Milky Way gets its rock on again


John Ruch

BROOKSIDE—The Milky Way Lounge is rocking once again—at least some of the time.

When the Milky Way changed addresses from Hyde Square to Amory Street earlier this year, the club changed entertainment formats, too. Acoustic or jazz brunches for the sister business the Bella Luna Restaurant, and DJs at night, were the new mix. Live rock and pop bands were a significant loss—a “hole” in the local scene, as co-owner Kathie Mainzer told the Gazette at the time.

Now the Milky Way is starting to fill that hole, slowly bringing live rock bands back into the mix.

It’s hard to say when the club started to get its rock back on, as Mainzer said last week that nothing is really new at the new Milky Way, and she and bookings manager Dan Shea used various definitions of “live” and “electronic” music. Mainzer even disavowed a Milky Way press release that declared, “Live music returns to the Milky Way!”—an announcement of an Aug. 21 live pop-rock show. “Something was missing [at the new Milky Way] though, and now that something is making a comeback,” said the press release.

In any case, that show was the debut of Friday concerts at the new Milky Way, and featured the JP rock band the Needy Visions along with Hilken Mancini of the band Shepherdess. Shea said that future Friday shows will include the indie duo Ponies in the Surf and the world music bands Ziki Misik and the Debo Band.

The Milky Way also featured the raucous country-metal band Slim Jim and the Mad Cows at an Aug. 1 brunch performance.

“We’re just trying a variety of things, which was always our plan,” Mainzer said.

For upcoming shows, see www.MilkyWayJP.com.

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