Mikey Dee is quite a legend in the Boston music scene. Then again, anyone who goes to see local bands every night (he would even hop back on the T and hit multiple shows a night) will be well known in a smaller city like ours. We had the chance to sit down with Joel Simches, the talent booker and producer who continues the 25-year legacy of “On The Town with Mikey Dee” on WMFO 91.5FM, to learn more about Boston’s beloved scenester.
Repping the now-defunct Somerville rock club in a black shirt that spells out “Radio” in Scrabble tiles, Joel details Mikey’s devotion to the local music scene. Those days, there were no mobile apps or websites to inform Bostonians of upcoming shows. Handbills and leaflets from local acts would make their way to Mikey through the mail — stacks and stacks of shows he could attend. And attend, he did.“If there were three or four bands that he really liked and they were playing in different parts of the city, he still managed to hit every one of those and have a beer with the band,” recalls Joel.
“Back in ‘96, a lot of people were going to clubs all the time… People don’t go out to see live shows the way they used to 20 years ago. You didn’t only go to a show because you knew who was playing,” Joel says, tugging at his long beard. “Mikey was a drummer. If there was a band he really liked, he’d go to their show and point and air drum at them.” In fact, before the two became friends, Joel was a member of one of the bands that received a drummed-out approval from Mikey.
When Mikey wasn’t supporting local acts at clubs, he was hosting them on his radio show at WMFO, founded in May 1989. “He put a lot of effort into making sure the band could sound good,” Joel explains, describing the myriad cables and mics in the studio. Back then, the college station didn’t have the best equipment, so Tim Robert — the sound engineer on Mikey’s show at the time — would bring in his own cables and gear to help Mikey meet the standards he set for the bands’ sound. “It was very important to him that the bands got well taken care of and that… they didn’t sound like another radio show where people just threw up mics and whatever,” Joel says.
When Mikey Dee suffered a stroke in 2000 Adam Lewis of Planetary Group (where Mikey had worked as a promoter) put together a fundraiser that spanned 20-30 clubs, ultimately raising over $70,000 for the Mikey Dee Musicians Benefit Trust. “That’s what Mikey meant to the music scene. Everybody who was in Boston at that time that was a musician owed some measure of success to Mikey,” Joel says. In 2003, the Boston music community suffered a major loss with the death of Mikey Dee at age 40.
Mikey’s mantra?
“Go out and see just one local band a week. It will change your life.”
Tonight is your chance. “On the Town with Mikey Dee” is putting on a show to celebrate 25 years of broadcasting on WMFO at TT the Bear’s in Cambridge. Live performances from local bands, catered food, and the chance to pay tribute to Mikey Dee? Sign us up.
If you can’t make it out to the show, you can show your support in other ways: a 2-disc compilation of memorable performances from “On the Town” will be up for sale on Bandcamp and CD Baby on Tuesday, 6/3.