The fine folks at Allston Village Main Streets like to remind us that, yes, indeed, “It’s All in Allston.” It’s more than a catchy slogan, and certainly more than a shallow battlecry for old dudes like me who have lived there for the past decade, refusing to retire to Brighton or Cambridge or even Waltham as the college students remain the same vomitinous age while washed-up gents like me keep getting older and sober by the second. For some, it’s just a way of life.
Of course, there are many sides to Allston, from the drunken fist-flinging college bros that line the crooked balconies to the sweaty basement shows kept out of view within the bowls of the sidestreets. The lifestyles vary inside the beer bars and the rock clubs and the bro dives, the vast array of ethnic eateries and cheap take-out joints, and among the people and their stories, from hipsters to grifters to the shop owners and the random cast of characters that work their business along Harvard Avenue.
“All” is a relative term, but it certainly applies to this gritty little ‘hood always up to no good.
So it’s no surprise to see a dual Allston wonderland in the new music video from FREEZEPOP, the quartet that snagged Electronic Artist of the Year in last week's Boston Music Awards. Directed by Mike Gill of CircumVision, who when not documenting the Occupy movement, seems to churn out an awesome video every few weeks, all the scenes for “Doppelganger” were shot within a few block radius, all within the reaches of Rock City. Allston, baby, the star of the show. Consider this a love letter, scars and all.
There’s a peanut-flicking scene at Deep Ellum, a clip of the beautiful shithole of a parking lot that gross-ass Rite Aid presides over, and that sad stretch of Guest Street one must conquer while traveling from Stop & Shop to the New Balance building (which is probably technically Brighton, maybe, but not I’m not re-writing this whole premise).
Both sides of the "Doppelganger" video – the innocent and the ugly – are captured nicely by Freezepop and their merry bunch of cronies (of course “Bananas” Foster runs in an underground fight club). The string of cameos -- The Duke of Pannekoeken! Simon the Doggie! Dude from Plushgun! – could provide fodder for a Freezepop drinking game.
Word on the (Cambridge) Street is that Gill, currently filling in on drums for Freezepop's currently-in-session west coast tour, has so much unused footage from the “Doppelganger” shoot that he’s planning on making additional videos, including separate clips of just the “good” and “bad” Freezepop scenes. There will also be an interactive device on Freezepop’s homepage that will allow users to either watch each separately, or click back and forth between versions. Kinda rad.
Frezepop returns home in time for a New Year's Eve celebration with Mean Creek and Kingsley Flood at Brighton Music Hall, in -- where else? -- Allston.
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