The Rat now has a namesake luxury hotel suite. That is quite a promotion for a basement club remembered for its filthy bathrooms. Boston has changed since the 1980s, but the names of its clubs still carry the weight of a particular band, a particular night or a friend who insists you should have been there.
These five Boston clubs from the 1980s cover more than one scene. There were punk rooms, dance floors and a much larger space on the Fort Point waterfront. Four belong to the history books. The Paradise still gives you a reason to buy a ticket.
The Rat
The Rathskeller in Kenmore Square made room for Boston bands before they were a safe commercial bet. The Cars’ Elliot Easton later credited the club with helping the band develop and gain the attention that led to its record deal. Local acts shared that history with visiting bands including the Ramones, Talking Heads and the Police, as WBUR’s account of owner Jim Harold records.
The Rat closed in November 1997. Hotel Commonwealth now offers a Rathskeller Suite with music memorabilia, a separate living room and views of Kenmore Square. It is a hotel room, not a surviving piece of the old club that you can wander into for a drink. The upgrade in plumbing was presumably considerable.
The Channel
The Channel opened in 1980 on Necco Street near Fort Point Channel. Its large room could handle bands and crowds that smaller clubs could not, and its bookings ranged across punk, reggae, funk, rock and R&B. Run-D.M.C., James Brown, Black Flag and Roy Orbison all appeared there. That is a considerably wider range than a simple “punk club” label suggests.
In WBUR’s retrospective, members of the Del Fuegos recalled learning from the different performers who passed through. The club was both a stop for touring acts and a place where local musicians could see how those acts worked. Its principal live-music years ran through 1991.
Spit
Spit opened in 1979 beside the Lansdowne Street club then called Boston-Boston. In a Boston magazine interview, operator Patrick Lyons described it as the place for the rock crowd, contrasting its audience with the disco customers next door. It later became Axis.
The names can get tangled because several clubs occupied adjoining spaces and changed identities over time. Spit belongs to the earlier part of that sequence. Remembering it separately helps explain why two people can talk about the same stretch of Lansdowne Street and mean quite different nights out.
Metro
Metro grew out of Boston-Boston, giving the dance audience its own destination alongside Spit. Lyons recalled a distinction that radio listeners would have understood: the Kiss 108 crowd went to Metro, while WBCN listeners went to Spit. Boston nightlife had room for both.
Metro later became Avalon. Axis and Avalon eventually closed, and House of Blues opened on the site in 2009. A concert there now does not put you inside the old Metro, but those successive names explain how much nightlife history is packed into a short stretch opposite Fenway Park.
Paradise Rock Club opened in 1977, with Livingston Taylor headlining the first night. The Music Museum of New England documents U2 playing there on its first American tour in 1980, along with a long list of other acts that went on to much larger rooms. Its Commonwealth Avenue address became part of many bands’ Boston history.
The Paradise remains an operating concert venue. Use the current calendar for the artist, ticket availability and show details rather than treating its past bookings as a description of what is playing this week. Of these five clubs, it is the one where a new memory still starts at the door.
If this sends you looking for a show tonight, start with the Paradise’s calendar and pick the artist before planning the rest of the evening. For cocktails instead, our Boston speakeasy guide covers places you can visit now. The old clubs deserve to be remembered on their own terms, beer-soaked carpet and all.