Full house at Hamilton’s—not capacity (300+), really just about a fifth of that. But full. That’s on account of the tables. Long conference tables. Loooong tables. To get up and get a beer was to be a rat navigating a maze.

No rats in attendance, though, unlike many a tribute-band nite at the club. Only accountants. At a conference. Eating lobster; catered by Newburg’s Seafood. And watching the Collated Numbers Band.

We couldn’t last there; we’re strictly no-account. So we fled to the Bullfinch, where a much less interactive, less numerical scene was unfolding.

Gerry Marc Carl and Their Envoy looked up just twice during their hour- long set at the Finch Thursday night. One was literally to swat a fly—Marc did the honors, the other two were jarred by the sudden movement—and once to acknowledge that they were done playing. It was so old school we couldn’t bear it.

Not new-old like disaffected shoegazing, but old-old like getting your head stuck in sheet music and keyboard intensity. The envoy of the band’s name is a series of interconnected synthesizers, with ask the impersonal aspects such an act portends.

That’s OK. We in the crowd kept our heads down too. There were  only 18 of us there, and only four who weren’t related to the bans. So we played poker. It seemed to fit the deadpan mood. We played our hands in tempo to the band.

Count or be counted. Local music by the numbers.

 

Imminent at area clubs: Earthly Pebbles, Steambed Material and Two Year Drive

(featuring Gale Crater) at Hamilton… A pair of marauding regional cover bands at D’ollaires: Conglomerate Rocks and Mount Sharp… The Bullfinch is open, but doesn’t know who’s playing.