Overpop is alive! The band had a car accident, one of those close calls where nobody died bur everybody had visions. Two members of the band, Bonney and C.G., spent weeks in the hospiltal and their girlfriends Rose and Pansy (of Flower Names) are showing off some nasty scars.

The terrors of the road trip inspired a concept album, which has become, appropriately, a live show. They tired it out last week in a classroom at the college on the hill, with projections and mic effects and everything. There’s not a lot of narrative, but there is a story, and a crash, and confessions, and a smashing set of brand new songs. Rose and Pansy sing back-up, which gives a whole new dimension to C.G’s songs: his lyrics always have sounded as if he was talking to someone in the room, and now he has a chorus to answer him.

The core concept of the set is that the crash was preordained, that the players had it coming to them. In real life, they do feel supernaturally altered by their communal experience. Joining forces and exorcising the demons musically seemed “more productive” than licking their wounds invidually in private.

“We crashed,” C.G. sez, “and we’re moving on.”

Rant Bloc is a spoken-word collective. Monday, they’re a band, with seven-piece jazz/rock backing, at the Bullfinch. Be forewarned: three of those musicians are percussionists… L’Etolie thinks he’s a star, because he’s headlining tomorrow at Hamilton’s Some stars do, in fact, do that, but sometimes the real headliners get to deciide where they go on the bill, and some choose to get back to the hotel before closing time. L’Etoile, the Star, goes on at 1 p.m…. The Flowers of Politics have back-to-back gigs at D’ollaries. Different opening acts each night, and we’ve even been told FoP will do different sets. That’s how things go in a city without a good-sized theater that allows rock band bookings…