Death of singer, 24, tied to stage stunt

Death of singer, 24, tied to stage stunt


By Peter Schworm
Globe Staff / December 10, 2008

Behind him, his bandmates blasted through a frenetic set. Before him, the college crowd roared. Dominic Mallary, lead singer of an emerging hard-core rock band that had just landed a recording contract, was exactly where he wanted to be.

Near the end of the show at Boston University on Thursday night, the 24-year-old Worcester resident performed his signature move - howling into his microphone as he coiled the wire tighter and tighter around his neck.

But this time, the edgy flourish proved deadly. The pressure caused a clot in his jugular vein, later cutting off the flow of oxygen to his brain, according to his mother, band members, and friends. Mallary, an Emerson College graduate who counseled the homeless, died Friday afternoon at Boston Medical Center.

His death stunned his small hometown of Berlin and the region's hard-core music community, which on blogs and message boards remembered Mallary as a gifted and authentic musician who died doing what he lived for.

"He put everything he had into every single performance," said Patrick Murphy, drummer in Mallary's band, Last Lights, and a close friend. "There aren't enough words to do him justice."
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