[4][5] During its heyday, the Rat hosted such acts as the Cars, the Pixies, Metallica, Dead Kennedys, the Ramones, Talking Heads, R.E.M., Dinosaur Jr., The Replacements, the Police, and Soundgarden.

At the time, it offered live music in a back room, featuring local bands such as the Remains (who opened for the Beatles on their final tour), the Lost (with future Boston punk legend Willie "Loco" Alexander) and The Mods (whose drummer Harry Sandler went on to play with "Boston Sound" hitmakers Orpheus).

[7] The "locus of boston rock and roll,"[8] the Rat was noted for the artists who performed there before their commercial breakthroughs and the local bands and scenes it helped to develop.

In 1976, the album Live at The Rat was released; it documented the music of the time as well as the importance of the club in the development of Boston rock and roll.

In a 2010 interview, Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys said: "(The Rat) afforded us the opportunity to have a place to play and develop our fan base, and it was just amazing to us.