By Artie Capshaw
The guy behind the counter at the Strange Ten-Inch Audio Recordings shop used to be lead guitarist in a band. OK, you’re not surprised.
The woman in the back office of the newsstand next used to play electric bass in a folk-rock act that had a houseband gig for over a year at a now-defunct bar a few towns over.
And the lawyer who’s hung out his shingle in the office space on the second floor of that building used to be in a REALLY good band, which toured the East Coast and would have seen their album released on a major label if their singer hadn’t gotten locked up.
The music scene’s not all at the Bullfinch, you know. It’s everywhere. The lawyer tells me he still keeps his sax in a closet at work, and plays it after hours on lonely nights. The newsstand manager once heard him, went over to STAR Records, and brought up not only a bass she’d borrowed but the guitarist from behind the counter.
You think you know the fairy tale ending. The trio found a drummer, formed a band, and are playing the Bullfinch or Hamilton’s or, god forbid, D’ollaires, this weekend. Stop thinking that way. They get together and jam once in a while. End of story. Fame and fortune’s not the point. Music’s the point.
Will they EVER play out? Would you like to hear them? Well, they’ve gotten beyond aimless jams and written a few songs which they practice fairly often. They haven’t told practically anyone about their little after-work get-togethers.
So how do WE know? Funny you should ask. We like to buy magazines in the evenings. We especially like to hear original music wafting from unexpected quarters like legal offices. We love our job.
Bands playing ON the beaten track soonish: The Blue News, Brookers and De Rebus at Bullfinch, really abusing that “b” consonant… Trials Digest (the smaller version of Trials, without the horn section) at Hamilton’s, with local musically bacnkrupt supergroup-in-their-own-minds ABIJ opening…. Kentucky Bench & Bar, the Southern rock sensation, at (where else?) D’ollaire’s, where whisky shots will be a-flyin’ from 10 p.m. until closin’…