A funny thing’s happened to Dead Lewis. When we first started singing his praises (without ever quite praising his singing, if you know what we mean), it was because he’d found the perfect rock blend of irony and entertainment. When he took saucy old British Music Hall tunes and disguised them as classic punk tunes, we were enthralled. When he did a quasi-classical/jazz jam on old metal riffs for a lonely Christmas Eve gig, we were admiring. Then, when he took his exotic take on squeaky white ‘70s funk (Teaspoon of Zest) to a club (Hamilton’s) that couldn’t be expected to get the joke, we quibbled.

Now his career (and you can actually call it that) has really taken off, and color us not green but worried. Half a dozen ever-more-popular Hamilton’s gigs later, Lewis took his show on the road, a regional touring circuit of sports bars and college hang-outs which have honed his shtick into a battering ram. When he returns to the area tonight, it’s at the biggest party-nite haven in town, D’ollaire’s, on a bring-in-the-bucks-or-else Saturday.
A few sex-joke songs in the set became frenzied sing-alongs, so that the lewd tunes now reportedly overwhelm the interpretive funk and pop upon which Teaspoon of Zest was founded.
Which—sigh—explains the name change(s). Ladies and gentlemen, will you put your hands together (or over your ears) for “Screw” Lewis and T.O.Z!!!!

Pernix & Milner of the Sarnafils, acoustic at the Bullfinch… Sunbird Transport
and Manac at Hamilton’s, doing virtually the same set since they’re both “tributes” of the same unprolific band… Gus Sigrid & Bess is a duo—there’s no comma—which means they’re particularly overpriced at D’ollaires…