“Please Come to Boston” used to be the name of a yacht-rock classic by Dave Loggins. Now, it’s the name of Buffalo Tom’s mini-festival that kicks off Thursday night — and their message to fans across the country.
“We wondered how many people would pick up on that reference,” singer and guitarist Bill Janovitz said this week. “But it is a bit of a slap back. We always got posts on social media saying things like ‘Please come to Brazil.’ So we thought, why don’t people come to us instead of us always having to go to them? It sounded like a goofy idea, but then we saw Solid Sound start happening — that perfectly curated event that Wilco do in North Adams. So this is us doing a very, very tiny and grass-rootsy version.”
Since Buffalo Tom — Janovitz, bassist and singer Chris Colbourn, and drummer Tom Maginnis — don’t tour too hard nowadays, a lot of fans take them up on the idea.
“We got a lot of out-of-towners last year, people who wanted to get a hotel and hang out for a couple of days. And it’s a reunion for us too, since a lot of our friends come in. It’s a real homecoming vibe,” Janovitz said. Though he admits, “It’s so much work putting this together that we start thinking we could have just done a couple nights at the Paradise.”
Over the weekend, plenty of special events are planned at the Armory in Somerville, including Janovitz doing a reading and signing of his recent book about The Cars, *Let the Stories Be Told*.
At least one special guest, cult-hero songwriter Wesley Stace, will be sitting in with Buffalo Tom. Opening bands include the Nogs — familiar locals doing a Pogues tribute — local favorites Melissa Gibbs & Hilken Mancini, young songwriter Elsa Kennedy, and the recently-reunited indie legends Moving Targets, whom Janovitz calls “one of our big inspirations.”
Buffalo Tom expects to play a good five hours over the three nights. The first show on Thursday is set to be full of songs that fans don’t usually get to hear.
“That will be a really adventurous read, a sloppy night of deeper cuts and covers we’ve done; I’d say it will be 70 percent covers. And we’re going into our newer albums for deep cuts, since I don’t even remember what’s on some of those,” Janovitz shared.
The shows coincide with a deluxe reissue of their 1995 album *Sleepy Eyed*, which is sure to be featured. The album spawned two of the band’s best-known tracks, “Summer” and “Tangerine,” and was greeted as a back-to-basics effort after the more polished and poppy *Big Red Letter Day*.
Janovitz explained, “I’m one of those fans who thinks our strongest albums are those three in the middle (with *Let Me Come Over*). We went through a real upward learning curve. When we got to *Big Red Letter Day*, we were really enamored of *It’s a Shame About Ray* (the Lemonheads hit album, with the same producers). So that album taught us a lot about being in the studio, and we couldn’t have gotten to *Sleepy Eyed* if we hadn’t done that first.”
Last year, Buffalo Tom played a full album on each of the three nights. This time, the setlists will be more freewheeling, and it won’t just be the same hits each night, with a possible exception or two.
“If people really want to hear ‘Taillights Fade’ three times, who am I to stand in their way?”
https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/11/02/please-come-to-the-armory-for-buffalo-tom-fest/
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