for the video during our last tour with him. Who we wanted to direct, the storyline, we really wanted it to be different than our “Dirty Dudes” video, which was our first professionally produced video. So Clint was very, very involved. So we knew that it had to be dedicated to him. And actually, Clint had a little logo for his Lord Daddy band, his original band, that he was putting together, and we had that all over the studio. And you can’t really see it in the video, but Karl’s wearing that logo on his jacket. It was really important that we dedicated that to him. And that was the last song that he actually played on. 

It was really easy to get our friends involved. John Bush from Armored Saint is my neighbor. But I’ve known him since 1984 when I saw them at—you may not know—this Boston club called The Channel. 

NES: I’ve heard of The Channel, yeah. 

Brian: I’m a Boston boy through and through, and I cut my teeth being a guitar tech for a lot of local Boston bands. And going to see Boston shows all the time. When Armored Saint came through town in ‘84, it might have been ‘85, I met John for the first time. And in 2020, I found out that he was my neighbor. We just picked up right where we left off, and we’d hang out, swap recipes, and share stories. And then when it came time for it, we were like, we should get some of our friends to be in the video. And I went right to him and said,  it’s going to be a non-speaking part, you’re going to play Igor, and you’re going to be the servant of the devil. He was like, “I’m in!” Then, our friend,  Johnny Martin, is the bass player for L.A. Guns, and I called him and said, “Wondering if you want to be in the video.” He just went, “I’m in.” I said, “You haven’t even heard what part you’d play.” And he’s like, “I’m in in, I’m in in. I don’t need to; I’m in.” 

So we were so lucky. It was a really, really fun day. 

NES: Then I know you’re in Chicago now. Your show there is tomorrow. You’re starting this run of shows; you end it back here in Boston adjacent Medford but still close to Boston. In one of the newer venues, you were just speaking of the venue you loved, but you played O’Briens the last time you were here, which is still here. But a lot of venues have come and gone. So many new venues have popped up, especially in these Covid times. You mentioned The Channel; what were some of your favorite Boston venues? You’re not in Boston anymore, but you spent a lot of time here, right?

Brian:  Yeah, I live in LA. But I moved to LA in 2005. But when I worked with bands in the Boston area, I was at, I think, every venue there was. Boston was my boot camp as far as learning how to work with bands and be a technician. I was also a drummer but never in a band until I moved to LA. But my favorite venue was probably The Channel. It was just a dank,  dirty dive, but it was big and fun, and they had a big back room with this parachute hanging from the ceiling. And the dressing rooms were a total sketch. And there would always be rats running around, but it was right on the waterfront. But the thing was, they had parking, a huge parking lot. And some of the best shows I ever saw were at The Channel. Most of the bands that I remember seeing and just falling in love with, I saw them at The Channel. Like the first time, I saw Motorhead in 1984. The loudest show I ever saw, and then the second loudest show I ever saw, was Manowar at The Channel. 

But it was just a great place that nationals came and toured, and locals played. It’s where I saw Fahrenheit the first time and where I saw Extreme play; I ended up working for them. Tribe, Lizzie Borden & The Axes. I’m actually working with Lizzie Borden right now; we’re putting something together. So, my Boston roots run deep. But I also loved Bunratty’s, and I loved The Paradise. Lansdowne Street was very different. It was Axis, it was Avalon, it was Spit, and it was also Mamma Kin’s. Mamma Kin’s was a great venue. Yeah, Mamma Kin’s was the Aerosmith club. They opened up their own club called Mamma Kin’s. And it was a great place. A bunch of local bands were always playing there. They really believed in supporting local music. So, a lot of bands that I worked for, if they were having trouble getting gigs, they could always get a gig at Mamma Kin’s. 

 I remember when Cambridge had the original House of Blues. It was a house—literally a house in Cambridge, in Harvard Square—two floors, and I saw Rick Ocasek there and a bunch of bands there. It was a house—it was so cool. It was not the corporation that it is now. 

NES: No, I know. One of my old friends, who used to be a sound engineer in Boston, was just in town. And I work in a restaurant in Harvard Square, so it’s right by the original House of Blues, and I showed him it. 

Brian: The house is still there? 

NES: The house is still there; now it’s a restaurant. It became another venue called Tommy Doyle’s. 

Brian: Right! Right, Tommy Doyle’s!

NES: But yeah, he had no idea. And I blew his mind that that’s how the House of Blues started in general. It started as a legitimate house, and now it’s what it is. 

Brian: Right, huge! And the one in LA was pretty cool. It was similar; it wasn’t a house, but they did their best to make this structure a bit like a New Orleans place. It did well, and then it just didn’t last on the Sunset Strip. A number of years ago, it just ended, was torn down, and now it’s going to be a hotel. It’s sad, but in Lansdowne Street, I worked for a band called Bang, who were pretty popular. There was a time when I worked for a band called Mass, a local metal band. I worked for Extreme, I worked for Bang, and a bunch of other metal bands. For a time, Bang, Mass, and Extreme were like the big three in the Boston metal scene. And I worked for all three, and a lot of times, I was juggling shows; I’d have a show in the afternoon and a show at night. But Bang rehearsed on Lansdowne Street, above, not where  Spit was, but right next to where Axis was, and I’m forgetting the club’s name. But they rehearsed above it, and we had to use the lift elevator to get all the gear up. Because they were on the third floor, there were a bunch of rehearsal studios. And if there was a game at Fenway, we always had to wait for the games to finish and for traffic to get out at the end of the game so we could park the truck. Then we had to wait for the clubs to close because we couldn’t use the elevator until the club closed, and they weren’t using it. So there were many nights loading in gear on Lansdowne Street at three am. And then I  got home at about four, five o’clock in the morning and went straight to my day job. But those are the years I would never trade in. They are some of my best memories. And Spread Eagle is still going. Bang became Spread Eagle when they broke up. Three of them went on to be Spread Eagle and signed to MCA. They became an amazing metal band that is still going strong today. They’re great. I’m friends with Rob and Ray, but in those days in Boston, there was nothing like it.

In the nineties, when I got back from touring with Extreme, the whole alternative scene was just happening. Tribe, and then later Janet LaValley; I was her production manager when she went solo. But Letters to Cleo, Treat Her Right, Morphine, and just all these fantastic bands. A band called Wheat from the South Shore and Boston just had the best music scene. The best music scene. I’m so glad I got to do all those shows and be a part of it with all those bands. It led me to where I am now because I don’t think I could function in a band if I didn’t have that experience of seeing band dynamics, play and at work, and touring. It was great! So now, when we book a tour, we always want to try to end in Boston. Because I get to stay there a little bit longer, visit with all my friends, they all come to the shows, and it’s just great. 

NES: And you always like to end in Boston, so you can have a little time here? 

Brian: Yeah, I get to see my parents and family. I’ll spend a couple extra weeks helping out my mom. My husband will stay for a couple of weeks, and he’ll go back. Then we have shows in October, and then we usually take a break in November and December. And then we’ve got shows already booked for next year. But we’re thinking about what our next video is going to be. Because we have to carve out a chunk of time to figure out what the video will be. And then line it up! You have to find a director. When you get the director, it’s then storyboards and developing the story. We all have other jobs, so it’s not like we can do this one day and then start filming the next day. So we have to plan it. So, our usual time frame is that we’d like to do it in December and then get it ready by January. And then have it ready to go by the end of January or the beginning of February. We’ll have booked the next tour by then and can start promoting it. It’s kind of a cycle; even if we’re a tribute band, no matter what kind of band you’re in, there’s always work to be done. In this day and age, everyone has a million things going on. So you have to make the time for it, but it’s all about scheduling. Sometimes, with this band, it’s like herding cats.

NES: Then, to maybe end it off, you’ve been a pleasure to talk to, and I know you have quite the day over in Chicago today and tomorrow. But I’ve seen some videos from shows. I haven’t been lucky enough to see a show live yet. You’re only about a week out from the Boston show. It may seem cheesy, but what makes a GayC/DC show something you can’t miss? What do you think makes a show like this special? There are a lot of effects. It’s a lot of fun; you guys put so much time and heart into planning it. 

Brian: You know, we put all our heart into it, but when we started this band eleven years ago, it was really funny. Because Chris, the original guitarist, Karl, and I were originally in a band called The Gay Gays. And that was an all-gay tribute to The Go Go’s. And the singer of that band, Matty, was also a Boston boy. He used to be the doorman at TT the Bear’s, and he started The Gay Gay’s. I was in the last incarnation of that band, and we did it for about a year. Matty was just kind of burned out. He had been doing it for about twelve years. So he moved back to Boston; I think he lives in Topsfield. But at our last rehearsal, Chris and Karl and myself, we said, you know we love playing together. What else can we do? We need something else. So, Karl had been playing some riffs before rehearsal started. And he played “Back in Black,” and he just stopped, looked at Chris and me, and said, “AC/DC”. And we all looked at each other and were like, there’s no way that doesn’t already exist. It has to exist; it’s genius, but it already has to exist. So we got on our phones, googling like crazy, and it didn’t exist. Nothing, so within probably a half hour, the three of us kept fleshing out the idea of the band. And we knew that we wanted to do the music spot on. So we knew we had to find additional people who loved AC/DC as much as we did. But the other thing we knew is that we didn’t want to look like them. There were so many AC/DC tribute bands that looked just like them. We don’t look like them at all. Even if we got in wigs and just plain black t-shirts and jeans, we’re still not going to carry it off. So we said, well, if we can’t look like them, let’s look like what if they all had gay brothers? And the brothers all had a band. And how fabulous would that be? So we said, let’s not look like them at all. Let’s go the opposite, and let’s be the band we would love to see on stage. And then we talked about changing song titles and what song title changes we’d like. Well, we can change lyrics too. What would have been the lyrics we would have loved to hear as fifteen-year-old, sixteen-year-old gay kids growing up and buying AC/DC albums? What if these lyrics were on there? So that’s where the nucleus of that idea started. We workshopped it for about a year and found the right guys. We found Steve to be our Angus Young, or “Anus.” The g is silent.

We found Glen, the bass player, and initially, Chris was going to be the bass player, but we just couldn’t find a singer. No one really had the same idea that we did. And the same passion and vision that we knew this could be. And it got frustrating, so after a while, Chris was like, well, what if I just sing? Because he sings in Pansy Division, but we actually auditioned him. We had found Glen, so Glen came in to play bass. And Chris came in and auditioned as a singer, knocked it out of the park, and we were like, alright, we have a band. 

So then it was about another five months of honing in on the songs, making sure we had them exactly right. We didn’t want to change too many of them because we loved AC/DC. We love AC/DC; I saw them in 1981 at the Boston Garden for the first time. I never missed a single tour. But we can have a lot of fun with the stage outfits and the stage show, and we can totally make it a different kind of tribute act. So we kind of call ourselves a refresh and not a tribute. We’re definitely not a cover band. We kind of get lumped into a tribute and called ourselves that. But then Chris came up with the idea of, “You know? We’re more of a refresh.” And that’s really what we are. People can expect to hear AC/DC songs just as they know and love them, but we have fun with the lyrics. We have fun with the props. We’re very colorful, there are costume changes, and we get people singing along. The most doubtful of people come into the shows and stand in the back with their arms folded. But by the end of the night, they’re upfront with their girlfriends, singing into the dildo. It’s heartening to see. And the crowds, we have a blown-up penis that goes out into the crowd, and everyone’s throwing it around. We really just disarm people when they come to shows, thinking oh, gays. This is going to be a joke; this is going to be a trainwreck; gays can’t play metal. Well, Rob Halford (of Judas Priest) would beg to disagree with you. Doug Pinnick (of King X) would beg to differ with you. But yeah, we call it a rainbow glass ceiling, and we’re determined just to break that. And let men show that the LGBT community is made up of literally everyone. And they’re musicians, they’re artists, they’re brokers, they’re bankers, they’re waitresses. It’s everyone, it’s no different. So we go out there every night on stage to prove that not only do we love AC/DC to the core. But we know how to have a good time with it, and we’re not poking fun at them. Every night, we play in a venue, and that venue is a gay bar for the night. Everyone is welcome, everyone, everyone. 

 

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9/7: Gay C/DC with Stars Like Ours/Deep Cuts, Medford, MA

Doors are at 7 pm, and the show starts at 8 pm. Limited tickets can still be picked up here!