Tart and Tangy
Lemon of Choice take water with their lemon at The 4th Wall on Friday, 1 November 2024.
Today Junior and Viruette sandwich the triplestack bill.
Digital Awareness in the house with a remote control camera.
Viruette, but I swear I heard the guitarist call themselves “Viruettes.” Which would kind of make sense – pluralizing the band name, like the Ramones or The Lemonheads or The Strokes or The Billy Eilishes.
The band performed as a three-piece, which the bassist said was a throwback to their origins, but it’s the only way I ever thought of the band, having caught them at a Midway Cafe gig back in late 2023. When they performed at Nice Fest this year with the regular trio, plus a fourth saxophonist, I figured the honker was a pure lark. Rock sax! A little extra something for the festival crowd.
He must be a regular addition though.
Included in the setlist was the song “Capture,” nominated for Song Of The Year for the Boston Music Awards. Missed that. Haven’t covered any of their studio releases since Waylaid In Aspic. Because it was on Bandcamp, I guess, and the new album Your Lacuna is not. So I didn’t see it.
Let’s have a listen, but damn if Spotify isn’t an awful experience for everyone involved except the tech execs pulling in grossly-inflated paychecks on the backs of musicians everywhere.
Lemon of Choice, straight outta Albany. The band professed to not touring much, but who can say no to a night at The 4th Wall? Nominated for Best Small Music Venue in Boston, greater Boston, and the Universe? A regular pipeline has established itself between upstate New York and Arlington. The Snorts, Safety Meeting, Man Must Explore, and more. Does traffic go the other way too? The four-piece enjoyed themselves, reeling off a garage, psych set with plenty of punchlines.
Rawking trio Today Junior trotted out a new song about holding hands. If you’ve been paired up for a while, whether married or not, you forget that holding hands is one of many passageways through which a relationship drills its way into ever deeper & deeper levels of intimacy. Now put that idea to indie rock, with precision garage textures, and jet fuel energy. The guitarist tested the crowd’s energy level, cutting up the aisle to break the fixed screen-watching postures. You gotta fight against a certain kind of complacency in a room full of forward-facing seats.