Cody plays out in style with Cape Crush at the Sil on Wednesday, 27 November 2024.

Massive Nightmares, New Favorites, Joe McMahon & Chris Coughlin fill the bill.

Happy Birthday, Joe! Just assuming it was Joe McMahon’s birthday because that’s what the marquee behind him said. The six-stringer trotted out some solo guitar jamz before being joined by Chris Coughlin on keys for some bluesy jingles.

Pop punkers New Favorites played a mix of covers and originals, and kept shouting out the “B-man!”

The four-piece Massive Nightmares just released a self-titled EP. Check it out.

For the rest, I defer to the writeup at my Cambridge Day gig:

Yes, yes, I know. The Silhouette Lounge, a beloved dive in Allston Rat City, is outside of my Cambridge Day beat. But sometimes there are shows, like the Cape Crush show last Wednesday, that ask for (nay, demand!) coverage by anyone with eyes, ears, and the nerve to write about music.

Why the fuss? Well, the show was the last Boston-area show (depending on how elastic your notion of “Boston-area” is) for the original lineup of the powerpop band from the North Shore, as longtime drummer Cody Rico is hanging up his drum sticks to meet new challenges.

That’s news enough, if you track the local music scene. Cape Crush has been a gig staple for years, played a thousand bills, and made some waves last year with their superlative EP San Souci, nominated for album of the year at the Boston Music Awards in 2023.

There’s always more to it, though, than the music alone. A regularly gigging band sends out countless roots into the cultural soil, and Cody Rico was a particularly gregarious trunk with connections all over the place after more than twenty years of devoting his life to music.

When Cody wasn’t drumming, he was piloting his booking outfit IBookThings. I reported last November on his efforts to bring back live music to Tasty Burger in Harvard Square. Ultimately, the burger joint didn’t pan out as a regular venue, but there was no quit in him. He was a kind of Johnny Appleseed, planting DIY seeds here and there, too full of gratitude for the seeds that sprouted to waste time cursing the ones that didn’t.

When Cody took a step back from IBookThings due to health issues, I reported on that too in July. With his typical mixture of grace and humility, combined with an unswerving commitment to the local music scene, Rico deftly laid the foundation for a nearly seamless transition within his booking outfit. IBookThings rebranded to WeBookThings, and the team that helped Cody bring shows to local stages took over the reins, as the little DIY train that could kept chugging along.

Now I find myself, regrettably, reporting on Cody’s final shows with Cape Crush. The health condition he’s been battling has advanced to a stage that makes the stress of drumming impossible. To choose life now means to turn away from an art that made his life meaningful. That feels unfair. It is unfair. And there are no words that are going to paper over the hurt that the sense of unfairness breeds.

But there is the gratitude of a local musical community that Cody helped nurture, reflecting that love right back at him. Better than words, there are songs, and maybe you’ll hear one or two you like at the final gigs. Ever the promoter, Cody leveraged a recent Instagram post about his health to shout out the upcoming show. Why waste the opportunity? I’ll excerpt one plug-cum-takeaway from a longer status update:

“My last show playing drums is with Cape Crush 12/28/24 at Bit Bar in Salem and I hope to see a lot of friendly faces there. Above all else, love each other, organize, fight back, make art no matter what, uplift and push each other to do and be better. Fuck all cops and Free Palestine.”

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