A Memorial Day Weekend to Remember

By: Sam Houghton, May 25, 2012

Summer. Tourists. Aggressive drivers. Single coeds. Bikinis and sand-eating babies. The long-anticipated Memorial Day Weekend is here and along with it, the decadent and glorious Cape Cod summer nightlife.

Folks from around the world come to get a glimpse, to wallow in the cool sounds of beach bands while drinking sweet cocktails from bayside decks. We may not have the Black Keys or Lady GaGa – we have something better: the mellow mood of the island life and debauchery aplenty. 

We here at iO have our top picks to help you wade through our masterful calendar and let you find the scenes with the best music and biggest crowds and cutest coeds for one of the largest weekends… of your life (we heard rumors that the world is ending soon)!

The Landfall, Woods Hole: The lineup for the summer season is here: Friday is The Commonwealth and Sunday is the return of The Old Silver Band. Expect a large and loud crowd for both nights. I’d like to give my first official happy birthday shout-out to my good friend Colin for Friday night. He and I will probably get kicked out of the bar and help stimulate the already unruly crowd, but regardless, if you like dancing with a belly full of booze to indie rock, or bluegrass, or Caribbean beats with the lights down low and a ton of giddy coeds and hipsters and preppies close at your flank, The Landfall is your hot spot. Get there early or you might not get in.

Springsteen covers @ The Cape Cod Chat House, Dennis Village: The Chat House always has something cooking but Jonathan Hall performing Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska on Friday night sounds extra promising. Nebraska is a purely acoustic Springsteen album, recorded originally as demos for the E Street Band to play over. As it happened, Springsteen and his producer enjoyed the demos more and decided to release it as is. The record turned into one of Springsteen’s most critically acclaimed. A raw and hollow album, Springsteen is at his most nostalgic and melancholy, singing about blue collar America. Jonathan Hall is a local folk musician who clearly understands his history. He should do the album justice.

Destroy Bablyon @ The Wellfleet Beachcomber: It’s opening weekend down at the ‘Comber. Reason enough to be there. But on Saturday, the Boston based dub/white guy reggae band Destroy Babylon will absolutely destroy your ambition to get back to work on Tuesday. Originally formed with five members, there could be as many as nine for this show, with horns aplenty. Expect to hear covers of the Clash, not the punk Clash, but a more middle class, sport jacket, plaid shirt, Red Sox cap wearing, beer drinking, 5 o’clock shadow sporting Clash. Destroy Babylon’s originals are spaced out, atmospheric jams with sort of rapping, sort of singing dubbed over bass heavy and synth-laden beats.

The Peacheaters @ Grumpy’s Pub, Falmouth: Grumpy’s has had a solid line-up in the recent months and this Friday night show should be no exception. The Peacheaters are cheekily named after Duane Allman, the guitar powerhouse/best blues slide guitarist ever, who died crashing his motorcycle into a peach truck. These guys, maybe a little old for iO but rockers nonetheless, are purely an Allman Brothers tribute band. A poll on their website asked if they should play more originals, but I didn’t see many responses, so it is safe to say old classics like “Statesboro Blues” and “Whipping Post” will be in abundance.

See you around this weekend!