Jim Sullivan

Boston

Writer at Freelance

Pop music critic/feature writer, host of Boston Rock/Talk

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Articles

Rock and Roll Globe

4 days ago | rockandrollglobe.com | Jim Sullivan

Never forget that Devo has always been a boatload of fun. I mean, if there’s anybody that can resist the unbridled ecstasy of the frenetic acceleration of “Uncontrollable Urge,” I’ve yet to meet them. But also: In the late-’70s and MTV-era ‘80s — when various parts of the rock world first took notice of Akron’s finest — Devo’s music existed a foreboding, ironic context, some of it (but not all of it) laying out the sorry state of a deteriorating (or as they would have it de-evolving) world.
Long Live David F**king Thomas

3 weeks ago | rockandrollglobe.com | Jim Sullivan

“My name is David Fucking Thomas… and I’m the lead singer of the best fucking rock ‘n’ roll band in the world.” Those were the last words posted on Pere Ubu’s Facebook page announcing Thomas’s death April 23, at 71, after stating that he “has died after a long illness.”The final solution, I guess you could say. It’s fair to say that Thomas was not a healthy man.
Rock and Roll Globe

2 months ago | rockandrollglobe.com | Jim Sullivan

Twenty-two years ago, I was talking to Killing Joke’s Jaz Coleman and the idea of taking an optimistic or pessimistic view of the world arose. I figured Coleman would fall decidedly on the pessimistic side of things — I mean, I’d been listening to the music and seeing Killing Joke in concert since 1979. Nope. “I’m an eternal optimist,” Killing Joke’s bandleader-singer-keyboardist said. “How can we dare have children and not believe in the future?”Killing Joke’s music was thick, grinding, swaying.
Catching Blondie Through The Decades

Jan 5, 2025 | rockandrollglobe.com | Jim Sullivan

It was the summer of 1982, and Blondie this one-time habitue of CBGB is on tour for the first time in nearly three years. They’re playing the Providence Civic Center. A huge venue. Big time success at last. The guitarist-co-leader couldn’t be happier, right? Wrong. Chris Stein — who turns 75 on January 5th and still co-helms Blondie with singer Deborah Harry — is still angry about the music industry.
Rock and Roll Globe

Oct 14, 2024 | rockandrollglobe.com | Jim Sullivan

The dancers pranced; the colorful video on the background scrim dazzled; the intricate light show was dizzying. Nah, none of that happened at the Boston concert by BEAT. In fact, the two-set, two-hour-ten-minute concert was so stripped-down, old-school in its presentation — great musicians playing great music — that it was positively refreshing not to have the window dressing so common to most every live act now.
PJ Harvey Enchants in Boston

Sep 21, 2024 | rockandrollglobe.com | Jim Sullivan

The modern world being what it is, the savvy-rock consumer can pretty much figure out what he or she is going to hear from an artist in concert before the concert: You check www.setlist.fm and there you are. Concerts being what they are these days — many of the larger ones especially tied to lighting and video cues — there tends to be very minor deviations from the proscribed set list, something that can be both good and bad. Bad: You lose the illusion of spontaneity. (Yes, it’s mostly an illusion.
Rock and Roll Globe

Jul 24, 2024 | rockandrollglobe.com | Jim Sullivan

Make no mistake, a Foo Fighters concert is of epic, near-Springsteen-ian proportions. The band is indefatigable. It’s a show where singer-songwriter-guitarist Dave Grohl promises at the outset that “It’s going to be a long night, motherfuckers!” and later threatens to play until the powers that be kick ‘em off the stage, vowing they’ve got hundreds of songs they could play. They could do another all-acoustic hour.
The Pretenders: Relentless in Boston

Jul 21, 2024 | rockandrollglobe.com | Jim Sullivan

Forty-three years ago, I was sitting in a Minneapolis hotel room with Ray Davies and he told me the Kinks were the only band where you could see a concert, be over the moon with enjoyment and still walk away disappointed.
Introspective: Neil Tennant Turns 70

Jul 10, 2024 | rockandrollglobe.com | Jim Sullivan

Let me take you back to 1991. The Pet Shop Boys, singer-songwriter Neil Tennant and singer-songwriter-synthist Chris Lowe, were on their first U.S. tour. About a week before it hit my city, Boston, I was on the phone with Tennant and asked him what audiences might expect. “We always thought,” he said, “that it wouldn’t be particularly interesting for us, or maybe for the audience, to just go out and do our songs in a regular concert format.
Miss World: Courtney Love at 60

Jul 9, 2024 | rockandrollglobe.com | Jim Sullivan

I met Courtney Love in person for the first time on the Lollapalooza tour of 1995 at an amphitheater outside Boston, in Mansfield. This was back when Lolla was a road show, before it became a Chicago-only event. We were both backstage and the man who introduced us was Mark Kates, a longtime friend who was an executive at Hole’s label, DGC. Upon being introduced, Love smiled and lifted her long flowing white dress up over her head and back down again. She was wearing underwear.