Tap Into America

Live Review

Mar 1

Written By Michael Gutierrez

Subject Matter welcomes all comers at Lilypad on Saturday, 22 February 2025.

A Tap Dance Jam is like an open mic. For tap dancing.

Obviously.

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

Declaw / Husbands / Not Milk / Office Hours

Jun 16

A quadruplestack of rock in Rat City, USA.

Raspberry Pie / Battlemode / Koji Kompote Band

Jun 17

Raspberry Pie: The Tokyo Summer Tour comes to Boston!

Bottom Bracket / Clipboards / Oldsoul / Trash Rabbit

Jun 26

Rock n roll fourstack extraordinaire at Deep Cuts.

Jun 28

The legendary documentary about the legendary rock n roll band.

Jun 29

Matinees are punk rock at Midway Cafe.

Jul 1

Know Your Scene free show series returns to Deep Cuts.

Jul 5

Sensory overload at the Capitol! Music, film, video games, and multi-media explosion…

Jul 7

Monster slate at Jamaica Plain’s premiere music joint.

Jul 11

Build-Your-Own-Guitar Night at Deep Cuts.

Jul 12

An Allston Pudding x The 4th Wall collab at Capitol Theater.

Jul 13

The story of groundbreaking slide-guitarist Ellen McIlwaine.

Sep 3

Willie Fest 3. Bands and special guests TBA. Part of Hot Willie Summer.

Hump Nights

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Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix

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Hump Nights 〰️ Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix 〰️

Shout out to the Dan Masi mural, coming into focus on the wall stage right at the Lilypad.

Dropping in my writeup from my Cambridge Day gig below.

Subject Matter hosted a Tap Dance Jam at Inman Square last Saturday. Think of it as an “open mic,” except it’s for dance, and you won’t have to listen to a divorced 40-something strum Nirvana’s “Rape Me” on his overpriced acoustic.
Company member and choreographer Ian Berg stepped in as emcee for the night. Reluctantly, he’d have us believe. “Someone’s gotta do it.” But the lady doth protest too much. You don’t own a pair of tap shoes because you’re bashful about getting up in front of a crowd.
Berg was joined by fellow company member and dance captain (and fiancée) Samantha Emmond. With the help of a jazz trio, the dancers kicked off the festivities with a back-and-forth tap number to the tune of Charlie Parker’s “Billie’s Bounce.”
The floodgates opened after the bounce. Tall tappers, short tappers, young tappers, old tappers. Anyone with metal plates on their shoe bottoms was invited to strut their stuff atop three adjoining stone slabs, forming a slightly-raised dais above Lilypad’s standard hardwood stage.
“Had I known it was an open mic, I would have worn a type of footwear other than my heaviest, clunkiest winter boots and joined in the tap fun” is not a sentence that is remotely true. But there were plenty of vicarious thrills to be enjoyed for the permanently sedentary portion of the audience. And no wait at the beer line.
If you missed the Jam, no worries, more are on their way. Search the usual listings for Subject Matter events. And you can donate to Ian and Samantha’s registry before their August wedding. They want a house. You can buy them one. Or a $15 “bench scraper,” if you’re a real cheapskate.