The General & His Primaries broke stride Thursday at the Bullfinch when the pesky clubland gadfly Professor Poopydrawers sauntered up to the front of the stage, as is his wont, and dropped trou. G&HP were unprepared for the ass-backward action, and you could see a range of emotions cross frontman Joey General’s face.

The Prof. is a blight on the scene and must be stopped. Few bands are equipped to deal with his  backsided onslaught, which is what gives him the nerve to continue. Some bands have laughed. Others have lectured Poopy from the stage. Still others have spent the rest of the set mentioning him their between-song patter. In every case, it’s a lamentable disruption.

Here’s how the General reacted: He jumped off the stage and  grabbed PP’s pants in such a way that the prankster was upended in a painful and embarrassing manner. The indignity was not over, as Gen proceeded to remove the pants altogether, run into the mens room with them and stuff them in the toilet.

Poopydrawers had no audible response to the comeuppance, and after retrieving his keys and wallet (yuck) crawled home with his tail between his (pantsless) legs.

Tonight: The Beachy Kids and The Derwins at The Bullfinch. There’s a rumor that BK’s side project Our Pretty Girl Dances Free may make an appearance… Druggy jams with Dogi Pot and Hi-Rail at Hamilton’s, which used to swear that they’d never cater to that element. … Pet Waste and Transmits Disease, both from the well-named Metal Filth label, at D’Ollaire’s. An infinite local metal marauders are apparently opening the show, though the club could provide no details. Do we detect one of those if-you-sell-enough-tickets-you-get-to-play schemes?

Saying is One Thing Paying is Another put its money where its mouth (and instruments) were, Thursday at the Bullfinch. The indie side project, which has eclipsed The Casterbridges band from which it grew, held a fundraiser for what the band calls “New Bold Ideas in Audio.” Simply put, they want some enterprising person to build them a new amp. (They’ve been borrowing one, and the owner’s moving several states away.) Presenting this as an intellectual and social challenge made for an innovative Finch gig. The between-song patter was a science-based pep talk. And by the end of it, seriously, a kid in the back of the room had run home and fetched an amp he’d been building for himself. It was experimented upon by the band in the alleyway behind the club after the show. Apparently there are kinks, but the wonders of Science prevailed, the universe has gained a new level of knowledge, and SiOTPiA has gained a new piece of equipment.

Tonight: CoCaLe—anagramatic for Couldn’t Care Less—don’t rehearse. In fact, they barely play. They just couldn’t… well, you know. Somehow they got a gig at Hamilton’s, home of slavish cover bands. This seems unmissable. … …except that’s there’s a “Frisk Fest” benefit at the Bullfinch to defray legal bills from a drug bust affecting a band whose lawyers would rather they weren’t making such a big deal of it. The show starts at 4 p.m. and features Dry Measure, Table of Paper, Capa City, W8, A Po and the Caries, Sir Face, Great Gross, 3 Knots and Perch of Stone. Yes, one of those bands got caught with dope. … No show at D’ollaire’s. Paying for its sins. …

Words from Albean has some ferocious fans. The followers meet weekly in the back of an antique shop to discuss the band’s latest doings. If this seems excessive for a local act, know that WFA are also gamers. They work intricate clues for secret fantasy missions into many of their songs, and especially into their between-song patter. The band plays once a month at Worst Shop, the free-stuff storefront behind one of the College on the Hill dining halls. Words from Albean occasionally gets other gigs—the Bullfinch next Thursday, with Hysterical Ghost—but strangely enough, those shows haven’t been mandatory for the faithful in the same way that the Worst Shop ones are.

“As much as we’d like all our fans to be at every show,” explains Xan ManGod (Words from Albean’s Main Orator), it seems like too much to ask to make them pay whatever the cover is at all these clubs.”

That may change with the WFA cult subsidy, which has been proposed and openly discussed at the Worst Shop meetings. A gaming fee, as well as proceeds from certain band merch (felt crowns, perhaps) will be pooled so that a crowd of gamers can attend local Words from Albean shows as a group outing.

The band is obviously psyched, though the pressure is on. “We’ve only been together about a year, and we’re lucky to be asked to play a lot of shows. We’ve only had to worry about writing quest clues for the Worst Shop ones. Now we might be doing it at every show. Plus maybe not all the audience is into it.

We shall see. Or, as they say in the back of the Worst Shop, “You have not yet the vision to know.”

Tonight: Great Gross at the Bullfinch… 3 Knots at Hamilton’s… An Evening with WD40 at D’Ollaire’s, 8 p.m. (Oily show!)

Sayx, king of Star’s soda shop, reigns in peace, with rainbow sprinkles. He glows like his dad—Mr. Cyrus Star of the decades-gone garage band Day-Star, who owns the joint. But Sayx has recently felt the need to undergo a quest that puts his current band Halcyone, and his current relationship with Halcyone’s lead singer Hailey, at risk.

Sayx says he has a chance to reunite yet another Star family band. His late brother Damion—“Day” of the cult psych-bubblegum band Dandelion Day, and also (as a newborn) the inspiration for the name of his dad’s band Day-Star—would’ve wanted it that way, Sayx insists, and recent events have made the other members of Dandelion Day amenable to a reunion, with Sayx as lead vox. But Hailey, who says Halcyone is on the verge of a record deal, feels this is about fear and anxiety rather than family loyalty. She’s even written a song about it, which she shared with us:

What have I done

to turn you from me?

Where is that love

That kept you here?

Have you learned to feel easy

In the absence of Halcyone?

Would you rather have me away?

Hailey is adamant that Sayx not venture westward on this quixotic odyssey. Which should make the Halcyone farewell gig Friday at Hamilton’s very interesting indeed.

Tonight: 69.16 (featuring DJ Atmospheric Pressure) at the Bullfinch, early show… Con Version back for more at Hamilton’s… An Evening With Evan Witz (how’s that for symmetry?) at D’Ollaire’s. Word is that EW’s doing more covers than his own hits these days…

The 1 Counts did a Protection & Advocacy benefit Thursday at Hamilton’s, but apparently didn’t know what they were advocating or protecting. Turns out it was rights for persons with disabilities, which the band realized awkwardly when singer Snap Greenford sneered to the crowd “Why are you all still sitting down? Get up and dance!” What may be worse is that Snap clearly must have sensed that some in the room were wheelchair-bound, and he said it anyway. Some sort of bad-taste tension breaker? Didn’t work. There were, ahem, walk-outs.

Tonight: Fat Hom and the Leaguelles at the Bullfinch… 8 by 4 by 4 at Hamilton’s… DC Half Smokes and Hot Dog Smile (rescheduled date) at D’ollaire’s…

Bull Lines: Overheard at the Bullfinch

“I’m sorry you did not like my song. I was unaware of your existence. Otherwise, perhaps I would not have performed it.”

“That sounded like cheese to me.”

“Did he sing ‘Scabcakes’ or something that just sounds like ‘scabcakes.’”

“Would you like to go outside and climb a tree?”

“Your spikes are crooked.”

“I like them, but I’ve never heard them play.”

“Don’t step on that. We’ve been trying to figure out what it is.”

“Q, I need to fall asleep right now. What should I drink?”

Tonight: Boldbite and Con Version at the Bullfinch, a remarkably mainstream booking for that beloved maverick joint… Sir Face at Hamilton’s. Two sets, and even though they’ll be doing lots of covers, they have more originality than either band at the Bullfinch.. An Evening with Avoir DuPois and the 16 Drums—with nine original members!—at D’Ollaire’s…

A guy got up onstage to jam with the Sunday Set at Hamilton’s. It’s an open jam, so that was fine. But then he started to tell a story about how he’d just gotten “out of the joint.” He showed his wristband to prove it. Just as we were all wondering “Why has he kept his wrisband on?” Scenesters know from wristbands, the club kind at least, and know that they may be annoying but they’re removable. The guy starts asking everyone in the room for money. Over the mic. During the jam.

Several of the musicians were visibly peeved, to say nothing of half the audience and the guys behind the bar. The situation was defused when drummer Mad Tom, the accountant, loudly picked up the beat, stared down the panhandler as best he could from a perch behind him, and shouted a few times, in rhythm, “Play first! Money later!” It worked. Turns out the guy could sing. A hat got passed. Nice jam.

Tonight: Table of Paper and Perch of Stone, the “of” bands, at The Bullfinch… Capa City and Great Gross, covers, at Hamilton’s… An Evening With Hot Dog Smile at D’Ollaire’s, with DC Half Smokes opening…

First Street Metro Bikes rocked until they couldn’t talk. We’d never seen two people in the same band get hoarse at the same time, but under the right circumstances it really can happen. First Rex Anderson yowled until his voice gave out on “Señor Lady.” he even gave the universal throat-slashing sign of “I can’t sing” (or “Kill me now,” or whatever it means). He faded into the background, grabbing a percussion device. Than Andy Starkov, guitar/vox, who’d been screaming in harmony with RexAn, laughed so hard he lost control. Then he signalled that his voice was shot too. The kind of short where you can’t hit the notes if you try. Everything is shrill and off-key, and inside your face it feels like you’re singing out your ears or something.

FSMB is not an instrumental band. It’s a four-chord pop harmony deal. They don’t even solo much. But rather than cancel the show, Julie Fleischman Jr.—the band’s biggest fan—got up and was able to get through five songs. Just as impressively, the band was able to back her, even though she sang differently than Andy or Rex.

The crown, it seems, has been passed. Julie will be joining the band, which we presume will not be attempting a record THREE sets of blown-out pipes.

Tonight: Choc Cake Pudding at the Bullfinch… Niantic Day Trip at Hamilton’s (shantys)… A delightfully long evening with 13 at Last at D’Ollaire’s…

Gnarled Roots wrote the book on jams that start on one song and then become another. Some would call them medleys, but there’s so much space between the separate songs that they’re related only the fact that the music doesn’t happen to stop between them.
“It’s true,” admits bassist Bay Grimm. “we spend more time on the transitions than on the songs. I love it. It’s a real job for a rhythm section. Grimm and drummer “Sven” Pence have to reroute the tempos, sweeten the couterpoint back into melodies and even change keys. The more jarring two songs would be right next to each other, the more the band works to smooth through them. “Yep. We’ve been known to add a third song we don’t care so much about so we can make it from one we like to another more, what would you say, eloquently?”
It’s all about how you get there.

Tonight: KIDSC562 at the Bullfinch, with spinoff band 31uyx1nhygL… Scan 9 at Hamilton’s, with movie theme covers… An Evening With PBF at D’Ollaire’s… And whatever happened to that restaurant that was gonna be booking cool bands late on Fridays? Oh, the fire…

Balcony scene at the Bullfinch Thursday night. Mark of the Impatient Fox was hammered and took his moment behind the mic to confess his love to a total stranger in the crowd, whom he announced he’d just been smitten with. Her girlfriend was not amused, and (having downed a few herself) rushed the stage and pulled Mark’s hair, which was twice as long as hers. Q had to put on his bouncer hat and get involved. Nobody was thrown out, but it became awkward when apologies were thrown and it turned out that the women knew exactly who Mark was, even though he claimed to have no memory of them. You can imagine what memory it might have been. A savage ballet kick later and our thunderstruck Romeo had tumbled into a veritable ditch. At which point his longsuffering bandmates, thoroughly sick of him, played sappy love song after sappy love song until Q turned off the lights and started putting the chairs on the tables.

Tonight: Maytrophy at Hamilton’s with ska marching songs… Version Tracker and Hot Downloads at D’Ollaire’s; rewired pop of the ’00s… The Bullfinch is closed. Someone lost their head…