Words from Albean has some ferocious fans. The followers meet weekly in the back of an antique shop to discuss the band’s latest doings. If this seems excessive for a local act, know that WFA are also gamers. They work intricate clues for secret fantasy missions into many of their songs, and especially into their between-song patter. The band plays once a month at Worst Shop, the free-stuff storefront behind one of the College on the Hill dining halls. Words from Albean occasionally gets other gigs—the Bullfinch next Thursday, with Hysterical Ghost—but strangely enough, those shows haven’t been mandatory for the faithful in the same way that the Worst Shop ones are.

“As much as we’d like all our fans to be at every show,” explains Xan ManGod (Words from Albean’s Main Orator), it seems like too much to ask to make them pay whatever the cover is at all these clubs.”

That may change with the WFA cult subsidy, which has been proposed and openly discussed at the Worst Shop meetings. A gaming fee, as well as proceeds from certain band merch (felt crowns, perhaps) will be pooled so that a crowd of gamers can attend local Words from Albean shows as a group outing.

The band is obviously psyched, though the pressure is on. “We’ve only been together about a year, and we’re lucky to be asked to play a lot of shows. We’ve only had to worry about writing quest clues for the Worst Shop ones. Now we might be doing it at every show. Plus maybe not all the audience is into it.

We shall see. Or, as they say in the back of the Worst Shop, “You have not yet the vision to know.”

Tonight: Great Gross at the Bullfinch… 3 Knots at Hamilton’s… An Evening with WD40 at D’Ollaire’s, 8 p.m. (Oily show!)