The Twark Main’s new song “Dialogue” is based on a Bullfinch incident where they were drinking at one of the tables and couldn’t hear themselves talk. It was at what is usually a quiet, conversational time, just before Wednesday Happy Hour. So they played a note-passing game, during which they were aware of the conversation slowing and then stopping. They looked up and everyone was watching them play their game.

Their lyric (with many lines borrowed from that noted mustachioed gent who often has a drink at the Bullfinch on his way back from the Hannibal dive bar on Clemens St.):

I will subdue this riot

I will silence this racket.

There is only one way to do it, but I know the art.

You must tilt your head toward mine and seem to be deeply interested in what I am saying

I will talk in a low voice

Then, just because our neighbors won’t be able to hear me, they will want to hear me.

If I mumble long enough

you will see that the dialogues will one after another come to a standstill

and there will be silence

not a sound anywhere

but my mumbling.

Tonight:

Torrent Loach and the Wedge Tails at The Bullfinch. The horn section from Monterey Skate will be in attendance… Triggerfish at Hamilton’s, doing a few of their grind-movie instrumentals but mostly their roots-rock covers… Araugarian Conifers at D’Ollaire’s (make-up gig, all tix will be honored)…

Holiday all-day band affairs can be so overwhelming, and so hard to cover comprehensively in a limited space. Take the King Day Peace-a-thon at Hamilton’s: this many bands, who were bracing (Crisscross Prickleback), slow (Alligator Pipe), quirky (Teleostei), loud (The Audax), smart (Arch Elon), shimmering (Ishie Rose), vapid (Style Mys), vivacious (Testudo), slick (Chrys Emys), slight (Sea Lily), saggy (Siggy Laria), sharp (The Calamites), ridiculous (Fossilized Dung) and so odd we’re still searching for the best adjective besides “odd” (Grallator).

The stage was decorated in purple streamers, which had all been destroyed by the time the third band had played. Each act did a full 45-minute. Changeovers were remarkably fast, thanks to Q (moonlighting from the Bullfinch) and his crew. Someone thought to bring cheese plates and popcorn. Wild, long, ungainly, unbalanced, perhaps even unnecessary. But undoubtedly overwhelming.

Tonight: The Human Bedbug and sister act Winghead at the Bullfinch. Someone go tell the little girl across the street. She likes bugs… Ox-Eyed Oreo, the regional soul band, at Hamilton’s… Lori Cariid Pirillo at the new World Stage Center (or is it World Center Stage?) at the College on the Hill… Pancake Batfish, one long jam, at D’ollaire’s…