Art and Soul
McIntyre admits he’s not a big galleryhopper, but he points anyone who is
TOP LEFT PHOTO BY ADAM TAYLOR/COURTESY OF SONY PICTURES TELEVISION;
TOP RIGHT PHOTO BY DEBBY WONG/SHUTTERSTOCK
TOP MIDDLE PHOTO BY DEANN B. PHOTOGRAPHY; TOP RIGHT PHOTO BY JORGE SALCEDO/SHUTTERSTOCK;
BOTTOM LEFT PHOTO BY KINDRA CLINEFF; BOTTOM RIGHT PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER PENLER/SHUTTERSTOCK
behind home plate.’ But I’m just a kid
from Boston and I love Fenway Park. To
me, there’s not a bad seat in the house.”
Other places you may find McIntyre
in the audience, rather than onstage
himself, include Wally’s Cafe Jazz Club
on Massachusetts Avenue. “It’s one of
those classic clubs. Not smoky anymore,
but it’s a long narrow room with the bar
at one end. There are always great jazz
musicians there and kids coming from
Berklee College of Music, sitting in and
getting their chops. You can just sit and
have a drink and listen to music. It’s just
a really cool hang,” he says. “And then
you’ve got Lansdowne Street, which has
all the clubs—mostly dance clubs but
there’s some live music there, too.”
Boston’s Fenway Park
interested in the arts to the Museum of
Fine Arts in the Fenway neighborhood.
Also nearby, what McIntyre calls “a
cooler choice,” is the Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum. “It used to be where
[collector] Isabella Stewart Gardner lived
so it houses all this artwork, [some of ]
which she borrowed … but never gave
back,” he explains. “She was quite a character. The museum is this old Victorian
home where you can meander around
and come into all these cool, spooky
rooms. So that’s something different.”
Another cultural hub close to
McIntyre’s heart is back in his Jamaica
Plain neighborhood. “There’s a place
called The Footlight Club, the oldest
community theater in America,” he says.
“I didn’t know how lucky we were to
grow up four blocks away from it—until
I went to New York and saw these tiny
little black box theaters. Here we had
this huge old theater as well as places
like Faneuil Hall. I used to sing right on
Faneuil Hall as a kid with a group called
Neighborhood Children’s Theatre of
Boston and we’d pass the hat around.”
Memory Lane
Thanks to Boston’s relatively compact size
and layout, McIntyre says he steps back
in time on every visit. “If you’re downtown and you’re trying to get to Jamaica
Plain, you can go through Dorchester to
get there; you can go through Southie to
get there; you can go through the Fenway
or the South End—so you’re always
going through different neighborhoods
where there’s tons of memories,” he says.
“Roxbury is a [neighborhood] right in
Boston where my parents were born and
that’s where I ended up meeting Maurice
Starr who started New Kids On The
Block. We used to rehearse in Roxbury.
So driving through there and Dudley
Square, there’s no escaping it. You’re
touched by moments in the city’s history
and moments in your own history.”
One small word of warning: Driving
isn’t for everyone in this New England
capital. “The topography, with the parks
and the way the city is planned—drivingwise, it makes people crazy,” McIntyre
says. “The future was literally mapped out
by cows in the 18th century and it’s still
that way today.” But that blend of past and
present, even when they clash, is integral
to Boston’s charm.
“As [fellow Bostonian] Joe Perry from
Aerosmith says, it’s a world-class city
with a small-town feel,” McIntyre says.
“And I agree.” L
Fans can catch Joey McIntyre
with New Kids on the Block
(pictured, above) on tour across
North America this summer; visit
nkotb.com for concert dates and
ticket information.
Book It
Loews Boston Hotel
is situated in the city’s
desirable Back Bay
neighborhood, in a historic
limestone building that was
once the headquarters of the
Boston Police Department.
The hotel’s varied services,
from babysitting to
complimentary shoe
shining, make it ideal
for both families and
businesspeople—even pets
are treated as VIPs.
For more information
and reservations, visit
loewshotels.com.
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