Boston Tea Party concert hall with legendary rock bands from the 1960s

By Sharon Oliver, Contributing Author

BOSTON – In the late 1960s, The Boston Tea Party concert hall was ground zero for the city’s rock’n’roll subculture. Jonathan Richman of the proto-punk band The Modern Lovers remembered the crowd as very diverse.

“All around the houses are hippies, bikers, Harvard students, Northeastern students, models, professors, drug dealers, art teachers, groupies, MIT students,” recalls Richman, who grew up in Natick. “Photographers, local gangsters, local DJs, skinny bohemian artists, high-profile visitors from the New York art scene, and the elite of the Boston music scene – the local singers and guitarists in their stylish suits, strolling around with their beautiful girlfriends.”

Former church

This was a far cry from the political protests at Griffin’s Wharf in 1773, when angry colonists threw 342 chests of tea into the harbor because they were unhappy with British taxation without representation. This Tea Party was more closely associated with the psychedelic movement that swept the country in the late 1960s.

In 2005, Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith, told Rolling Stone magazine, “The two shows I remember sitting there with my mouth open were the Yardbirds show in Connecticut (which opened for his first band, Chain Reaction) and Led Zeppelin at the Boston Tea Party in 1969.”

The Boston Tea Party venue opened its doors in January 1967 in a building originally built as a synagogue and later used as a Unitarian meeting house. The land on which it stood was donated by Boston merchant John Gardner, whose son Jack married famous art collector and socialite Isabella Stewart. Originally, the venue was home to the Filmmakers Cinematheque, which showed “underground” films by Andy Warhol and others. However, to support the film programs, it was decided to hold a series of dance concerts on weekends. It soon became a popular destination for rock and blues artists, as well as a must-see for bands on their first U.S. tour.

Although Warhol managed to Velvet background As the house band at his New York studio The Factory, the band used the Boston Tea Party as their home base for several years. One night in 1968, guitarist Lou Reed announced on stage: “This is our favorite place in the whole country.”

Legendary bands and wild times

For just $3 or $3.50, concertgoers could see artists such as Cream, The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Pink Floyd, and Sly and the Family Stone. Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac reportedly stayed there so often that many thought it was his second home. Stories abound of wild times at the Boston Tea Party.

One night Little Richard danced vigorously on a piano and stage manager Stanley Kastner had to hold it down to keep it from falling over. According to Kastner, Little Richard went backstage during a 45-minute ovation for his performance to get paid. The “Good Golly, Miss Molly” singer pulled a gun out of a metal case, counted the money and left. The crowd in front of the stage was still applauding.

In 1968, WBCN-FM, Boston’s first album rock station, began broadcasting from a back room at the Boston Tea Party. It later became the highest-rated rock station in Boston and remained known as “The Rock of Boston” for over 40 years.

Unfortunately, the Boston Tea Party was not for everyone. Some local politicians and police officers had a problem with the interracial crowd of rock and roll fans and rumors of drug use. One night, when the Scottish rock band The Clouds were performing, dozens of Boston police officers stormed the hall, searching for drugs. The group of officers was led by Albert L. “Dapper” O’Neil, Boston’s commissioner of licensing, who brought a reporter from the Boston Herald-Traveler hoping for a story. No drugs were found, but police arrested management for an expired license to sell soft drinks. The Herald-Traveler headline read, “Soda Pop Raid Fizzles.”

Unable to compete with the rise and popularity of large rock concert arenas, the Boston Tea Party closed its doors in December 1970.

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