The Rathskeller

The Rathskeller (known as The Rat for short) was a Kenmore Square live music venue in Boston, Massachusetts that was open from 1974 to 1997. As implied by its name "Rat(h)skeller" (German: "council cellar"), the Rathskeller was a dimly-lit establishment. It has a bar and restaurant on the street level and a rock club in the basement. (The restaurant, the Hoodoo BBQ, was included in Esquire magazine's 1985 list of the Top 100 Restaurants in America.)

One Boston-area magazine describes:

There was also a new Ground Zero for live performance in Boston at that time. Deep below freaky-funky Kenmore Square, the Rathskellar (or, as everyone called it, “The Rat”) was a dingy subterranean dive bar that would appeal to the ever-burgeoning punk movement, and that hosted shows by everyone from Talking Heads and Tom Petty to Thin Lizzy and The Ramones. Everybody played there—and would continue to do so until the club finally closed its doors in 1997 amid a movement toward gentrification.

The Rat also hosted such acts as the Cars, Pixies, Metallica, theDead Kennedys,The Heartbreakers, The Replacements, and REM. The Rathskeller closed in November 1997 and was ultimately razed in October 2000 to make way for the Hotel Commonwealth, a 148-room luxury hotel of which Boston University is a limited partner.

The Rat is referenced in both Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, where one of the venues is called "The Rat Cellar" and it is located in Boston. The Rat is recalled in the song 'Poor Poor Jimmy' by Street Dogs

Notable acts

8-Eyed Spy Agnostic Front Aerosmith Agent Orange Angry Samoans Aus-Rotten B-52s Bad Brains Big Black Blondie Bouncing Souls Bo Beats Mr. Butch The Cars The Casualties Celibate Rifles Cool Moon The Crystal Image Dag Nasty Dead Boys Dead Kennedys The Descendents Destroy! Destroy All Monsters Dropdead Dropkick Murphys Ed's Redeeming Qualities English Beat The Flesh Eaters The Flying Lizards The F.U.'s The Freeze Gang Green Gorilla Biscuits The Heartbreakers Hole Human Sexual Response The Jam Jerry's Kids

Joan Jett Lou Miami The Lyres Maelstrom Aimee Mann Mazzy Star Megadeth The Melvins Metallica The Mighty Mighty Bosstones Minutemen Mission of Burma Mung The Neats The Neighborhoods Nervous Eaters November Group The Outlets Patti Smith People in Stores Powerman 5000 The Pixies The Police UKLA The Ramones The Replacements The Remains R.E.M. Rick James Robin Lane and the Chartbusters SS Decontrol (a.k.a. SSD)

SNFU Sam Black Church Sheer Terror Sick Of It All Slapshot The Smithereens Sonic Youth Stevie Ray Vaughan Straw Dogs Swingin Utters Talking Heads Thin Lizzy Throwing Muses Tom Petty Toxic Narcotic Tree Tuff Darts U2 The Unseen Volcano Suns Wrecking Crew

References

Suspicious Youth

External links

• The Rathskeller on Myspace
• NEMS page on The Rat
• Boston Globe