Even when Lester Bangs was trying to lavish a band or an album with praise, he often couched the compliment inside criticism of the band’s earlier work, the genre itself, the culture at large, or perhaps even the thing he was trying to compliment in the first place. This contrarian streak was part of Bangs’ charm...

Erik Jensen might be new to the ArtsEmerson stage, but this wont be the first time our audiences have seen him in action. The star of How to Be A Rock Critic is an in-demand actor who has appeared in many major television network and blockbuster hits. Check out which of your favorite programs and films you might’ve seen him in...

The title of the one-man-show about Lester Bangs– How To Be A Rock Critic –is taken from a snarky self-deprecating piece the infamous music critic wrote for a Buffalo publication called Shakin’ Street Gazette in 1974. But on the heels of the production arriving in Boston this week...

He helped popularize musical terms like “Punk Rock” and “Heavy Metal.” He’s been called “America’s greatest rock critic” and was fired from Rolling Stone Magazine for being “too mean” to the bands. Contrarian and cantankerous: Do you know Lester Bangs?

Lester Bangs is one of the most well-known critics of his generation because he epitomized the art form of writing about art. Obsessed with music, Bangs wrote: “Ultimately being a ‘critic’ just means wanting to inflict your tastes on other people. It’s a very honest impulse: I simply want you to like the same things I like. I need you to like them. Then I will not be alone.”

As streaming services become the dominant source for people’s daily musix-fix, when so many brick & mortar record stores struggle to stay in business through out the country, Boston is quite lucky to have so many unique, thriving record stores all around the city. We are proud to host two of Boston’s best record stores in the lobby of How To Be A Rock Critic. They’ll be set up with vinyl for sale and ready to dole out recommendations.

Lester Bangs never lived in Boston; by all accounts he probably never even visited The Hub. But in the middle of the critical and audience rave—How To Be A Rock Critic—we’ve dug through his writing to find out what the legendary rock critic thought of the music scene and rock criticism coming out of Boston in the sixties and seventies from afar.