Years: 1967-1970
Opening: The Velvet Underground
Feature: Led Zeppelin

The building of the Boston Tea Party was once a Unitarian Meeting House and then a screening room for independent films and live music. It opened as a music venue in 1967, lasting only a few years, but was home to many significant acts. The venue moved to what eventually became a row of music venues on Landesdown Street next to Fenway Park, where several venues are still active and flourishing today.

The Boston Tea Party became an incubator for many Boston bands, including Aerosmith and The J. Geils Band, while also ushering in some unique bills that were more experimental than conventional, pairing unusual openers and headliners like having blues legend Muddy Waters open for The J. Geils Band and the Allman Brothers opening for The Velvet Underground. (1) It was the first home of one of the most significant rock stations out of Boston, if not the US, WBCN, which began broadcasting from the back of the venue.

The Story

It was on January 20, 1967, that The Boston Tea Party first opened its doors in a building constructed in 1872 as a Unitarian meeting house. The land it stands on was donated to the Unitarians by wealthy Boston merchant John Gardner, whose son Jack married famed socialite Isabella Stewart. Her Italian palazzo-style home later became one of Boston’s most renowned and revered museums.

In late ‘66 the building became home to the Filmmakers Cinematheque, which showed “underground” movies by Andy Warhol, among others. To support the film programs, it was decided to hold a series of weekend “dance concerts” like those then happening at the Fillmore and Avalon ballrooms in San Francisco.

The show on the opening weekend and the next one featured The Lost. In that group, his first band, was Willie “Loco” Alexander, who later became a mainstay of Boston’s punk scene. Then came the Tea Party debut of The Hallucinations, whose frontman Peter Wolf went on to hit records and the cover of Rolling Stone with The J. Geils Band. Soon the film showings ended, and the Tea Party began presenting acts from out of town.

The Velvet Underground first came up from New York City in May ‘67, and because they didn’t perform in New York again for the next three years, the Tea Party in effect became their home club. It also became a favored destination for many top rock and blues artists, and a must-play venue for bands on their first U.S. tour. The original Jeff Beck Group, featuring then unknown Rod Stewart and future Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, played in June ‘68. Led Zeppelin debuted in January ‘69. B.B. King made his first appearance before a white Boston audience at the Tea Party in April ‘68 after years of performing at black clubs in town. In July ‘69 the club relocated to a larger space at 15 Lansdowne Street (now the home of House of Blues) and closed for good in December ‘70. Throughout its existence the Tea Party showcased and inspired local musicians, and was a major catalyst for the rock scene in Boston.

"Boston Tea Party." The Music Museum of New England. February 20, 2013. https://doi.org/https://www.mmone.org/the-boston-tea-party/.

Continue on to the next stop on the tour: Paul's Mall (The Jazz Workshop). This is about a 17 minute walk. (.07 miles) 

1. https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2018-07-13/the-boston-tea-party-nightclub-wbcn-radio-and-the-transformation-of-rock-in-boston

2. "Boston Tea Party." The Music Museum of New England. February 20, 2013. https://doi.org/https://www.mmone.org/the-boston-tea-party/.

3. ibid

4. ibid

Performers (partial list)

Alice Cooper
Allman Brothers
Amboy Dukes
Ansley Dunbar's Retaliation
Apple Pie Motherhood Band
Ars Nova
B.B. King
Barry and the Remains
Beacon Street Union
Big Mama Thornton
Blue Cheer
Bo Grumpus
Bones
Buddy Guy
Buddy Miles Express
Byrds
Canned Heat
Catharsis
Chain Reaction
Charlie Musslewhite Blues Band
Cheetah
Chicago
Chicago Transit Authority
Country Joe & The Fish
Delaney and Bonnie & Friends w/ Eric Clapton
Dino Valente
Dr. John The Night Tripper
Felix Pappalardi
Fire and Ice
Fleetwood Mac
Flying Burrito Brothers
H.P. Lovecraft
Howling Wolf
J. Geils Band
Jeff Beck Group
Jethro Tull
Joe Cocker
John Lee Hooker