The Shore Lobsters, the trio which originally formed to play post-game shindigs at the flying-disc tournaments in which the band’s founders members hurled and spun, added a slew of new members for a special gig last month.

The line-up included two more guitarists, a keyboardist, two harmonica players, a ukulele strummer, two tambourine virtuosi and assorted roadies.

As of Tuesday, the band had reverted to its initial threesome. “Musical differences” are being cited for the split.

It was a ruse, actually. The flying disc team had been invited to an international tourney but couldn’t afford the plane fare. So they strung together a slew of small grants, donations and bequests so that they could make their match.

The band formed (or rather reformed, perhaps you could say deformed) under an arts enrichment grant bestowed by the Ethnomusicology of the college on the hill where most of the sportsmen-cum-musicians purport to study. The institution was fully aware of the impromptu, second-priority nature of the ensemble it was funding, but saw promise nonetheless and set a few conditions. The disc tossers all had to attend a special class on music appreciation as well as three supervised rehearsals. They had to learn a composition by a student composer (luckily, one which favors primitive and repetitive neo-classical concepts in her work) and promise to perform it while they were at the tournament, to an audience of at least 20 people. And they had to submit a group report on this rare musical voyage.

All conditions were met, especially the concert one. When the organizers of the tournament, on the small tropical island of Wam Hau, caught wind of the intriguing travel fund, they formally invited the ShoreLobs to perform at the event’s opening ceremonies, before an audience of thousands. The coup is thought to be the largest crowd ever assembled for a debut performance of a student composition in the college’s history. The student in question, Jean Bluté, responds to the honor with this challenge: “If they let us perform during the school football games, we could beat that record right away.”

The traveling-music scheme is unlikely to be repeated, but the Shore Lobsters’ performance of “Disc Variations” has been recorded for posterity. None of the new members of the band have any interest in officially joining the musical wing of the sports team. (Only in the rarefied world of disc-flinging could membership in a jam band be considered “too much work”). But expect to see them jumping up at post-game jams when the mood (or several beers) strikes, now that they know a few tambourine licks.

 

The Pizzings and Tumblefun special summer series concert at the Cranberry Building. Attend, but don’t let it get out of hand. We want more of these…. The Fieldstons, Kolor Syndicate and Jackansons at the Bullfinch, power pop. No, we’re being generous. These are straightahead rock bands… Mane Focus, Lumin8 and Rex Hame & the Situates bleed covers at Hamilton’s… Acorn Cans and Old Salt Barber Shop at D’ollaire’s. We’re delighted that these bands have settled back down to where they’re within reach of their most attentive fans…