Reviews

Magical Spaces #1

  • Pages 40 pgs
  • Reviewer Julian Dean
  • Issue MRR #453 • February 2021

This issue, “an incomplete history of long-gone illegal punk venues in Boston from 2000-2015 or somewhere around there” is designed for three types of people. 1. Someone who went to illegal punk shows in Boston from 2000-2015 or somewhere around there. 2. Someone who is interested in documenting their own local scene and needs an example of how that can be done. 3. Someone interested in looking at a microhistory of US punk in order to understand larger patterns. If you happen to be any of those three people, this is indispensable. The author, Chris Strunk, opens with some historical musings on punk in the US before delving into a very specific accounting of his experiences at various illegal venues (43 if I can count). Both encyclopedic and humorously subjective, Magical Spaces #1 would fit in nicely with an archive of show flyers and other ephemera to create a lively and robust picture of Boston punk. I rather think that is by design. Chris tells us he is a librarian, after all.

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