Tokyo Tramps; photo by Geoff Wilbur
Watertown Porchfest
Watertown, MA
May 17, 2025
Every year, many of Boston’s suburbs hold “porchfest” events, where the towns’ porches are filled with musical performances and, armed with a schedule of planned performances, music fans can wander from house to house from 12:00 to 6:00 to hear a variety of area musicians, hosted by the people whose porches serve as performance spaces.
I had only attended one porchfest before yesterday, in part because they tend not to be held in the outer suburbs where I live. In 2017, I attended Arlington’s Porchfest. Yesterday, I drove in to attend Watertown’s. If there was one notable difference, it was that Watertown’s performances were much more often in driveways than on porches, whereas all of the Arlington performances I saw eight years ago were on actual porches. It didn’t matter. Many of the performers yesterday performed under portable tents, in part I suppose due to the rain threat – all week, rain was predicted, but there was just one light 10-minute shower. Still, a good idea for equipment to be covered, something a porch – but not a driveway performance – would provide.
Slip Resistant Soul; photo by Geoff Wilbur
My first stop was to hear Slip Resistant Soul. Slip Resistant Soul is self-billed as NOLA-centric soul and blues, that’s an apt description for this old-school, rockin’ blues band. Indeed, led by a thumping bassline, funky sax, and grizzled blues vocals, I could have stayed and listened to these guys all day. Or, at least, to the end of their set, if I hadn’t also wanted to catch a couple more bands during their 2-hour time slot.
A couple of the songs I enjoyed at this backyard-deck venue were “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” with echoey psychedelic guitar work, nifty axe solo, an almost reggae rhythm creeping in from time to time, and Ray Charles’ “I Don’t Need No Doctor,” which SRS delivered with ideally gruff vox, a groovy, funky rhythm, and excellent riffing off the rhythm section’s steady beat.
It was obvious why the backyard venue was packed with an appreciative audience, as Slip Resistant Soul is clearly a top shelf band!
Three Weeks Notice; photo by Geoff Wilbur
Next up, I headed over to catch Three Weeks Notice. Stylistically, based on my limited sampling of the band’s offerings yesterday, I’d guess the music is centered somewhere around Americana or roots rock, though the styles from song to song were varied enough – though still within the band’s cohesive sound – that “centered” is the key word. Three Weeks Notice delivers a rich, full sound, with violinwork adding a neat flavor. I only stayed for four songs, but during the second song the guitarist delivered some engaging wailing vocals that are unusual among similarly styled bands. The third song was a violin-driven instrumental that took an attention-maintaining journey. And song four was a classic, psychedelic rock influenced instrumental that benefited from some cool violin effects and, eventually, increasingly distorted guitarwork.
In all, my four-song sample was a varied song grouping from a clearly talented, interesting band.
Hot Lunch; photo by Geoff Wilbur
It was a pleasure to next hear Hot Lunch, a rockin’ pop-rock cover band. From great between song banter in addition to high quality renditions of favorites, this is a band I’d definitely head out to hear for a night of cover-song fun with friends! The five songs I could covered a bit of pop-rock range – Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold,” Sheryl Crow’s “Real Gone” (which sported a little well-suited extra edge on the vocals), Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out,” Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone,” and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Dani California.” The Chili Peppers’ cover sported some nifty howls and, while being the one of the five songs led vocally primarily by the bass player, did feature some nice dual back-and-forth vocal sharing. There was a deservedly large, engaged crowd for Hot Lunch while I was there, with music fans of all ages thoroughly enjoying themselves.
Tokyo Tramps; photo by Geoff Wilbur
One of the highlights of the event for me was the opportunity to catch Tokyo Tramps, whose last two released I’ve reviewed – their I’m a Tiger EP in 2021 and their Fearless Heart album in 2023. In fact, I grabbed my copy of Fearless Heart to play in my car’s CD player during the drive to Watertown to get into the mood for this set. This was my first chance to catch the Tramps live, and they delivered a fun set. As is often the case, this was a Tokyo Tramps duo performance, featuring core members Satoru Nakagawa (guitar) and Yukiko Fujii (bass), though, of course, on their albums, the Tramps record with a full band.
This performance was at one of the more interesting venues on the porchfest calendar. The bands were set up on the porch of the Gore Place farmhouse. Gore Place is a 50-acre estate showcasing an early 19th century mansion, farmhouse, and farm and sits along the border between Waltham and Watertown. There seem to be a lot of family-friendly events at the site, as well wedding and private events hosting opportunities, so it’s worth checking out the events calendar. There was a plant sale going on alongside the live music yesterday, in fact. But I digress…
I arrived at the venue a couple minutes early; fortunately so, because the Tokyo Tramps must have started a little early – porchfest schedules are a little fluid sometimes. The first song after I get settled in was the fun number “Baby Let’s Clean the House.” (You can find a prior live performance of this song on YouTube, if you’re curious. More than one, in fact.)
Throughout the performance, the duo performs well together, each able to carry a solo, as a good jammin’ blues number often calls for. Guitar fans will be particularly enamored with Nakagawa’s soulful axework, as his classic gritty blues rock/rockin’ blues axeslinging style can carry solo after solo all night long. Or all mid-afternoon long, in the case of a porchfest.
Other standouts of the day’s performance included numbers like “Jeffrey Jive,” with its “who dat? who dat?” singalong, “Empty Pocket,” because every musician is convincing when singing about empty pockets, and decades-old Tokyo Tramps original “Bound for Glory,” a rollickin’ number which appeared on the Tokyo Tramps’ 2003 album of the same name.
The Tokyo Tramps closed their set with “Young Lion,” a personal favorite track from the band’s 2023 album, Fearless Heart. I love the energy of this song, and it translates to a live performance, even as a duo. Its great blues rockin’ energy was an ideal conclusion to a tight set of blues and blues rock music.
Scott Damgaard; photo by Geoff Wilbur
After checking out a couple less impressive performances – and a 10-minute rain delay – I progressed to my next reviewable spot, where I caught the last two songs of Scott Damgaard’s thumping, rocking set. I was treated to two songs from Damgaard’s 2007 The Bells of San Miguel album. On the first, “For You,” Damgaard growls like a classic rocker, adds a little classic rock guitar, some kickin’ distortion, and a steadily upbeat, forward-moving energy. Then he closed this set with “The Bells of San Miguel,” a song flavored with a little southwestern style, which is mostly Scott’s strumming pattern. Both songs deliver a great barroom or concert stage energy! I admit, two songs ain’t much to go on, but in this case, it was enough for me to know that I’ll be back for more!
That’s Ben Gardner’s Boat; photo by Geoff Wilbur
That’s Ben Gardner’s Boat – TBGB, for short – was next, delivering old-school, kickin’, bluesy rock. I had time for four songs before heading off to grab a bite to eat, hoping to make it back in time for a little bit of Scott Matalon‘s set. (I failed, but the last minute of Scott’s set sounded awesome as I drove up and on the walk over from the car.)
Back to TBGB, you’ll recognize all four of the songs I caught. All very classic hard rock, exceptionally performed. First up, “Deep Ellum Blues” rocked the… yard? The driveway? Well, whatever, it rocked it! Next up the band delivered a big sound with a great jangly, classic rock vibe with its rendition of John Stewart’s “Gold.” (Here’s a video of TBGB performing the song, but when I caught them live yesterday, the vocals weren’t buried in the mix like they are in this recording. Still, you get an idea about how tight the band is and how rich their sound is.)
Next up were a couple of multi-media crowdpleasers. First, TBGB delivered a rich-sounding cover of the Hawaii Five-O theme song. It was followed by a rollicking version of “Westbound and Down” (from Smokey and the Bandit). TBGB covered a lot of ground, all of it classic rock-centered. And this four-song snippet is enough to know they’re a reliably fun band to catch live in a live setting, from a bar to an outdoor concert.
Linda Viens/Girl with a Hawk: photo by Geoff Wilbur
As noted, I made it back in time to catch the last few seconds of Scott Matalon’s set, which was the lead-in to my last set of the Watertown Porchfest, Girl with a Hawk. Now, I just reviewed a few Girl with a Hawk singles a few days ago, so it was kismet I was able to catch a set so soon thereafter. In fact, when I first checked the porchfest schedule, I didn’t see this location’s lineup listed. Whether it was a last-minute addition to the calendar or just something I missed, I don’t know. (I suppose I could have asked.)
In any case, technically, this spot was listed as Linda Viens spot. Linda’s the lead singer of Girl with a Hawk. (I suppose that makes her the girl with the hawk.) In this case, she was joined by two of GWAH’s four other band members, guitarist Daniel Coughlin and keyboardist Richard Lamphear (who played acoustic guitar in lieu of keys).
Viens’ sports an original vocal style that’s old school rock with a kind of a punk energy but with a little more delicate precision than you’d maybe expect from that description, including an ability to go really soft-touch, which can add an Americana-ish vibe to some songs.
The band played recent release “Share It All” with the 2 acoustics and an electric giving it a soft yet rockin’ vibe. There’s a nifty guitar solo in this one, too. Performed this way, the song has kind of an “I’d like to teach the world to sing” vibe, for those of us old enough to remember those classic Coca-Cola commercials. (Yeah, I know it was a pop hit, too, but we all know it from the Coke commercials.)
Other highlights included a couple of new songs. One (recently recorded, though I missed the song title), is a smooth, swaying number. The other, “Two Souls,” sports a very original sound. It’s the sort of song that sounds broadly familiar, but you know you haven’t heard it before because it has a very quickly identifiable Girl with a Hawk sound.
The band’s set also included a strong performance of the most recent Girl with a Hawk single, “No One Like You.” And a new one, entitled “The Fighter,” I believe. I can already imagine how, with full production, it’ll end up with multiple listening threads, just based on the lead guitar line’s relationship with the melody in its stripped-down form. I look forward to hearing the full studio workup!
The Girl with a Hawk trio closed out their set – and my Watertown Porchfest day – with an “I’m in Love With My Friends” singalong, a satisfying end to a full day of music, in which I was able to hear live performances from a couple acts whose recordings I already knew, while discovering a slew full of new, talented bands. Indeed, that’s what porchfests are all about.
I’ll be looking forward to next year’s Watertown version. And, of course, I hope I’ll find time to get out to one of the areas many other porchfests that dot the calendar this spring and summer!
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