Hard in the ’Head to deliver dose of punk rock energy

BY LINDA WERBNER

Marblehead is celebrated for its proud maritime and American Revolutionary history, yachting and beautiful beaches. Impresario and musician Matt Nicholas plans to add “punk rock hub” to the list.

The Marblehead resident is putting together a concert called Hard in the ’Head on Saturday, March 18 at Gerry No. 5 VFA, which will showcase original punk rock bands from Boston’s storied early ’90s noise rock scene, where Lucas’ longtime band, Black Helicopter, has its roots.

While there will be no mosh pit at the Gerry, he promises that the four bands on the roster will deliver a dose of “pure energy straight to you.” This will be a night to remember for anyone sentimental about slam dancing at long gone and much missed Boston venues such as Bunratty’s or the Rat while hardcore punk bands Gang Green or the F.U.’s shook the rafters with their signature buzzsaw thrash.

What’s more, Lucas stresses that all of the bands on the bill share a North Shore connection as well as an “antiestablishment, DIY ethic of self-expression.”

While acknowledging that Hard in the ’Head “is not an easy listening event,” Nicholas assures there a many people in the area who are interested in punk rock.

“There’s a fertile appetite for this kind of music on the North Shore,” he said

As the frontman of Black

Helicopter, a band that has been together for two decades, Lucas has an encyclopedic knowledge of Boston’s rich and storied rock music scene.

By his own account, he has been “playing music for over 30 years with various guys” whom he describes as lifelong friends.

When asked what Black Helicopter sounds like, he pauses for a moment and says thoughtfully “a noisy indie rock band with a lot of distortion and good pop hooks.”

Of the other two bands on the bill, he characterizes Duck and Cover as a “pop punk band” and Cuidado as “panic rock.”

“Imagine a crazy hardcore band with saxophones,” he said.

The jewel in the punk rock crown, however, is having the hardcore legends the F.U.’s headlining the show.

While Lucas has booked his band in conventional clubs over the years, putting together a group show like this is something new.

“Yes, I would totally like to do it again,” he said.

At the moment, he is getting the word out in the town’s roughly 4.4 square miles through a combination of social media and good oldfashioned “guerrilla marketing” — posters, stickers and handbills.

The genesis for Hard in the ’Head came from a “parking lot” show in Rhode Island that Lucas’ band Helicopter did with the

F.U.’s.

“I was talking with one of the guys in the band, and he told me that he lives in Salem, and I told him I live in Marblehead,” Lucas said. “I said, ‘What if we did a show at the Gerry 5?’ I’m a member there, so I went to the manager, Art, and asked. He said, ‘Sure.’”

Once he had secured a venue, he began reaching out to bands that he knew were based on the North Shore and was overjoyed that all of them said, “Hell yes!”

Lucas hopes that Hard in the ’Head will attract a new generation to punk rock and hardcore and spark a revival to the live music scene.

But at the end of the day, he said, “I just want to play a show in my hometown that highlights the lineage and history of it all.”

As any musician can attest, the live music scene took a painful hit during the pandemic. Club after club shuttered, leaving bands with very few venues to play once things began opening up again.

“During the pandemic, we all masked up and went back to our practice spaces,” Lucas recalls of those two difficult years. “We could do everything but play live. And there are not many places to play in Marblehead to hear an original rock band.” jobs, and Buckey has released timelines for the two searches.

With its DIY spirit, Hard in the ’Head promises to flip the script. 1-2-3-4!

Hard in the ’Head is scheduled for Saturday, March 18 at Gerry No. 5 V.F.A., 210 Beacon St., Marblehead. Doors will open at 6 p.m., and the music starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10. See eventbrite.com/e/hard-in-thehead-tickets-485050106927. This is an 18+ show.

Principal search

The principal search committee was expected to meet for the first time on Feb. 28. The committee includes the following people: Buckey; Murphy; administrators MHS Vice Principal Lindsay Donaldson and Veterans Middle School Principal Matt Fox; staff Christine Chaykowski, Michael Giardi, Gina Hart and Susan Shatford; parents KerryFrances Bourne, Melissa Kaplowitch, Cindy Schieffer and John White; students Audrey Bathurst, Jeremy Sorkin, David Alpert and Lucy Sabin; Jennifer Jackson with SEPAC and Nikkia Bell with METCO; and School Committee member Tom Mathers.

“We had quadruple the number of parents interested in being on the search

Warrant

From P. A1

Committee continue to work through the iterations of the budget. We are committed to finding a balance that meets the needs of our students and is fiscally responsible.”

The School Committee has scheduled a budget hearing on March 21 at 7 p.m. at Marblehead High School auditorium.

It is unclear whether the town’s override request will include funding for the schools. Without an override, the school district will need to cap any budget increase at 1.8%, or $800,000 over the FY 2023 spending plan. Superintendent John Buckey has cautioned that level of funding would trigger drastic cuts, including layoffs of more than 30 staff members.

“As superintendent, I see it as my number one priority to advocate the needs of our district’s students and staff,” Buckey told the Current. “We have listened to the feedback from last year and this year and have worked hard to incorporate that into our planning and development of the FY24 budget.”

The School Committee is also sponsoring a capital needs request to make “renovations and extraordinary repairs, including all professional feasibility studies, design, architectural and engineering fees to the Brown, Glover, Village, Veterans Middle and High School and their respective school grounds, and to purchase technology software and equipment,” according to the warrant.

“Our facilities subcommittee approved a prioritized list of approximately $1.3 million worth of capital improvements,” Buckey said. “We submitted this to the town and are awaiting word on what projects will be approved.”

BrIEF

[committee] than we unfortunately have spots for,” Buckey told the School Committee. “And we had triple the number of students.”

Buckey said the principal search committee has a diversity of parents and students, “providing a voice to all stakeholders — academics, athletics, the arts and co-curriculars.

“We tried to get one student from each grade level and looked at their involvement in clubs,” he added.

The group is expected to start interviewing candidates on March 7.

“We will have them visit the district, and that will provide our community an opportunity to have forums with the finalists,” Buckey said. “They will have a faculty meeting and a student panel.”

Buckey hopes to have a new MHS principal named by April 10.

Mathers ended up on the principal search committee after School Committee Chair Sarah Fox appointed herself, but then backpedaled when

Mathers said he felt the School Committee should discuss the appointment and take a vote.

“I just think from a governance perspective, this committee, we need to function from a perspective of deliberation,” he said. “I have no interest in having previously raised my hand, but I will do what the will of the committee is.”

Fox said she was merely going off precedent.

“Our process in the past has been to the discretion of the chair,” she said. “But we can absolutely have that discussion.”

Sarah Gold said she thought a School Committee member who does not have “a kid queued up” to attend the high school would serve the principal search well.

Fox, who has more than one child enrolled in the district, countered that she does not have any children in the high school.

“I certainly don’t want to be on it,” Gold said. “I have a very vested interest in [the next principal] as a parent. I don’t think it would be appropriate.”

Mathers doesn’t have children in Marblehead Public Schools, and Gold said his service on the search committee would be a good decision “optics wise.”

Assistant superintendent search and heat pumps in the Old and Historic District. The article would empower homeowners to help the town reach its goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

The 13-member search committee for the new assistant superintendent includes the following people: Buckey; Assistant Supt. for Finance & Operations Michelle Cresta; administrators Paul Donnelly and Hope Doran; faculty/staff members Marissa Hunt-Pomeroy and Mary LeBlanc, parents Reece Dahlberg and Emily Moore; Brian Birke with SEPAC; Jacqui Holmes with METCO; School Committee member Meagan Taylor and community members Paul Baker and Mark Pelletier.

The committee will begin meeting March 6 and interviewing candidates on March 20. Buckey hopes to have the new assistant superintendent named by April 17.

Article 47 and 48 are dueling articles targeting the leaf blower bylaw. Article 47 proposes undoing the leaf-blower ban passed in 2022 altogether, while Article 48 aims to add an enforcement clause to it.

If passed, the latter article would empower the Marblehead Police Department and the Marblehead Public Health Department to issue warnings and assess fines between $100 and $200, depending on the number of violations.

Resident Daniel Albert sponsored Article 49 and Article 50, which propose the creation of a traffic advisory committee and certain zoning changes.

Resident Rosalind Nadeau has sponsored Articles 51 and 52, which would mandate that Marblehead’s regulatory bodies hold hybrid public meetings and specify how they post their minutes.

Marblehead published the 2023 Town Warrant on Friday afternoon, more than two months before Town Meeting convenes May 1.

The Franklin Street firehouse Article 40 requests to override Proposition 2 1/2 through a debt exclusion to finance the restoration of the Franklin Street firehouse. The Select Board-sponsored article comes after an assessment of the condition of the historic building revealed it needed a $2.3 million restoration.

In a Marblehead Current interview, Fire Chief Jason Gilliland acknowledged the timing of the debt-exclusion request comes as the town faces a possible general override.

“I think the main thing we have got to stress is that we’re not losing sight of the financial condition and challenges of the town,” Gilliland told the Current.

The citizen petitions

The 2023 warrant includes a whopping 54 articles. Among the citizen petitions is resident James Zisson’s proposal under Article 44 to change the length of Select Board terms from one-year terms to staggered, three-year terms. The only other Marblehead officials elected annually are the town moderator and the members of the Parks and Recreation Commission.

Resident Ronald Grenier is the main sponsor of Article 45, a proposal to bring what the article deems to be “best practices and oversight” to Marblehead’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Review.

Article 46, sponsored by Mark Adams, proposes lifting certain limitations on solar panels

Former School Committee member Jonathan Lederman has sponsored Article 53, proposing a local adoption statute that would change the final date that a resident could obtain nomination for local office to 48 hours before papers are due to the registrar of voters for certification.

Megan Sweeney sponsored Article 54. Its passage would create “standard operating procedures manual that will define for the public the process regularly executed and the fundamentals employed for decision making by the Select Board, Board of Health, Harbors & Waters Board and Recreation & Parks Commission.”

This is a developing news story. Check back MarbleheadNews.org for updates.