Abort The ‘Port
John Borders IV lets it flow at Grace By Nia on Wednesday, 2 July 2025.
The Presidential Suites back the fronter.
Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix
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Hump Nights
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Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix 〰️ Hump Nights 〰️
Hump Nights
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Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix
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Hump Nights 〰️ Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix 〰️
Seaport is one of those zombie neighborhoods engineered by late capitalism to soak up your dollars and your lifeforce. Hotels, restaurants, endless shopping. Streets lined with expensive cars, guarded by underpaid armies of the servant class while their owners are bopping around in search of places to burn money.
John Borders IV and the Presidential Suites
How do you build an authentic and soul-satisfying music venue in the midst of this craven consumerist wasteland? Grace By Nia is trying to do that. God bless them, it’s a terrible and toilsome task, and we can only hope the proprietors and staff are rewarded in the afterlife.
Wednesday is as good a day as any to sample the neighborhood credentials of a music joint. Maybe it’s the best day. Smack dab in the middle of the work week when, presumably, less people are trotting out to “exotic” locations like the Seaport for a special event (like they might on a weekend), and the house is filled primarily with local, or local-adjacent, clientele.
The house theme on the night was “Let It Flow Wednesdays” with John Borders IV and the Presidential Suites, an RnB-soaked jazz trio plus vocalist. A laidback affair. The kind of gig where the singer will serenade you if it’s your birthday, or even if you just pretend it’s your birthday.
Sidenote: John Borders IV is the current director of tourism, sports, and entertainment for the city of Boston. So he’s really rolling up his sleeves and getting to work, wowing out-of-towners in person at Seaport midweek.
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Folk rock poetry.