Bad History Month et. al. played State Park – 2/2

Locals Bad History Month, The Furniture and Betty Moody teamed up for a free Wednesday night gig at Kendall Square’s State Park.

State Park was one of my favorite non-Allston, non-downtown bars pre-pandemic. Kendall Square is generally a wasteland of faceless tech campuses and nothing, but State Park’s homey vibe of pinball machines and vintage neon was a welcoming oasis whenever I found myself in the neighborhood (typically following a post-work movie at the adjacent Landmark theater). Naturally, taking into account losing my job and then the whole pandemic thing and the fact that I haven’t worked in an office since, I don’t often find myself in said neighborhood anymore. Fine, mostly, but I do miss State Park. And much as I do, the draw of neon glow alone isn’t going to pull me that many miles away from home on a frigid Wednesday night. Free rock music, however, is a different story.

I would typically write something like “Betty Moody kicked off the night” right about here, but since their set started around 10:15 it did feel like the night had been pretty thoroughly kicked off by that point. No matter, as the band’s dreamy indie pop and the rush of hearing live instrumentation for the first time in several weeks quickly erased however late it felt, or was.

The Furniture, led in part by Hallelujah the Hills keyboardist/guitarist Nicholas Ward, followed up with a hook-y, high energy set of their own, before Allston scene staples Bad History Month closed things out with – somehow – the first full-band set I’ve ever seen Sean Sprecher’s long-running, name-and-shape-shifting project play. Sprecher typically plays solo, strumming an aluminum-neck guitar and playing his own rhythm section by foot. And while those sets are always arresting, the addition of a flesh-and-blood drummer, bassist and second guitarist gave his dense songs some welcome space to stretch out. It’s a configuration I hope to catch again soon.

I’d be remiss in mentioning that while State Park is not a rock club by any stretch, the space works quite well as a makeshift venue by simply pushing the pool table off to the side for the evening. I’m not sure how regular a thing shows are or will be here (I heard about this one on Facebook, by chance, day-of), but here’s hoping they keep these local bills going. I’d come back!

Scroll below for some shots from the evening.