It started with the Two Sheets—Tom and Chuck, pals since high school—hanging bedsheets on the wall behind the stage at gigs. Then one night a drunken lout called out (more than once; thought he was clever) “Why do you call yourselves two sheets when you only have one?”
“Because we don’t give two sheets!” was the bright reply. Yet at the very next show, the duo not only hung a bedsheet behind them but in front of them as well. To further the joke, the band played only covers. Get it? A lot of the audience didn’t. Two Sheets emerged from between the sheets to find that over half the crowd had vamoosed.
Now Two Sheets—playing Thursday at Hamilton’s, where covers are de rigeur—works in more controllable sheet puns: they bring in sheets of paper, or sheets of ice (from the recent snowstorm). They say “Touché!” so it sounds like “Two sheets!” Where will it end? “Well, we’re never going to wear sheets. I can promise you that,” Tom sez.
Tonight: The Ecstatic Thief and Grave of Arthur at the Bullfinch, with lyrics so florid the music is superfluous… neo-sacred acts All is Grist and Ubi Ecclesia at St. Constant’s Church on Main… The Turkey and the Turk, Irish drinking songs, at Hamilton’s… An Evening With Come to Think of It at D’ollaire’s…

Who Wears Stripey Scarfs [sic] does their cosmic jam “Revolution Number 4,” while the band Number Six performs “Big White Ball in the Sea” twice in their half-hour set.
The occasion? Geek Day at the college on the hill. Townie musicians became willing pick-up bands for some quasi-academic exercises in overexcitable fanboyishness—and, to a lesser degree, fangirlhood and transformativeness.
It’s a neat arrangement that began by chance when the Geekfest was first granted School Activity Fee funding a couple of years ago. One of the event’s founders found himself at a gaming table inside Stinky’s Comics on Academy Avenue, beating the pants (or, rather, the superhero tights) off of Booly Boo of the BoolyBoolys. (In Stinky’s, Booly is known by his given name, William Bowley.) The geek organizer, a bespectacled gent known as The Lordseer, found common ground with his multiversified opponent, discussing the outre genre of sci-fi hi-fi—songs based on TV science fiction programs—between rolls of the multi-sided mottled dice.
The buddies formed a bond the next week, learning half a dozen sfhf hits for a one-off set at the fest. The performance went over like a sky-skimming vessel of blissful peace-bursts. The crowd was initially stunned, but then could not stop smiling.
The Lordseer graduated after two fests, but Booley Boo has kept the flame burning, connecting with Geek organizers months in advance of the annual gig, and enlisitng scenesters beyond the BooleyBoos to pitch in with pitch-perfect extraterrestrial musical musings.
This year’s event was the first time there was more than one band on board this particular spaceship. It made Booley believe for the first time that he might be able to move this show off-campus. He arranged a sponsorship form (where else?) Stinky’s and booked a night at (again, where else?) The Bullfinch, one week prior to GeekFest VIII.
And lo, all the outsiders in the area were inside. A whole new crowd, of true crowd proportions, with true crowd wisdom.
Riffs were sung, hummed and whistled by the audience as soon as the melodies had wafted from the stage. The Voice-over narrations from the shows’ intro were dutifully intoned by just about everyone in the room. Lyrics were deciphered and debated. Alien cantina dances were attempted.
We won’t see the likes of the Bullfinch Beamdown again, at least until it slips another timestream a year from now. You may see some of those awestruck faces in the crowd at the club again for the goofier indie shows, but it’s more likely that they’ll just head back to the tables at Stinky’s, their “club” of choice. More’s the pity. The music needs an infusion of the sf scenes, and vice-multiverse-versa. These gaggles share passions.
Tonight: Simplicity & Tolstoy at the Bullfinch… The Flying Inn and Fancies Versus Fads at Hamilton’s; Europe Nite… An Evening With Handful of Authors (only one original member, of course) remaindered at D’ollaire’s…