The Cold Rods kept their cool Thursday at the Bullfinch, even when Stanky & Their Gags (who’d ended their “Evening With” set early at D’ollaire’s) wandered in shortly before cliosing time. Most of them anyway; they were short a bass and, uh, congos.

There was enough time for three punk jams, then a quiet after-hours party with the still-smokin’ S&TG. (When we say “still smokin’, you known what we mean.) It’s actually surprising how many songs these two disparate bands both knew.

The Cold Rods and Their Gang otherwise had little in common. There were the three local college chums who gig maybe seven times a year, and then there were the wizened hippie survivors.

Yet we forget how much garage punk can be found in psychedelia. Removed from the need for pyrotechnical virtuosic guitar solos, this was well-blended, slightly softened hard rock. There was cameraderie and an unwillingness to let the music end. So it didn’t. Until the whiskey ran out.

Tonight: Diane Long and Short at the Bullfinch, with songs from both their albums… Head Band Green at Hamilton’s. Stanky & Their Gags would be proud. The rest of us retch… DCWX and ten other bands (TBA) at D’ollaire’s, paying the rent…