brendan halpin

I saw Chaotic Wrestling and the Boston Pops this weekend. Sadly, not together. But still!

I attended Boston Brawl 4 at Excel Charter High School in East Boston and had a great time despite the creepy charter school slogans posted around. (OVERCOME ADVERSITY, etc. It was giving MARRY AND REPRODUCE from They Live). Also, and this is a small but odd thing, the bathrooms were labeled Male Bathroom and Female Bathroom. I certainly respect the bathrooms’ gender identity, but which one am I supposed to use? HEYYY-O!

Ricky Smokes took on Jack Cartwheel, who, if you haven’t been watching WWE Evolve (it’s on Tubi! Fun show because it’s all up and comers and doesn’t have the glitz and distractions of the bigtime WWE shows) is a gymnast and an absolute joy to watch in the ring. Dude does cartwheels. Like, a lot of cartwheels. And a lot of gymnastic strength based moves. Still, the sneering Smokes beat him before taunting us about how WWE flies him first class to Orlando for WWE Evolve and puts him up in 5-star hotels, which, given the legendary parsimony of that company, is, shall we say, probably an exaggeration. He said he doesn’t come back to New England because he misses us. He just likes winning. It was great stuff.

Paris Van Dale was back as a solo act, and showed off some high kicks and other moves I hadn’t seen from her before. Her character work remains flawless, though the promotion has her in a kind of weird space where she’s kind of a face but also has some heel-like qualities. I thought she was a great heel and would love to see her return to the dark side.

There was a tag team thing where whoever won would face the next tag team, so we got to see B3 (though there were only 2 of them, these young guys have really grown into great heels since I first saw them about a year ago), Spike and Livyah (this is a great team. Badass and Glamour Girl! Too bad they lost!) The Monarchy showed up (and lost!) and let me now talk about Banana Kid. There is this kid who shows up at almost every Chaotic event I’ve been to in a banana costume. And they hold up signs. Usually one that says “DWEEB,” but they seem to have a special animus for the Monarchy, as they hold up a sign that says “BMT PEED HIMSELF,” a dig at the male half of The Monrachy, whenever The Monarchy is around. Folks, you absolutely cannot beat this kind of live entertainment.

The main event featured Mortar vs. Brad Cashew, who in his civilian life is the wrestling coach at this high school. (apparently he also sews costumes for a lot of the chaotic wrestlers! Cool dude!) So the match was fun because the whole wrestling team was there cheering him on while the rest of us cheered for Mortar, but you cannot out-cheer twelve teenage boys. It simply cannot be done. Cashew is just an absolutely fantastic heel—funny, petulant, and always hilarious—and it was a shame Mortar had to put him and one of his students through a door to end the match. (For the uninitiated, wrestling rings always have hollow core doors underneath them as well as particle board folding tables and metal folding chairs. Oh yeah, and sometimes ladders. It’s chaos under there. )

Saturday night was a change of pace as I headed to Symphony Hall, where I sat in the balcony under the nude male statue with the really impressive and resplendent bush and saw the Boston Pops. The first half of the program was space-related music, of which “Jupiter” from Holst’s The Planets was the highlight for me. Needham, MA native, astronaut Suni Williams, was there and talked with conductor Keith Lockhart about what it was like to go to space and to get stuck at the international space station for almost a year. Then they did a little video montage of her career while they played…something. I don’t remember. But it was cool.

The second half of the program was all music from various incarnations of Star Trek, narrated by living legend George Takei, who moves slowly but still has it at age 88. The crowd absolutely roared when he came out, and the parts of his narration about Gene Roddenberry’s utopian vision of earth overcoming hatred and learning to work together got another huge ovation. It was fun, but in our current hellscape, it was clear that Star Trek is antifascist entertainment, and this brought a kind of joyful poignancy to the whole thing. Also—George Takei, man! (As a Lower Decks fan, I was sad that my favorite Star Trek didn’t even merit a mention, but it was still wonderful.)

I have lived in Boston for decades and never been to a Boston Pops show before, unless you count a couple of fourth of Julys on the Esplanade when I was way too far back to see anything, but it’s fun. I mean, live music is great, and The Pops do a great job of making symphonic music accessible and fun. So the pieces are relatively short (Because a 20-minute song or movement just gets old, whether you’re an orchestra or Yes), there are visuals to look at (because while the acoustics and sightlines are both flawless in Symphony Hall, you couldn’t really see an individual from the back of the hall where I was without binoculars, and the point of orchestral music isn’t really to focus on individuals anyway), and you can bring food and drink to your seats. The floor seats are now tables with wait service!

Anyway, classical music has a reputation for “sit quietly in your seats and appreciate the music, no fun allowed” but the Pops seem to be doing their best to undermine that. Good for them!

Live art forms are really good for you. They help you feel part of something bigger than yourself and remind you that we humans are capable of greatness as well as pettiness and cruelty. If the world is bumming you out (and why wouldn’t it), I strongly recommend you get out of the house and go watch people do something. In a concert hall, a club, a high school gym. It really gave me energy and hope this weekend.