DIG THIS AWARDS 2011

Hey, does anybody know where to get a decent drink in this town? Okay, how about a dry-hopped trappist trippel? Or a nice vintage fedora? How about a vegan apple turnover?

Which is the the best museum for impressing a date? Or better yet, a burlesque troupe? Know any good bars that got Galaga? Where do they hang in JP when the Orange Line craps out? And is it really possible to get good Mexican food on the East Coast? (Spoiler alert: yes, goddammit.)

We asked, and you came answering, with a record number of responses and races tighter than a grossly inappropriate metaphor. Seeing how this year was perhaps our closest contest on record, for those all those categories where victory was determined within a one-percent margin, we’ve added an Honorable Mention to recognize those that came only a few clicks short.

So remember, the jury may still out on the state of representative democracy …

but here at least, you can be sure that every vote counts.

Thanks for taking part, and for once again proving that the Hub’s got a little something (and in a couple of cases, a lot of something) for everybody—you just need to know the right folks to ask.

That’d be you.

Remember your first time?

We do:

J PAT BROWN

MANAGING EDITOR
LOST BOSTON VIRGINITY: “TRAUMATICALLY”

FIRST (NON-BASEMENT) SHOW
PARADISE ROCK CLUB

During finals my freshman year, my roommate, a religious follower of The Cobra Snake insisted that we abandon our studies to catch The Kills on tour, because the lead singer has sex with a guitar, and this was apparently very rad—
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TAK TOYOSHIMA

CREATIVE DIRECTOR
LOST BOSTON VIRGINITY: “1989 … BOYEEE”

FIRST HARDCORE VIRGINITY LOSS
THE RAT

Back when Bush I was president, Nirvana’s Nevermind was released and the Sox were still cursed, Kenmore Square was pretty sketch. And sketch central was the legendary rock club, The Rathskeller (“The Rat”). It was here where I popped my hardcore music cherry—
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CRAIG TERLINO

DISTRIBUTION MANAGER
LOST BOSTON VIRGINITY: “LIFE AS AN INDEPENDENT SORT BEGAN IN LATE 99”

FIRST CHUMP TOLD
GREEN STREET GRILL (THE OLD ONE)

I was living in Brockton, Mass, city of champions, whores, and switchblades, when I first met former hot-shot Dig editor Joe Keohane. He invited me into Cambridge, along with a couple of sweaty friends, to get loaded on whiskey while watching Boston’s most house-rocking roots band, Tarbox Ramblers. At one point some fat-back chump from the ‘burbs tried to muscle us out of our seats. I ill-advisedly reached in the pocket of my coat, presented a switchblade, and—Read More …

HEATHER VANDENENGEL

STAFF WRITER
LOST BOSTON VIRGINITY: “IN THE WOMB?”

FIRST (AND LAST) GOTH NIGHT
XMORTIS @ T.T. THE BEAR’S PLACE

On a Friday night, second semester freshman year, four friends and I rolled into T.T. the Bear’s, all eyelinered, corseted and blacked out (in color only) for the monthly industrial and fetish dance party, Xmortis. A few hours of abrasive noise and synthesizers later—
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SEAN CLANCY

CALENDAR CZAR
LOST BOSTON VIRGINITY: “SEPTEMBER OF AUGHT-EIGHT”

FIRST BACK-HANDED BOSTON COMPLIMENT
FIL-A-BUSTER

One-and-a-half years of liberal arts school and I thought I was “in” Boston-wise because I didn’t pluralize “Common” and knew of a burger-joint better than Wendy’s. My image of the average Bostonian was a bombastic old Irish Catholic with a dirty sense of humor. A completely unfair stereotype, but one that I would soon meet—
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JEFF LAWRENCE

PUBLISHER
LOST BOSTON VIRGINITY: “1996”

FIRST HUMBLE BEGINNING
TIR NA NOG

The first time I walked into this tiny little pub, I knew I had found a home away from home. Little did I know at the time, I also found my very first advertiser for my soon to be created Shovel Magazine (which eventually became the Weekly Dig)—
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DAVID DAY

EDITOR
LOST BOSTON VIRGINITY: ANECDOTE THAT SOMEHOW ENDED IN “RAWK CHALK, HAWKS!”

FIRST BRUSH WITH REDSOX NATION
FENWAY, DUH

Despite being a moderate fan since seeing them in the 1986 World Series (remember that lady who would twirl her arms behind the catcher? So annoying), I didn’t catch a Red Sox game until 2003, with my friend Billy. We were sitting on the third base side when a townie turned to me and challenged my knowledge of Red Sox history—
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HILARY HUGHES

MUSIC + ARTS EDITOR
LOST BOSTON VIRGINITY: “INFURIATINGLY”

FIRST TIME THROWN OUT OF A BAR
HARPERS FERRY

“Where ya from?”
“Winchester.”
“Wor-chestah? Nothin’ good’s come out of there.”
“I’m from Winchester.”
He thrust my license back at me.—
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JESSE WEISS

SALES MANAGER
LOST BOSTON VIRGINITY: “A THIRD-GRADE FIELD TRIP OR SOMETHING.”

FIRST NERDY MUSIC SHOW
THE AVALON

I remember seeing the Mars Volta at the Avalon right when Deloused (their only worth-my-time record) came out. I waited the entire day sitting on the pavement of Lansdowne St., waiting for those doors to open. Walking around Fenway Park and into Back Bay to grab a coffee was mind-altering—
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LAUREN METTER

WEB EDITOR
LOST BOSTON VIRGINITY: “2007.”

FIRST LASER TO THE FACE
RISE

I don’t really remember my first time at RISE, but I’ll try my best. It started on a hazy-blazy summer evening on a porch in Allston. From Kyle’s stopped car on the street below I hear: “YO ORCHARD LOUNGE AT RISE TONIGHT! ALL-NIGHT PARTY. COME RAGE!” Zoom—
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SCOTT MURRY

ART DIRECTOR
LOST BOSTON VIRGINITY: “SEPTEMBER 2003”

FIRST SKANKING-RELATED STEROTYPE VALIDATED
CRAZY DOUGH’S

When I moved to Boston I had the idea in my head of it being America’s ska capital. I assumed 1 out of every 5 walking the streets would be carrying a trumpet or “picking up the change”. To my great relief, this was not the case. I scrounged the Northeastern area for tiny, overpriced apartments in the morning and then made my way down Boylston to Crazy Dough’s for my first meal in Boston—
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NELLIE SWEET

ADMINISTRATIVE/MARKETING ASST.
LOST BOSTON VIRGINITY: “2005 AND 2008. BOOM.”

FIRST DARWINIAN CLUBBING
THE ROXY

After getting my 21+ bracelet—full disclosure, I was only 17! OMG!—I walked up the stairs of the Roxy and turned around to my friends for conformation of my cool, but it appeared three of them had an issue with security—

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ALEX “SWISS” CAHIZ

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
LOST BOSTON VIRGINITY: “WHEN I WAS THREE?”

FIRST IRISH CARBOMB
CHARLIE’S KITCHEN

It was only at the end of my sophomore year that I was able to really appreciate a proper American bender. My last day in Boston before Summer, my buddies and I decided to do a Harvard Square bar crawl. My former friend Mike decided we should start the night with Irish Carbombs; a drink that inevitably leads to a night of continuous bad decisions—
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ERIN KELLY

QUEEN INTERN
LOST BOSTON VIRGINITY: “I CAN ASK MY PARENTS.”

FIRST RIOT
NOT QUITE FENWAY PARK

I’d been a college student for roughly two months, and was continuing to revel in the absence of curfew, parents and rules. Though not a Red Sox fan, I unflinchingly joined my freshman buddies (and the entire undergraduate population) after Papelbon made the final out of the 2007 World Series, racing past the SWAT team lined up along the outskirts of Northeastern’s campus in our quest to Fenway Park—
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DAVE WEDGE

CONTRIBUTING WRITER
LOST BOSTON VIRGINITY: WE CAN ONLY ASSUME VIOLENTLY

FIRST GWAR SHOW
THE CHANNEL

I’m dating myself hardcore here, but it was 1991 at the former Channel nightclub, a vintage, albeit sketchy spot in a former industrial wasteland in Southie where you were pretty sure you’d get suckered or possibly even shanked post-show. Maybe even mid-show, inside . . . by a bouncer—
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