Italian restaurants which host live bands on weekends really shouldn’t leave the candles on the tables when those bands turn out to be boring.

A lot of folks who otherwise wouldn’t consider Consigliare’s Cusine as a club destination went there anyway Friday night because Joe Knox of the Hard Knoxes was drumming. Joe made clear that this was a whole other side of him, and so it was—a laid-back jazz standards revue.

Which would have been OK if the guitarist hadn’t bagged last-minute and been replaced with a guy who knew nothing beyond the first chapters of volume one of the American Songbook.

A couple of numbers had to be done twice to fill out the night.

The food was yummy, the House Red fruity, and when everyone was done with those things we started to play with the candles. There were a few separate tables of fans o’ Joe, so after we’d held a wax sculpture contest, we got into a covert wax-spitball skirmish.

Nobody was asked to leave—Consigliare’s isn’t quite as highbrow as it looks from outside—but we probably set a house record for raised eyebrows, as Joe & Co. jammed interminably through another round of “Spoon in June.”

 

Mystery Mix and Up and Adem at the Bullfinch, with Verveine of Flower T “hosting.” Huh?… R&B/funk fun with Spicy Black and Brain Fog Vanish at Hamilton’s; $1 off all large cans… but you know where the curious will be: at The Verbenas and The Smell Goods “friends again” tour at D’ollaire’s. Local Chamomile Clover got the opening slot, after they agreed to go acoustic…