Monday, April 5, 2010

Wormtown Rocks, Ethan


It stood for years on Main Street in Worcester on the face of a defunct high end furniture store as you entered downtown from the north side. A four story proclamation that you were in a city that rocked. For years, I was accused of creating this monument to local music, only to answer, "yeah, I wish."
In actuality, It was created by Spider Hanson, former sound man and part time percussionist for legendary local outfit known as Zonkeraz, along with Keri Casso, who was the booking agent for Rick's Cafe American, the bar the sign pointed to at 286 Main St. One night they borrowed a ladder from another local musician named Nick Martinelli, who played in a cover band called Killer Queen, climbed upon a ledge overhanging Main Street and etched the facade with the words "Wormtown Rocks!!!" Everyone saw it, Everyone knew about it. It lasted a long time until eventually falling to the wrecking ball in the name of progress. They should have just left it there, because for years no progress was made and the spot was no more than a vacant parking lot until recently becoming home to the new Courthouse. Local politicians hated it, local music fans reveled in it. The photo you see here was commissioned by Carol Moberley to hang at Ralph's Diner. That, too, hung in the upstairs bar for years and is now unaccounted for. The legend lives on.

3 comments:

Jeff Barnard said...

According to this old WoMag article, the empty Ethan Allen furniture store was on Front Street. There's a picture at that link (down near the bottom of the page) with a caption.

LB Worm said...

they are wrong, Main Street, next to EM Lowes/Paladium

Jeff Barnard said...

Down around where they planted the telephone building and the new Court-House-Mahal, right?