The Cryptogrammarians sing only in code. Some of their songs only have meaning if you connect the first letters of each line. Others only add up if you remove certain letters from words, creating other words. Then there are the ones which don’t sound like words at all, because they are letter-substitution ciphers.
We love doing the little puzzles on the comics pages while waiting for bands to come on at the Bullfinch. But actually hearing a band sing and play those puzzles is an exercise in frustration. It hard to make out song lyrics at the best of times, and it’s completely futile to try to do so even with the foreknowledge that there are hidden meanings.
The Cryptogrammarians aren’t doing this for us, however. They’re having fun among themselves, and making us sit through it. Their labored intros to the songs, which basically explain that we’ll never get what they’re trying to say, haha, is more infuriating than the lousy drumming. They are clever college students showing off, and townie bars be damned dummies.
Yet we don’t seem to be alone in our concerns. Interest (resentment?) among the Cryptogrammarians’ fellow coding students has led to the issuance of a photocopied, stapled, lyrics compilation that doubles as a puzzle book. The booklet will be available at future gigs, starting with this Thursday’s at the Bullfinch.
With most bands, we put down the puzzles when they start playing. With the Cryptogrammarians, we will pick it up. Glad they solved that puzzle. Now to solve the other one: Can’t you find a better drummer?
Tonight: The Floating Admiral at the Bullfinch; punk sea shanteys… The Well and the Shallows at Hamilton’s, another college-on-the-hill smarty band… Winged Euonymus (the Burning Bush line-up) at D’ollaire’s…