Material World, Cambridge, Extra Room

I saw the Madonna tribute experience, Material World, at the Sinclair the other week. It was a proud moment for me because I saw Material World last year in the same venue with my friend and this time we managed to bring ladies with us.

They have a lot of dancers and And they’re all doing those magnificent over-choreographed jazzersize-esque dance moves from the ’80s. And it’s perfect. There’s multiple Madonnas (Madonni? Maddoxen?) and they all dress differently to represent all the Madonna phases. They even have frequent costume changes to get even more of those phases in.

I like to think a lot of the dancers found an ad on Craigslist looking for dancing gigs and ended up clapping their hands in priest garb to Like a Prayer.

This was only my second time at the Sinclair and I have to say I really like it as a venue. Separating the bar from the floor is something key to any good venue. Brighton Music Hall is my favorite in this regard; what venue couldn’t use an extra room? I need some room to wander and take a break from all the action. Going to shows should be more than just watching the act. Interacting with fans and bartenders is just as important. How else would I have met the excited Ween guy at Brighton if the bar wasn’t just a little off to the side?

This is not to say I’m not a fan of the smaller venues. Opus is pretty much the only venue on the North Shore. Koto definitely has their fair share of good acts, but it is primarily a restaurant, and the space just isn’t there. Opus doesn’t quite have that space either, but they work well with the space they have.

Here’s my stupid tirade, though: I am eternally confused by what Opus is doing with their second room. The first time I went there, it had couches and a pinball machine. I excitedly told everyone about this room, then it was changed into a green room for the bands. Bummer, I guess, but maybe the talent needed some extra real estate. Then…the pinball came back! And there was more than one pinball machine! And I told all my friends and now…now it’s a green room again?! I’m assuming there’s a reason they keep doing this and the staff is probably sick to all fucking death of having people ask where the pinball is, so I’ve dutifully never asked. But it does make me look like a liar, FYI.

Could the north shore use a large venue similar to Brighton or the Sinclair? Absolutely, but where would it go? Lynn has been trying to build a new school for years but they have no place to put it. They even tried cutting into more of Lynn woods, but that was shot down. One of their schools is built on a swamp.

We’re running out of space. Someone built us an extra room.