Jay N. Miller
Disco music had a controversial start, as music fans devoted to rock ‘n’ roll decried the relentlessly smooth dance music, and even pop fans wondered about lyrics that were basic and repetitive, if not downright silly. But there’s always been a segment of the music audience that just wants to dance and have a good time, and the showmanship and even the outlandish costumes steadily grew more popular in the 1970s.
Since then, the disco era has undergone reassessment. At least those people could sing or play instruments, the feeling is, and the over-the-top costumes and posturing, and even self-parody, provided an element of humor that added to the general fun atmosphere. And, of course, almost everyone did love to dance, or at least watch more skilled fans dance.
Back in 2007, a bunch of Boston-area musicians who enjoyed playing disco-style music decided to put together a band. There wasn’t a long-term plan, so to speak, just a desire to try it and see if a couple of gigs might be a fun diversion.
Club-circuit favorites
Flash forward to 2023, and Booty Vortex is one of the most popular attractions on the club circuit, an 11-strong unit as noted for its stellar versatility with the disco genre as it is for its lovably goofy and extreme costumes. Rather than debate the worthiness of disco music, fans today just love to have a musical outlet where they can leave contemporary problems aside and just get down and dance.
Booty Vortex has a couple of gigs coming up in the next two weekends at a pair of their favorite and most successful local venues. This Saturday night (Nov. 25) the band plays at Soundcheck Studios in Pembroke, and next weekend, Dec. 2, it will headline The C-Note in Hull.
(Soundcheck Studios is at 150 Corporate Park Drive in Pembroke. The show begins at 8 p.m. and tickets are $25, or $30 day of show, at soundcheck-studios.com. Call 781-730-5233 for more information. The C-Note is at 159 Nantasket Ave. in Hull. That show begins at 8 p.m., and tickets are $20 in advance, $28 day of show, available at cnotehull.com, or by calling 781-925-4300. The C-Note show is almost sold out already.)
An 11-strong band
Trumpeter Mark Coronado has more than a decade of service in Booty Vortex, and he is now the leader who handles the booking and scheduling for the band. Booty Vortex also includes Seth Botos on drums, Dave Burnett on bass, Brian Paulding on trombone, Jeremy Valadez on tenor sax, Jeff Buckridge on guitar, James Auburn on keyboards, Maureen Medeiros on percussion, and the vocal frontline of Clyde Cross, Sharlene Lamont and Erin Frawley.
More:Spend an Evening with Booty Vortex at the River Club
“Right now we are 11 strong, and wouldn’t want to have it any other way,” Coronado said when we talked by phone last week. “It can be cost-prohibitive for some clubs, and they do ask sometimes if we can perform with a smaller group. But delivering a consistent product is extra important to us, and so we are committed to that full lineup.”
These two upcoming shows are at a pair of the band’s most loyal venues. But that is also because Booty Vortex has a long track record of pulling in massive crowds at both places.
“Soundcheck is one of our new favorite places,” said Coronado. “The owner is a big fan, who used to be involved with (bygone Boston clubs) Harper’s Ferry and Thunder Road. Eventually he bought into Soundcheck, and they actually brought over the old Thunder Road bar.
“We had played there before it was even fully set up inside. We played there during the pandemic, outside in the parking lot, when it was one of the few places we could play. Once they opened the inside, it is a gorgeous, big room, with high-end, state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems.
“I’d guess it holds about 600, and we’ve been lucky enough to sell that room out, but we love playing there. Of course, we also love playing The C-Note, where we’ve been performing much longer. It is another beautiful room for music, and I personally love to just go over across the street and watch the ocean.”
Playing fun music
While there might be some conflicting views of disco in the audience, among musicians there never was any resistance to the project.
“Musicians love playing this music,” said Coronado. “Once you start playing it, you realize people in the crowd also love this music, whatever may have been said in the past. There’s a reason why it has lasted all this time. People had a great time creating this music in the ‘70s, and its appeal continues to this day.”
With such a large contingent, there will often be members who can’t make a particular show, so Booty Vortex must have a reliable Rolodex of subs. The Boston music community is an advantage in that respect, with plenty of candidates, and that’s how Coronado got started with the band.
“I started out subbing in on trumpet here and there, one thing led to another, and now I run it,” Coronado laughed. “But I wouldn’t have stayed with it if I didn’t love it. With a band this size, you need someone to be in charge, and deal with all the extraneous stuff, but I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t a great privilege and a joy.”
Happy with their niche
Unlike many bands working steadily on the club scene, Booty Vortex has no ambitions about recording its own music. And with all the members Boston-area residents, many with day jobs, they tend to keep the gig schedule limited to New England, but that keeps them busy enough.
“We’ve been fortunate to have had a good amount of success, and there always seems to be something new coming up for us,” Coronado said. “I still think we are in a growth phase, and there are always new people hearing us for the first time. Social media and marketing through that has brought an uptick in our popularity.
“We travel a little bit, often for private events, but club dates that require an overnight stay are a challenge. Those would often require more of an effort than would be worth it, for us or the venue. But luckily, people around here back us so consistently it is not an issue.
“There’s a lot of music from that era, and I don’t think we’ll ever be able to tap it all out,” said Coronado. “We can always find new things, or new ways to do tunes. We had a rehearsal the other night where we found some new things to include in our sets. There is still such an untapped resource with this music.
“Fans do suggest and request things, although we try to keep our sets somewhat controlled and tight, so we don’t go too far off-script. Our songbook is pretty big at this point. And we do like to please fans by getting these arrangements as close to perfect as we can. But we’ve never seen the point of aiming for originals of our own. The basic idea of the band is covering great music from other bands. You never say never, but we have no plans for our own recordings.”
About those costumes …
And how about those costumes, those outrageously colorful and somewhat bizarre disco outfits?
“Sometimes we like to do our costumes around a theme, which could be as simple as everyone wearing the same color,” Coronado explained. “Or we might be saluting a holiday. We played Hull Pride Day at The C-Note, and so we call wore rainbow stuff. Sometimes we will go all free form, but usually when you see us, there is an underlying theme to the costumes that night.”
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Some future Booty Vortex gigs are intriguing, to say the least. The band will be back at Soundcheck Studios for New Year’s Eve, and then on Jan. 6 it will be part of a big show at Florian Hall in Dorchester, with disco-era star Deney Terrio. That show also features Syd Slacks, the tongue-in-cheek persona of Quincy’s Clutch Grabwell Band, so it is a tantalizing lineup.
Local openers
Scituate’s Jay Psaros spent much of his summer opening concerts for headliners like Three Dog Night or Collective Soul around the country, and last week he was headed to Concord, New Hampshire, to open for his old pals Air Supply. Catch the 3rd annual Jay Psaros Band Holiday Spectacular at The C-Note on Dec. 23.
Not so long ago you might have been able to find Wollaston troubadour Jesse Ahern fronting a blues-rock combo in a local bar like Paddy Barry’s, or even just strumming his guitar along Wollaston Beach Boulevard. But with the Dropkick Murphys, and Ken Casey, nurturing his career by having him open for them, big things are happening for Ahern.
Just back from opening a European tour for the Dropkicks, Ahern will be opening a 25-date national tour, starting Jan. 10, for the excellent blues-rock band The Record Company, which touches down at The Sinclair in Cambridge on Jan. 31.
