THE TEMPTATIONS. Courtesy Photo

CARY HALL IN LEXINGTON, A 90-YEAR-OLD LANDMARK, HAS BECOME A PREMIER VENUE FOR MUSIC & ENTERTAINMENT THANKS TO THE INSPIRED PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE TOWN AND SPECTACLE MANAGEMENT.

By Andrew Cook

Peter Lally is a busy man.

Busy is the name of the game when you’re managing Lexington’s Cary Hall and a slew of similar other venues spread throughout the New England region as president of Spectacle Management, the Lexington-based organization that books, markets, tickets and promotes a gamut of live events. On top of that, it’s summertime, and from the days of Elvis’ first shoreline shimmies, that also means it’s music season. Venues like the TD Garden and Gillette Stadium boast summer lineups this year that are reaching new heights and speeds with their ticket sales – and with superstar acts like U2, Harry Styles, and Kenny Chesney representing just a fraction of the A-listers who have bought (or will be bringing) their sold-out acts to the area for multiple-night-stands as the thermometer outside rises this summer, those sales numbers come as no surprise.

But Lally and his team at Spectacle Management have no interest in Ed Sheeran’s ticket sales; they give no thought to the astronomical crowds Jay-Z & Beyoncé will be drawing into the area come August. Their eyes are focused much closer to home.

Pete Lally in his Lexington office.

“The vast majority of this business is at smaller, more intimate venues,” says Lally, “stadiums can hold 60,000 people at a time, but most people are seeking a more personal experience. Our focus is giving audiences what I think is a much better experience than going to a stadium show. People who are going to see Taylor Swift or U2 or whoever at Gillette Stadium… to me, that’s like the worst possible way to go see a show. I mean, I know it can be fun, especially if it’s something like a big summer show where you can go tailgating, but what’s your musical experience going to be like there?”

Many heads will nod in knowing agreement to Lally’s argument: it’s one thing to listen to a favorite song in what can be intensely personal and private situations – the darkness of your teenage bedroom, for instance, while a formative album plays to you and only you via a pair of well-worn headphones – and another thing entirely to hear that same song blasted through building-sized speakers across football fields. And then, once the laser shows have faded and the mosh pits have emptied out, even the greatest concert in the world can be ruined by the experience of sitting for three hours in a line to simply make it out of the parking lot, knowing you still face an additional hour’s drive (or more) back to your driveway after that.

“It’s something we always hear the converse side of in Lexington,” says Lally, “where it’s like, “Oh wow, this is great! I can be home in ten minutes!’ A lot of our audience includes people who don’t want to sit in those Gillette Stadium parking lot lines for two hours after the show just to get out of there.” With every act Lally draws in closer to home, there’s also a tangible spike in the hosting community’s economic development as a result of concert-goers’ garage and parking lot fares, restaurant tabs at local eateries, and sales at local small businesses; it’s a more convenient, holistic, and most importantly, local alternative to the stadium show experience Spectacle Management has steered clear of.  Jim Shaw who publishes Lexington’s Colonial Times and serves as chairman of the board of the Lexington Chamber of Commerce agrees.  He says, “There is clear evidence that the Spectacle shows are having a profound impact on the local economy.  Several of Lexington’s restaurateurs have reported significant increases in business on the evenings where performances are taking place at Cary Hall.  In fact, Il Casale has told me that they often have three full seatings on a performance night rather than their normal two seatings.”

These are things the average music fan might not be planning for when hitting that knee-jerk “purchase” button on the ticket vendor site of their choice… but Lally’s mind seems to have been naturally geared towards this more logistical side of the creative business right from the very beginning. A founding member of an informal after-school band with his friends in the fourth grade, Lally remembers that, “even in that little band, all through middle school and high school, I was always the one who had the greatest interest trying to find us gigs, trying to book us somewhere, and who wanted to work out the logistics side of it to get us performance opportunities. The other members were too, but I was always the most upfront about wanting to be involved in that piece of it.”

Lally played with this same band all through middle and high school, and later had his first taste of the sheer event a large-scale live show can be at a Van Halen performance at the Worcester Centrum in the mid-1980s. Encouraged by his parents, one a teacher and the other an accountant, to pursue this untraditional (many parents will read: risky) career path, Lally then moved from his native Southborough to the sunny shores of Miami for a degree in music business from the University of Miami, where he also earned a subsequent Masters in communications.

Judy Collins. PHOTO BY JIM SHAW

Peter Yarrow & Noel Paul Stookey. PHOTO BY JIM SHAW

“I had this realization [during that time] that a promoter is sort of the overarching figure behind all live gigs who makes it all happen, and I had a moment of ‘oh, that’s what I want to do. I want to be that person who does that.’” Armed with this new clarifying epiphany for his career ambitions and a headful of business acumen gained between afternoons on Miami’s hottest beaches to make it happen, Lally came back to Massachusetts’ colder shores, where he soon landed at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium as a marketing director. As one of the Merrimack Valley’s larger and more historic venues, the Lowell Auditorium was a better place for Lally to learn the ropes than he may have initially been expecting. “It was just a matter of me being very lucky and the timing working out perfectly. I jumped onboard over there thinking ‘alright, this is a relatively easy commute and I can just do a good job for the little while I’m here, while I figure out what I want to do in the next year or so.’ Fourteen years later, I was still there. I loved it.”

At the end of those fourteen years, however, and with the Auditorium’s future up in the air between new potential contract buyers, Lally’s entrepreneurial itch caused him to strike out on his own in 2013 and create Spectacle Management. Originally comprised of just Lally and a laptop out of his home bedroom, Spectacle Management now presides over eight local venues… including, most recently, a full-circle return to the Lowell Memorial Auditorium.  Lally explains, “ I moved the business to Lexington because we were excited to be part of Cary Hall and the community around it. Great shops and restaurants―it was a complete experience. We had to be there.”

“I moved the business to Lexington because we were excited to be part of Cary Hall and the community around it. Great shops and restaurants―it was a complete experience. We had to be there.”    -Pete Lally

Pete doesn’t take his responsibilities lightly. When he first arrived in Lexington he spoke to several organizations including the Rotary Club. He signed up at the Chamber of Commerce and quickly joined their board of directors. He was soon asked to sit on the chamber’s executive committee where many of the chamber’s initiatives begin. Pete is also a long-time member and vice-chair of the board for the Greater Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (GMVCVB). Shaw explains that he was impressed with Lally from the outset.  Shaw says, “I first met Pete when I joined the GMVCVB board. I knew quickly that Pete and I would become fast friends―we had so much in common―we both were committed to being involved in the community, and particularly interested in the impact of tourism and events on economic development. Pete first mentioned to me his idea about coming to Cary Hall, and being a Lexington Native I was excited. The idea of bringing these types of acts to Lexington was something that I had only dreamed about. But, Pete and his team from spectacle management actually made it happen. On more than one occasion I have jokingly said the arrival of Spectacle Management at Cary Hall is the ‘greatest thing since the American Revolution.’”

Lally receiving an award from the Lexington Chamber of Commerce. PHOTO BY JIM SHAW

One of the reasons that Pete’s able to book so many great shows is that he works with multiple agencies, and spends time in New York meeting with talent representatives. He has a keen insight into the process and knows that he has to keep the interest of his audience in order to expand his base. He explains, “Every show we learn more about what audiences like and dislike. We talked with a lot of agents who act as advisors for us. They let us know what talent is available, and when and what type of experience the artist is looking for. The challenge in New England is that there are lots of great venues to choose from.  From the beginning, our challenge was ‘what do we have to do to get Cary Hall to be a viable consideration when artists are choosing where to perform in Greater Boston Market?’”

Soon after the successful launch of Spectacle at Cary Hall, the shows were shut down for about 18 months while Cary Hall went under a $10 million renovation. Cary Hall is the home of the Lexington Symphony, and would now serve as a venue for world-class talent. The acoustical upgrades were an important part of the plan for helping to draw the kind of talent that Spectacle Management has been able to bring to Lexington.

Spectacle Management under Pete’s leadership has grown to include multiple venues. Beginning at Cary Hall, his list of venues has grown to include the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, the Lowell Auditorium, Plymouth Memorial Hall, and he now runs the “Spotlight Series” on Cape Cod including venues such as the Tilden Arts Center, the Barnstable Performing Arts Center, the Whaling Church, and the Walker Auditorium on Nantucket.

Pete Lally speaking to the Rotary Club of Lexington. PHOTO BY JIM SHAW

“What we’ve done is build up a roster of venues that we can offer to agents,” explains Lally, “so we can see which ones would best match their artists. Rockport [the Shalin Liu Performance Center] seats 300, Cary Hall is over 800, Lowell seats 2800, and we’ve got pretty much the entire spectrum in-between. So if agents have an act where they come to us and say ‘hey, I’m bringing so-and-so into the Northeast, do you have a building that would work?’ we have a sort of menu we can offer them and say ‘alright, let’s find the best fit.’”

With his growing empire Pete is committed to staying in Lexington. Much of a staff has moved to offices at the Lowell Auditorium, however, he chooses to remain in Lexington where he feels he can get a better look at the overall landscape of producing these types of shows in the Greater Boston area. We talked about his first series in 2013. When he first proposed a series of concerts of Cary Hall, the list of artists included some heady names. Artists such as Judy Collins, The Canadian Brass, Manhattan Transfer, The Irish Rovers, and the legendary Mavis Staples. Pete referred to it as a “kind of a proof-of-concept” for himself and for the town. Pete said, “The town was curious as to how this would work and so was I. As it turned out the first five shows were very successful. The shows were popular in the community, and we knew it was just the beginning.”

Spectacle staff working the event on the night of the Cowboy Junkies concert. From left to right: Bailey Cabrera, Sophia Willinger, Dan Berube, Phil Campra, John Higgins, Eric Raneo and Susan and Ray Shay. Below, selling refreshments and merchandise as concertgoers mingle.   PHOTO BY JIM SHAW

With acts like Dennis DeYoung of STYX, Nils Lofgren (of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band fame), and Air Supply all making stops at Lexington’s Cary Hall over the next few months, and with other performances from the likes of Art Garfunkel and the Lexington Symphony making regular appearances, times are definitely good for Lally and his Spectacle team. He’ll readily admit, however (with a refreshing amount of honesty and frankness), that such is not always the case. “It’s not a great paid lifestyle,” he chuckles, “or CERTAINLY not at first, anyway. If this, or any art, becomes your chosen field and you’re right out of college, don’t ask your engineering or computer science friends what their paychecks are like compared to yours. You get there eventually if your luck holds, but it’s tough, y’know? In a lot of cases, it’s worth it to say to someone ‘Look, go take that engineering job you were offered and then play in a band on the weekend or something. Throwing yourself wholeheartedly into a lifestyle spent in dedication to music or any other art isn’t the only way you can scratch that inner itch for it. You can love music and not have to give up your life to it. Otherwise, you have to make a lot of sacrifices and compromise… you’re going to have to work a lot of weekends and holidays, and spend a lot of time away from where you normally would be otherwise if you’re starting or raising a family… and you never want it to be where that love of the thing that you started out with gets extinguished by all that. So it takes a bit of asking yourself what kind of balance you need, at a very early stage, before you get into it all. There’s no one right answer.”

Pete Lally with Livingston Taylor backstage at Cary Hall. PHOTO BY JIM SHAW

Perhaps not. Lally himself, at least, seems to have found his own right answer. As Spectacle grows its venue selection and capacity, celebrity clientele, and local prestige, family priorities still haven’t been swept aside. Far from it: Spectacle’s finance director is none other than Lally’s own father, who he says is the biggest kid on staff. Striking this delicate balance means that, no matter how demanding a touring act may be – Lally chuckles acknowledgement that there’s been a few celebrities of the “I only want green M&Ms in my dressing room!” variety over the years – or how many increasing logistical feats his expanding empire demands, he still retains the same love for the industry as he did when booking his fifth grade talent show all those years ago. “After 20 years of doing this, I’m still looking forward to the shows (and everything around them),” he says. “The artists get more zeroes in their paychecks, which is something I didn’t have in the fifth grade, but what keeps me around is that I still get that same thrill. It’s fun.”

Email:  Info@SpectacleManagement.net

Box Office: (877) 973-9613

Group Ticketing: (617) 531-1257 x2

https://www.spectaclepresents.com/cary-memorial-hall

 

Spectacle Management

4 Muzzey St

Lexington, MA 02421

 

During the fall of 2018, Lexington will be celebrating the end of World War I with expert panel discussions, carefully curated exhibits, the ringing of church bells, parades, youth essay contests, and even a gala dinner focusing on the music of World War I.

Text on photo: “Welcome Home to the Service Men from The World War … Battle Green … Lexington, Mass … June 14th, 1919” COURTESY PHOTO

By E. Ashley Rooney

Once the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, public debate about the country’s role in the conflict died down.  Patriotic loyalty now pervaded the country.  Here in Lexington, 305 residents served; five were women. The eight men who died are commemorated in Cary Hall. Under the plaque (see photo below) in a locked drawer is a time capsule with a scroll bearing the names of the 305 Lexingtonians who served and another scroll with names of those Minutemen who protected us here at home.

Over 189,000 Massachusetts men and women served in the US Armed Forces with some serving in other Allied forces. Many died during the conflict: 5,775. Others died soon after the war from their wounds or exposure to poisonous gas or disease.

During the fall of 2018, Lexington will be celebrating the end of World War I with expert panel discussions, carefully curated exhibits, the ringing of church bells, parades, youth essay contests, and even a gala dinner focusing on the music of World War I. (See the Schedule of Events on page 25.)

In Lexington the soldiers were welcomed home on the Common, greeted by a sign that read “Welcome home to the Service Men from the World War, Battle Green Lexington, Mass. June 14th 1919.” In all, 305 Lexington residents served with eight not returning. COURTESY PHOTO

Many of these events will take place during  October and the Veterans’ Day weekend of November 10 -11.

THE GREAT WAR

With the outbreak of war in Europe in 1915, the United States adopted a policy of strict neutrality. President Woodrow Wilson declared that the country should remain “neutral in fact, as well as in name.” Nevertheless, by 1915, tales of atrocities in Belgium along with the sinking of the Lusitania, which resulted in the deaths of 128 Americans, began to turn the tide of public opinion against Germany and her allies.

On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson requested a joint session of Congress to declare war against Germany to “make the world safe for democracy.” In declaring war on Germany, he cited German submarine attacks on merchant and passenger ships in the North Atlantic as well as the so-called “Zimmerman telegram,” in which German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman promised Mexico the return of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona as a reward for allying with Germany if the U.S. entered the war.

The war was nearly three years old and mired in a bloody stalemate when the United States joined its French, Italian, Russian and British allies. Locked in trench warfare across much of Western Europe, the opposing forces suffered huge casualties for minimal territorial gains. To overcome the challenges of trench warfare and gain an advantage over the enemy, new and deadlier weapons such as poison gas, tanks, airplanes, submarines, and flamethrowers were introduced although their efficiency was often far from that desired.

The impact of the United States joining the war was significant. The additional firepower, material resources, and U. S. soldiers helped to tip the balance of the war in favor of the Allies.

The 26th Infantry, nicknamed the Yankee Division, was the first full U.S. unit to deploy overseas after the United States entered the war. Almost entirely composed of guardsmen from Massachusetts and the other New England states, the unit was sent to Europe as part of the American Expeditionary Forces. It saw extensive combat in France and fought in six campaigns. In the History of the Yankee Division, General Edwards wrote, “No division had harder service, no division was longer in the line or gained more distance or fought off more attacks than the Yankee Division.”

Thousands of Army recruits were processed and trained at Camp Devens in central Massachusetts, while recruits for the Navy were processed through the Boston Naval Shipyard.

Six destroyers left Boston on April 24, 1917, and arrived at the British naval base at Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland on May 4. The second group of destroyers left on May 7 to join in escort duties and patrol for German U-boats. From then on, the port of Boston and its navy yard would become one of the principal points of departure for troops, arms, and supplies to Britain and France.

Several dozen military installations and activities were established in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts National Guard also mobilized Company L, 372nd Infantry Regiment composed of African American soldiers from Boston and Cambridge.

THE HALIFAX CHRISTMAS TREE FOR BOSTON

The Massachusetts State Guard, the state militia that replaced the National Guard serving in France, recruited women to serve as nurses, marking the first time women served in the militia. State Guard medical personnel were among the first to reach Halifax Nova Scotia to aid survivors and the overall relief effort after a devastating explosion killed and injured thousands on December 6, 1917. In December 1918 the city of Halifax shipped a large Christmas tree to Boston as a token of thanks for their help in recovery from the disaster. In 1971 the tradition was revived to celebrate the special bond between cities, and each year since the official Christmas tree on Boston Common has been gifted by the people of Nova Scotia. The tree is lit in the Boston Common throughout the Christmas season.

When the Massachusetts National Guardsmen landed in France, they faced brutal fighting conditions and horrific new weapons of war “It was the Guard’s finest hour,” said Brigadier Gen. Leonid Kondratiuk, chairman of the Massachusetts World War I Centennial Commission and official historian for the Massachusetts National Guard. “They were available, organized quickly and went over there quickly.”

HERE IN MASSACHUSETTS

Back home, hundreds of factories in the state manufactured weapons, clothing, shoes, and equipment for both American and Allied armies. Many women entered the workforce, and, for the first time, women were allowed to enlist in the US Armed Forces. Individual citizens and patriotic groups joined the war effort purchasing war bonds, collecting metal for reuse, planting Victory Gardens, and sending letters and parcels to troops overseas. And everyone knew about the Battle of Verdun, Somme, Belleau Wood, the Gallipoli Campaign, and the Spring Offensive.

The American government wanted Americans not just to enlist, but also to buy war bonds, grow food, and eat less meat, wheat, and sugar. The Wilson administration embarked on a propaganda campaign to get Americans to make sacrifices and join in the war effort. With radio in its early stages and Twitter decades away, artists provided colorful posters to spur a reluctant population to not only support the war effort but to make sacrifices. Here in Lexington, we grew Victory Gardens, saved fats for the manufacturing of explosives, observed Meatless Mondays and Wheatless Wednesdays and purchased Liberty Bonds and war stamps.

World War I changed Massachusetts, the nation, and the world. Rapid wartime social change brought political transformations such as the 18th Amendment (ratified 1919) to the Constitution prohibiting alcohol, the 19th Amendment (1920) giving women the right to vote, and Daylight Savings time. The United States emerged from the war as the world industrial leader.

One hundred years later, The Lexington Historical Society, Lexington Minutemen, Veterans Association, and Lexington Field and Garden Club have joined with the Town Celebrations Committee, Cary Library, Colonial Singers and the Tourism Committee to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.

Schedule of Special Events to Celebrate WWI in Lexington:

By E. Ashley Rooney

Lexington Historical Society
Executive Director Erica Dumont

THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY VOTED UNANIMOUSLY TO APPOINT ERICA DUMONT THE NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Erica Dumont brings enthusiasm, nonprofit leadership experience, and passion to her new position. She sees the future of the Lexington Historical Society (LHS) as being vibrant, relevant in the community, and a center of learning both for families in town and beyond.

One of the opportunities she sees is that the town of Lexington is significant on both a local and national stage. “Where some historical societies struggle to find relevance in their community, the Society has the advantage of operating in the town where the first battle of the American Revolution took place, so there is national and global interest in the town, and an opportunity for the LHS to capture that interest,” Dumont says. Moreover, given that there are over 300 years of history in Lexington aside from the historic battle, Lexington Historical Society also has lots of options for local programming and exhibits to attract visitors.

One avenue of growth, Dumont sees, is more extensive family programming. What about a spinning bee she asks, (adding that this idea came from our programming director), a farming program focusing on Lexington’s agricultural past, an instructional program on colonial clothing and food, or perhaps a program on life in Lexington during WWII? With new families moving to town every day, the opportunity to educate, engage and inform newcomers and the community as a whole about the many facets of Lexington history should be an ongoing project.
Dumont has been the Executive Director of the Wellesley Historical Society since 2013. She says that LHS differs from Wellesley in that it is larger, has a broader reach, and has a focus on historical interpretation.

Her first position after graduating from Salem State University was working at Old North Church. Since then, she has been fascinated with early Revolution history, and LHS fit right in. Currently, she is completing her MA in History at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

Dumont looks forward to partnering with other organizations in Lexington and beyond to have a broader community impact. “I feel that partnering with organizations in Boston would allow us to capture the attention of tourists and museum goers and. hopefully, increase visitation to Lexington’s historic sites.”